Afterthought
Puritan Board Senior
God is Goodness by divine simplicity, even as God is Truth itself. One argument for God's existence is from the nature of truth. The argument goes that truth is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable and is not matter. Ergo, truth is God. Likewise, I wonder whether the same argument could be made for goodness (or even justice or wisdom or knowledge)? I don't have the details worked out yet (i.e., I don't know have it worked out yet how I would argue that existence of moral standard implies goodness must be infinite, eternal, unchangeable, and not matter but mind), so there might be a hitch somewhere here.
However, I wonder whether the argument from truth (or goodness) suffers from another problem: could the existence of absolute falsehood (or absolute evil) likewise be argued to imply a Spirit that is falsehood (or evil) itself? A way out of this would be to argue that evil and falsehood are not entities themselves: they are the corruption or exaggeration of the good or truth. Hence, an absolute evil or falsehood would not imply an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable spirit that is them.
But how would one argue that falsehood or evil are non-entities? This would seem to be true theologically: if they were entities, God would have to create them (indeed, this seems to lead to the conclusion that whatsoever is false does not exist in the same manner that evil does not; and so it would seem falsehood is meaningless?). Or maybe there is another way to get around this difficulty?
I don't have time for a detailed post (you can find the argument from truth somewhere in Gordon Clark's writings and in Ronald Nash's Life's Ultimate Questions), so hopefully, this compact post will do. Otherwise, I'll just have to come back and re-write some things in more detail when I get time.
However, I wonder whether the argument from truth (or goodness) suffers from another problem: could the existence of absolute falsehood (or absolute evil) likewise be argued to imply a Spirit that is falsehood (or evil) itself? A way out of this would be to argue that evil and falsehood are not entities themselves: they are the corruption or exaggeration of the good or truth. Hence, an absolute evil or falsehood would not imply an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable spirit that is them.
But how would one argue that falsehood or evil are non-entities? This would seem to be true theologically: if they were entities, God would have to create them (indeed, this seems to lead to the conclusion that whatsoever is false does not exist in the same manner that evil does not; and so it would seem falsehood is meaningless?). Or maybe there is another way to get around this difficulty?
I don't have time for a detailed post (you can find the argument from truth somewhere in Gordon Clark's writings and in Ronald Nash's Life's Ultimate Questions), so hopefully, this compact post will do. Otherwise, I'll just have to come back and re-write some things in more detail when I get time.