Can we judge God?
An essay by: Emery Lee
If "good" means "what God wills" then to say "God is good" can mean only "God wills what he wills." This is equally true of you, Judas, Satan, or me. - C.S. Lewis
Many Christians avoid the issue of their God's moral behaviour by making a statement like this: "God is the source of all moral standards, and without Him, how can we say what is right or wrong? Therefore we cannot judge God, for by what standard would we do so?" In other words, without God, we cannot determine what is right or what is wrong, about Him or anything else. They also say that good does not exist without God, that what He does is always good by default, simply because He is good. Really?
If we cannot judge, we cannot recognize.
If we do not have the ability on our own to discern what is good or bad, how do we tell a god from a devil? God gives us one set of rules, and Satan gives us another. Without the ability to make moral judgments on our own, we could not recognize God as good, or Satan as evil. "Love your neighbour" would seem just as "good" as "cheat your neighbour" to us. The fact that we can distinguish God from the Devil shows that we do have the ability to make moral judgments within ourselves.
What is the "standard" anyway?
However, let us say this Divine Moral Standard does exist somewhere. It is fine to claim to have such a standard. It is quite another thing to say what that standard is, and what it advocates. For example, "Thou shall not kill." Some say the word "kill" should really be "murder." So which is it? In any event, does this apply to self-defence? How about wartime? Killing civilians as well as soldiers? What if you are not in danger of death from the invaders, just a takeover of your government? Is human life secondary to national sovereignty? Etc. etc. In the end, we are all in the same boat. Christian or not, we all must decide what we feel is moral. Even with their "standards," Christians will disagree with each other on these questions, and many others. Not to mention different denominations' differing interpretations of Scripture. So even though in theory they can argue for a Standard, in practice there is no real standard they can appeal to, because they do not even agree on what it says, much less what it means.
We really, all, use the same standard.
It is obvious, however, that standards do exist in human culture. Show kindness to someone, and they will think you did well toward them. Try to harm them, and they will consider your actions to be bad. Why is this? Because we are all humanists in the end. What is good for us humans we consider good, and what is harmful we consider bad. That is why we determine God to be good, and Satan evil, for God is assumed a loving being who wants good things to happen to us, and Satan the opposite. Whether we appeal to religion or humanistic ideals, the morality of a thing is always defined by its impact, good or bad, on people. So what are we really saying when we say God is good? We are saying that He does things that are good for us, such as granting us health, happiness and life. In addition, Satan is bad because He does things to harm us. So what happens when God does things that are harmful to us? We must call such behaviour bad. Why? Because if we do not, then we cannot call anything bad, or anything good, either.
Remember, morality is a relative term.
For humans, good or bad are always determined in relation to us. Goodness cannot exist in a vacuum. It can only have value when it is judged in relation to something else. For example, if I say John is good, I am making a non-statement, unless I define the context I am using the word "good" in. In other words, I must explain, "good at what?" For if I am talking about altruism, then I could mean that he is good at helping others. However, if I am talking about his boxing abilities, then I may mean that he is good at inflicting harm on others. The same applies when we say God is good. This is not to reduce God in any way; it is simply the limitation of our language. Therefore, for Christians to say that God is good simply because He is, is meaningless. His behaviour, and therefore His moral character, can only be judged in relation to its effect on the party in question. Back when God was alone, before He created anything, saying God was good could only mean that He was good to himself, which could only mean that He did what He wanted to. In that regard, He would have been no different from an animal, or Satan. It is only when there are beings other than Himself involved, does His goodness, or His morality, take on any real meaning. It is only then that we can differentiate His morality from anyone else's, and make any meaningful statements about it.
Morality is a relative term that can only have meaning when it is considered in relation to those affected. Clearing the American West was a good thing for the American settlers, but a bad thing for the Indians. Burning more coal may be good for keeping our homes warm, but bad for our air. Similarly, when we say God is good, we must have something to measure that by. And the only yardstick we have, is us. Can we judge God? Of course. Moreover, we must. Or else, we would never know if we were worshipping a god or a devil.
