Right and Wrong, Good and Evil

While writing this, I realized that Matthew at Liberal Jesus made a post about the same topic. I'm still posting this, however, because I think that my post in part answers a question that he asks.

In a comment on Liberal Jesus, Micheal Ejercito said:

I find nothing wrong with the idea of God ordering Israel to do genocide. God determines what is right and what is wrong.

I personally loathe this explanation of morality. I cannot deny it makes sense, no. If God creates the universe and has ultimate power over everything in it, who are we to challenge his divine authority?

I personally do not think that we will ever need to challenge his authority. I base this belief on my second axiom of divinity: God is not a bastard. (The first axiom is, "God exists.") By this, I mean that I believe God is inherently good. I believe he loves us, that he loves his entire creation, and as such, he acts towards his creation in a moral fashion.

But does that mean that God himself determines what is right or wrong? What if God were to change his mind? And, as Matthew asks, what god gets to decide what is right or wrong?

Morality has to come from a place other than God for two reasons:

1. God does not seem to speak personally to every person, or at least, many people with dissenting moral beliefs continue to claim that they have each been spoken to by God.
2. If our opinion of what is right and wrong is based only on what God says, then why does it matter? We're not good people, we're just doing what we're told, because the person telling us what to do is bigger than we are, and he might beat us up.

The first reason is the most practical; everyday we all hear different opinions about what is right and what is wrong, and these people often claim that God has spoken to them (if not out loud, at least in their hearts). Even in the Bible, there are dissenting beliefs. James believes that Christians should be circumcised, and Paul thinks the practice is pointless and unnecessary. So when two people give us different explanations for what God thinks is right and wrong, who do we believe?

The second reason is less practical, but far more disturbing if given any serious thought. We assume God to be good, because the idea of an evil God is horrifying almost beyond our comprehension. But what if? If God were to tell you to do something you knew to be abhorrent and evil, and he said to you, "It is good if you do it, today, because I am making it good, for you, today," what would you do? Can good and evil be malleable based on what God wants at the time?

Like I said before, I do not think that God can be evil. I don't think it works with the concept of God. Basically, if God were to turn out to be evil, I would not consider that being God. If he was the only thing even approaching divinity, then I would have to believe that there was no God, just a capricious, evil, omnipotent being. But "good" is part of my definition for God.

But then I reach the same problem as before: how do I define "good?"

philosophy

Format

I've decided on a basic format for the blog. At least, one I'll try to stick to in most cases.

As mentioned in my first post, I do plan on making both Sunday and Thursday primarily Bible-focused days. On Sunday, I think I'll look at certain passages in the New Testament and thinking about what they mean--both for us now and for the people to whom the text was originally written for. On Thursday, I'm going to focus on reading the Old Testament.

Thus, this coming Sunday will be my first NT post, and next Thursday will see me continuing my treatment of the book of Joshua. Between these posts, I'll probably have a few less specifically focused thoughts here and there, but I hope to keep my Sunday/Thursday schedule going for awhile.

Harper Collins Study Bible - NRSV

Most of the readings I'll be doing will come from the Harper Collins Study Bible. It makes use of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, or the NRSV, which is widely considered the most accurate English translation of the Bible, especially in scholarly circles.

There has been some controversy over the NRSV's elimination of many instances of gender-specific language. For instance, many places where the original text might specify "brothers" or "man," the NRSV translates as "siblings" or "adult."

I do not entirely understand the problem here. Even in the King James Version, "b'nei Yisrael" is translated as "children of Israel," though "b'nei" translates directly to "sons of." Even the English Standard Version (ESV) which was created almost directly in response to the NRSV's use of gender-neutral language translates this as "children" instead of "sons."

Some accuse the NRSV of pandering to modern feminism, but I think it's much more like it's looking through ancient sexism. It's not at all clear that the ancient texts were even specifically sexist in these cases; when Tolkien writes of the race of Man in The Lord of the Rings, do people assume that he is indicating only the males?

In any event, using the very little Hebrew that I do know, the NRSV seems to match up to my Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia much more closely than the other translations I've used. As I advance in my Hebrew, I'll try to look at more text and see how it compares.

Identity and Purpose

I am a Christian.

What does that mean? One of the purposes of this blog, a minor one, is to answer that question. What am I? How do I classify myself? Unfortunately, most of the descriptors I can use for myself are negative: I am not a fundamentalist, I am not a literalist, I am not an atheist, nor am I a relativist. Surely there is some description that deals with what I am, rather than what I am not.

The primary purpose of this blog is to explore what it means to live in a world where there does exist a thing called the sacred. Being a Christian myself, I will primarily discuss Christianity here, but it may not be the only thing I talk about. Posts will often concern Biblical text, and there will be at least one post on Sundays and Thursdays that will always concern Biblical text. Other posts may deal with other aspects of religion or spirituality. Most will probably be related to Christianity, but everything will be related to humanity as a whole.

This blog is not discriminatory. Fundamentalists, literalists, atheists, and relativists are free to read and comment. It should go without saying that I welcome discourse from adherents of other religions, but I'll say it anyway. Agree or disagree with me, I don't mind. Feel free to argue with me, or if I'm factually inaccurate, even correct me.

I am not a professional Biblical scholar, though I am a student of religious studies. I do not profess to know "everything there is to know" about the Bible. I am a scholar, however, as is anyone who wishes to join me in this endeavor. The first time a person opens the Bible to read it in a scholarly fashion, they are a Biblical scholar. So join me; let’s learn something.