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[Dome Girl]

How do you know God is good? How do you know we don't all go to Hell?

I haven't really read or studied religious philosophy in a few years so my religious knowledge is a bit far away, but one of the things that made me need to stop reading about religion (out of mental well-being) was the unshakeable thought that perhaps there is only a Hell, and that Descartes was correct in postulating that there was an omnipotent evil demon. How do we know God actually is all-good, all-loving, and not just trying to deceive us?

[jimwalton]

The only way we can know anything about God is by (1) what He has told us He is like, (2) logic, and (3) evidence. Since you're asking a Christian, you're wanting a Christian position.

1. The Bible tells us that what God is like, and it tells us that He is the perfection of goodness, that He is incapable of doing wrong or evil, and that is a perfect moral being.
2. Logic tells us that if God is truly the ultimate divine being, the ideal of all things perfect, and necessarily so, then He cannot be anything other than good.
3. The evidence we read in the Bible shows us that God is good and His love endures forever.

So by revelation, logic, and experience, we can conclude that God is good.

> How do you know we don't all go to Hell?

Such a course of action would be self-contradictory for God. It would be unloving because He created people just to slaughter them with no opportunity to engage in relationship. It would be unjust because there would be no way of escape. It would be cruel because the design had no end but punishment without recourse.

[Deedee]

> The Bible tells us that what God is like, and it tells us that He is the perfection of goodness, that He is incapable of doing wrong or evil, and that is a perfect moral being.

But if God is evil or malicious, he would simply lie about being good. If God says "I'm good", is he being truthful or lying?

> Logic tells us that if God is truly the ultimate divine being, the ideal of all things perfect, and necessarily so, then He cannot be anything other than good.

Why would an ontologically perfect being be perfectly good? It could just as easily be perfectly evil.

> The evidence we read in the Bible shows us that God is good and His love endures forever.

Does it? Going by his actions in the Bible, what does God do that's loving? He sends she-bears to maul children to a painful death, drowns children in a global flood, kills the first-born children of Egypt, turns a woman to salt for looking, destroys the children of Sodom and Gomorrah (and others) in brimstone and fire, demands the Hebrews to slaughter entire tribes (even the children), demands blood sacrifices throughout the OT, and the culmination of the religion is his demand for a brutal blood sacrifice for humanity's sins.

And then there's Job. Loving, indeed.

[jimwalton]

> But if God is evil or malicious, he would simply lie about being good.

Ah, the ultimate logical trap: if the compulsive liar is lying to you, how would you know it? Does that mean he's now telling the lying about telling the truth, or telling the truth about lying? If this is your game, (1) there's no resolution for you. You have decided on the conclusion before the conversation. (2) If God is lying, He's not God, so it's an impossible logical contradiction.

So it's simply impossible that God is self-contradictory, and therefore evil or malicious but paints Himself as good. It's logically impossible. Second, if the liar is always lying (the liar's paradox), you're in an illogical box from which you'll never escape and in which God doesn't have a chance of being rational. This is no way to approach theology.

> Why would an ontologically perfect being be perfectly good? It could just as easily be perfectly evil.

The definition of God is ideal, so He cannot rationally be perfectly evil.

> Going by his actions in the Bible, what does God do that's loving?

He forgives people, He rescues them from trouble, He protects them, He redeems them in multiple situations, He gifts blessings and gifts people don't deserve, and He offers to save them from their own sin through no worth of their own.

> He sends she-bears to maul children to a painful death

Oh, no, so you've fallen for all the drivel on the Internet. Sorry to see this. We can discuss this story more at length if you like.

> drowns children in a global flood

The flood wasn't global. And maybe you should tell me how many children and what was the culture/their families/these children like?

> kills the first-born children of Egypt

Yes, not all of them, but the children of the perpetrators of those who murdered Israelite children. The punishment fit the crime.

> turns a woman to salt for looking

Again, you've missed the story. She turned back and got caught in the disaster. We can talk about this more if you want.

> destroys the children of Sodom and Gomorrah (and others) in brimstone and fire

Yes, the culture had collapsed. It had become beyond hope and depraved beyond repair. These children (if there were any) were being trained as monsters.

> demands the Hebrews to slaughter entire tribes (even the children)

Again, you misunderstand. We need to talk, I see. There were no genocides. This is warfare rhetoric ("kill 'em all!"), not intent in battle. Children were not being slaughtered.

> demands blood sacrifices throughout the OT

Yes, the meat of the blood sacrifices was then eaten by the families and by the community. There was no waste.

> And then there's Job. Loving, indeed.

Job is a philosophical treatise. Job didn't exist.

It seems that you've been suckered either by an inadequate religious education as a child, misinformed by friends, or believing what you read on the Internet. I'd be pleased to talk to you more about these things and discuss them properly. The upshot is that God is not the immoral monster you've been duped to believe. Let's talk.