Monday, April 5, 2021

day no, 15,505: a sense of proportion

"The goodness of God cannot mean exactly the same thing as the goodness of man, because God is not a man. A good man is not the same as a good dog; for the same reason, the goodness of God is not the same as the goodness of man. The reason is that goodness is proportionate to being. God's being is divine and infinite; man's is finite and human; a dog's is finite and doggy. Each has a goodness proportionate to its nature."-- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

A good dog still poops in public, a good man is prohibited from doing so, nor would he, out of his goodness, be inclined to do so. God is not a man and therefor His goodness is not equivocal to man's. He is a different kind of being and thus His goodness is proportionate to His nature. There is, of course, some overlap. A good dog and a good man both refrain from biting people without provocation, for example, but a good dog and a good man both must threaten to bite certain people or they cease being good. A good father desires to give good gifts to his beloved children and a good God does the same, but the earthly father's estimation of goodness is limited to his perspective and potency. He only sees things from the vantage point of being a fellow human and from the capacities that correspond to human nature, whereas God sees goodness from a divine, eternal perspective combined with the competence to achieve any measure of goodness He desires.

Psalm 84:11
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

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