Opening page…
If God commanded cruelty, would cruelty become good?
Socrates asked Euthyphro whether the gods love what is good because it is good, or whether it is good because the gods love it.
Your answer
A little context
Most people who believe in God also believe God is good. This question asks what that sentence means. Is God good the way a judge is fair, by measuring up to a standard? Or does "good" simply mean whatever God wills, so that if the command changed, goodness would change with it?
Nearby questions
- If God is good, why do children suffer?A child suffers and dies, and nothing good comes of it that anyone can see. Believers have tried to answer this for as long as there has been belief.
- Would you want there to be an afterlife?Heaven, rebirth or nothing at all. Many people say yes at once, until they think about forever.
- What would it take for you to believe a miracle had happened?Hume asked which would be stranger: that nature's laws were broken, or that the witness was wrong. Decide what evidence could ever tip that balance.
- If you cannot know whether God exists, is it sensible to live as if God does?Pascal argued that the stakes make belief the better wager. The trouble is whether belief can be chosen for its payoff, and whether any god would want it chosen that way.
- Should you ever believe without evidence?W. K. Clifford said it is always wrong to believe anything on insufficient evidence. William James answered that some choices can't wait for proof.
