FacePalm of the Day - #64 - Debunking Christianity: Dr. Matt McCormick On the Goodness of God

John Loftus posted the following quote from Dr. Matt McCormick

In A Simple Paradox Concerning God’s Goodness he writes:

Has God committed morally wrong actions? If God is the almighty creator of the universe, then there are countless instances where there was an event that God was either directly or indirectly causally responsible for that we would ordinarily identify as morally wrong. Consider the class of actions or omissions that we would identify as morally wrong if a moral agent had been present and had committed them or allowed them to happen. A person drowns by herself near a dock on a lake where a life vest sits on the dock. If a person had been standing next to the life vest and saw her drowning in the lake, but refrained from tossing the life vest to her, we would think of that failure to act as morally abhorrent. There are countless other events like these where it does not appear that God did what we would ordinarily have identified as the morally obligatory act. Therefore, it would appear that God has committed (or by omission allowed to happen) countless morally wrong events.

Many of the comments on the post at Debunking Christianity.make the mistake that because God does not stop all disasters and suffering that he does nothing at all. McCormick does not make that mistaken argument but his example of the drowning girl and the life vest does not accurately describe reality. It ignores that God averts all kinds of suffering all kinds of ways at all times. If God didn't we would have all died a long time ago. None of us would be here to argue about the issues in the first place.

I think the issue comes down to what McCormick wrote:

There are countless other events like these where it does not appear that God did what we would ordinarily have identified as the morally obligatory act. Therefore, it would appear that God has committed (or by omission allowed to happen) countless morally wrong events.

It does not follow that God can have morally wrong events attributed to him because we can't confirm that God does not do what we would would define as morally obligatory. The argument presupposes that there is an objective moral standard that we and God should meet. I agree that there is an objective moral standard. We don't know the big picture. How do you know that God has not acted in the way that benefits the most number of people? You don't.  Therefore you cannot conclude that God has done anything immorally.



Debunking Christianity: Dr. Matt McCormick On the Goodness of God