Can We Be Good Without God?

The Atlantic Online ^ | December 1989 | Glenn Tinder

[HumanaeVitae]

Yeah. It usually ends with me defeating them and them calling me stupid.

Maybe Skinner was right after all. Behavior is predictable.

[elfman2]

Don't take anything HV says seriously. I compiled 3 patient and polite posts here attempting to get him to focus on a challenge to an insultingly ignorant statement of his, and the faud just talked around it with long wandering unfocused compositions elaborating on the foundation that he refused to address. Incredibly Clintoneque and dishonest.

[Oberon]

Bump for later reading... a real blast from the past!

[gdmellott]

I realize this topic is quite old. Yet being of great concern I must try to express the only way that I can logically put Christianity together with our lives. It inherently expresses the foundational principals that causes all existence. [There are results in physics experiments that point to this case that I will try to describe at the end of this reply.] The best that we as a creature in this existence can do is to ultimately rest in the One(ing)’s love that causes it all. There is no ‘good’ entity outside of that, that can “truly” express that loving nature. Jesus told Nichodemus shortly before he was crucified that ‘Only God is good [/helpful].’ Admittedly this is the most extreme expression as it relates to conquering death. Yet even in more mundane matters, the fact is valid.
From a child our mind and heart seeks the fullest expression of health. Jesus once mentioned of a child in his lap that he was relating to, “Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” A child's openness allows for a much more thorough conversation that can generate such a connection to a realm of health.
The book of Genesis expresses much of the same regenerative nature of God's creativeness that the New Testament expresses more clearly as it relates to human concerns. The notion that the free market is something of a tool to conquer ‘sin’ or division is not complete [and can never be] yet it is something of an endeavor that nature fumbles badly at expressing purely on its own from our human perspective. Thankfully we can generate expressions that point to God's glorifying nature. Yet even that endeavor cannot function on its own without the resources being provided in some way. Both substantive resources and cultivational skills. Only being ‘in’ God works good.
The law calls governments and other such legal agents an entity of their own right. Judicious analysis is not inappropriate, yet we must realize that each and every created thing is quite limited in its abilities when divided from the whole of reality. Perhaps one can note that something is not as it ideally should be. [Ultimately as I see it, words are even God's to hold in there fullest expression] Yet for there to be “improvement” in an expression, there is likely to always be a price. Ultimately, God is paying the full price. Short of that there is always the question of whether the culture and environment can sustain the cost(s), at least all the time. If we are not given the ‘allowance’ by God [if you wish], we do not have it to spend. Only God is glorified.
One way we may note a potential for assurance that a mind of God is possible with known laws of physics, is the behavior of the Boisen-Einstein condensate. It is a bunch of atoms of that same type that are so cold [low in heat energy] that they all take on the same state like one big atom. If you try to change the state of one atom in the bunch they all change. After a bunch is made, splitting them up into two groups will not change this effect. In fact there appears to be no time delay in the change. And the energy requirement to do so is muniscle, if anything. So a synaptic bridge for the mind of a spiritual entity is quite possible. Ideally, we seek the nature of that One supreme for our health and safety. Even as a child would.
As for a notable way to point to the hand of God, one might note that Einstein said that anything moving at the speed of light ceases to pass time. All energy, that he also notable stated was creating all existence, fits that rule. So there is no time for the energy that causes all existence to even change its ways. And in facts, as Einstein said, is what is causing matter to exist as it runs into itself with such intensity that it effectively forces another part of itself to appear to ‘bend’ each others flow in the interaction. Thus causing it to be caught up inside of particles that build into atoms, molecules, etc., and so get up to a size we can relate to as a human being alone. And [God] yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever! Amen [/So it is]. God help us as your children to be whole in you.