He has not posed it once, he has posed it many times. Well, I would say
that if David doesn't know what good is, then I would hate to be a member
of his household. David has said that he "loves his wife", well I could ask
"what is love"? and therby state that David CAN'T know whether or not he
loves his wife and in my mind throw his comparison to his love of God out
the window. But this method would really be nothing more than a ruse on my
part, and there would be little I could prove by bringing up such a stupid
and irrelevant non sequitur.
What is good? David asks. Well, "good" is a word. An English word. In
Spanish, "bueno", in French "bon", in German, "gut", in Russian "Harasho",
in Hebrew "tov"....
Websters entry for "good"-
1) morally excellent, virtuous, righteous
2) satisfactory in quality, quantity and degree
3) of high quality, excellent
4) right, proper, fit
6) kind or friendly
7) honorable or worthy
8) educated and refined
9) financially sound and safe
10) genuine, not counterfeit
etc...
In Hebrew, the language that God supposedly originally spoke to us humans
in, (you have to admit that because of the name/noun construct comparisons
in Genesis only work in Hebrew "she was called Eve becaue she was the
mother of all the living" makes no sense in English, but in Hebrew the name
"havah" is from the root for "to live" and adam from "earth")
Even-Shoshan Hebrew Dictionary entry for "good" (tov)
1) Desireable, praiseworthy, of positive value, worthwhile, opposite of bad (ra)
2) comfortable, making grace
3) most worthy
4) Something which is desireable, a thing of grace
5) honest, stable
English is a fairly new European creole language, Hebrew an ancient semitic
language. They span totally different cultures. But the concepts hold a lot
similar. So, I guess we get a pretty good idea of what "good" means.
Exposing women's genitals, forcefully chopping off forskins of enemies,
decapitations, sending people to eternal hell, rape, murder, pillage and
plunder, driving out people from a temple with a whip, calling your own
people "Children of the devil"... none of these seem to me to fall into the
above definitions for good.
Do they fall into yours, Dave?
(DAVE 4/11) Yoel: Not mine, no. Jeffrey Dahmer's though I think. Do you
not agree that different people have different ideas of what "good" is?
Regards.
Dave.
"I want to live in North America in such a way that the devil would rather
have me overseas as a missionary"
- Sunder Krishnan