Topic: Question - Philosophers on God's Judgement

[Desert Fox]

I think I remember reading a philosopher who suggests the idea that (assuming God exists) because he is so far over us in abilities that he has no real ability to judge us.

Anybody familiar with that idea and who I might have heard it from?

[MikeHz]

In the Book of Job, God allows all sorts of awful things to happen to his fanboy, Job. When Job asks why, God replies (I'm paraphrasing here) "Fuck off. I'm God. I made you, and I can destroy you if it suits me, with or without a reason."

[Citizen Skeptic]

Now that's a god - and we're made in it's image. No wonder people suck.

[TalkingBook]

I've never heard this argument made, and I don't really understand what it's supposed to mean. What do you mean by saying God has "no real ability to judge us"? Assuming we're anthropomorphizing the concept of God to the extent that the Abrahamic religions typically do, surely God would be just as 'able' to judge us as I am able to judge 'lesser' animals - which is surely what I'm doing when I decide that the mosquito's behavior is offensive to me, whereas the spider's is not.

[Neon Genesis]

In the Book of Job, God allows all sorts of awful things to happen to his fanboy, Job. When Job asks why, God replies (I'm paraphrasing here) "Fuck off. I'm God. I made you, and I can destroy you if it suits me, with or without a reason."

I think that's a bit of a simplistic view of the book of Job.  The book of Job was actually quite radical the time it was written.  The book of Job was written in response to a theological belief that when bad things happen to you it's because you're being punished for your sins.  Job's author thought that view was repugnant so they created this fictional poem where Job argues with his friends that are blaming all his sufferings on Job's supposed sins.  Job doesn't like that idea and so the best explanation it came up with  at the time was a "God's ways are mysterious" explanation.  That explanation would seem inadequate to us in modern times but in Job's time it would have been considered a more moderate position on theodicy.   

[Femitheist]

If the Biblical God were so far above his creations, he would have an infinite capacity to judge anything as he chose, because he defines the very existence of anything objective and or subjective.

The book of Job, from my interpretation, is that God made a bet with Satan, in spite of Job's devout faith, meaning he didn't care, to prove that he was superior to Satan. He allowed Job to suffer immense atrocities, and made a bet over his entire life up to the point of his actual death (which might have been a fair trade-off in comparison to his suffering), and eventually won the bet and gave Job back all that he had lost a few times over.

Still, it's a malicious and petty thing to do, from the perspective of anyone analyzing the Biblical God and his actions.

[seaotter]

I've heard it argued that god has no ability to do anything. He is self actualized.