SHOULD A GOOD GOD REWARD AND PUNISH?

Traditionally in the Bible the good are rewarded and the evil punished. The Story of the Sheep and Goats. What is the reward or punishment based

upon? Other ideas about what secures a place

in heaven? Can you perceive any

difficulties with judgement based on

either of these terms?

Does reward and punishment preserve God’s Justice (+ therefore perfection)? If the wicked ‘get

away with it’ is God’s Justice undermined?

Is it fair to hold humans fully responsible for what they do?

Augustine and Aquinas

Augustine:Sin doesn’t “mar the perfection of God because the

balance of the moral order is preserved by the infliction of appropriate punishment.”

“...the penalty of sin corrects the dishonour of sin.”AquinasJustice requires “...that penalties should be dealt out

to sinners.”

For both, the perfection of God requires that justice in the Universe is preserved which means that humans must be punished for their sinful choices.

What difficulties may there be with the idea of punishment of sins? What might the issue of freewill and

determinism tell us about this? What might modern psychology say

about why people do the things that they do?

Does the Justice of God depend on what sort of afterlife is on offer? Problems with Heaven and Hell?

Does God’s omniscience interfere with this? If we are determined

then clearly it would be illogical to hold us responsible for our actions and punish or reward us.

Some philosophers argue that God’s omniscience leaves no room for our freewill and therefore God shouldn’t reward or punish.

Boethius’ solution?

Kant on virtue and reward?

What should God be judging? Actions? Motivations?

If you are good in order to be rewarded have you still behaved morally?

What would Kant say? Widow’s offering (Mark 12)

Virtue theory Parable of the Prodical Son

Sheep + Goats Matthew 6: 3

Is God’s morality, moral?

Is it a trustworthy standard by which judge people by?

Biologist and Humanist Richard Dawkins would argue that morality developed independently of religion

This is why Xns today judge which parts of the Bible

they will follow and which is out of date.