Redefining ‘good’ to whatever it is you speculate may be cooking in Zeus’s noggin isn’t going to dodge the Epicurian paradox, it just changes it to god can’t be all three of 1) all-powerful, 2) all-knowing, 3) all-whatever-the-fuck-word-god-chooses-to-use-to-label-the-concept-of-the-thing-we-call-‘good’.
That’s like arguing that the thing you’re looking at right now isn’t a screen, because maybe god calls it a chipmunk instead.
This isn’t about labels, but the substance of the thing itself
god can be “all good” if the definition is different to the one you or Epicurus is using.
To restate what I said above, all Epicurus is really saying is “god can’t be all powerful, all knowing and fully good according to Epicurus’ definition of good.”
For the Epicurean paradox to work one has to assume that his definition of good is both correct and universal. That’s all I’m pointing out.
I’m not trying to needlessly spilt hairs; abrahamic religions are quite up front that god’s idea of goodness is different to ‘human goodness’.
So whether or not the statement makes sense depends entirely on whose concept of goodness you assume at the outset.
Redefining ‘good’ to whatever it is you speculate may be cooking in Zeus’s noggin isn’t going to dodge the Epicurian paradox, it just changes it to god can’t be all three of 1) all-powerful, 2) all-knowing, 3) all-whatever-the-fuck-word-god-chooses-to-use-to-label-the-concept-of-the-thing-we-call-‘good’.
That’s like arguing that the thing you’re looking at right now isn’t a screen, because maybe god calls it a chipmunk instead.
This isn’t about labels, but the substance of the thing itself
god can be “all good” if the definition is different to the one you or Epicurus is using.
To restate what I said above, all Epicurus is really saying is “god can’t be all powerful, all knowing and fully good according to Epicurus’ definition of good.”
For the Epicurean paradox to work one has to assume that his definition of good is both correct and universal. That’s all I’m pointing out.
I’m not trying to needlessly spilt hairs; abrahamic religions are quite up front that god’s idea of goodness is different to ‘human goodness’.
So whether or not the statement makes sense depends entirely on whose concept of goodness you assume at the outset.