Why in religious debates is it always a given a god is good?
Perhaps 'good' is a relative thing?
Very much so. According to Christian theology, God is good. It is a necessary attribute of God. Simplicity of God, an ancient theological theory says that God's substance and essences are one an the same. If God then is essentially good, prefectly good, and god creates all, where does evil come from?
So the word good needs a does of special pleading. God owes us nor moral obligations. God is not a moral agent. Ideas apparently going back to Duns Scotus, and found today from any number of theologians including William Craig Lane. The idea that since god gave us existence, he does not owe us anything more than that great gift.
Which does not solve the Problem of Evil, unless you set the bar low for solving that.
https://ndsmcobserver.com/2016/03/professor-analyzes-views-on-god-good-and-evil/
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[h=2]news[/h]
[h=3]Professor analyzes Aquinas’s view on God, good and evil[/h]
Sydney Enlow | Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Fr. Brian Davies, a distinguished professor of philosophy at Fordham University, has dedicated his academic career to studying and writing about the philosophy of religion, and has focused on the work of Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Davies explored the question of why, if God is all powerful and morally good, there is evil present in the world in a lecture held Tuesday night at Rice Commons
The lecture focused on Aquinas’s rejection of the argument against the existence of God. According to Aquinas, God is not a morally good agent, despite popular belief.
“Aquinas views that God should not be thought of as a moral agent in the first place, meaning that God should not be thought of as something either morally good or morally bad,” Davies said. “Aquinas maintains that we do not know what God is … God is strictly non-classifiable.”
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