more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
It is certain that God sets greater store by a man than a lion; nevertheless it can hardly be said with certainty that God prefers a single man in all respects to the whole of lion-kind.
Gist of Idea
God prefers men to lions, but might not exterminate lions to save one man
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (The Theodicy [1710], p.189), quoted by Franklin Perkins - Leibniz: Guide for the Perplexed 2.IV
Book Ref
Perkins,Franklin: 'Leibniz: Guide for the Perplexed' [Continuum 2007], p.51
A Reaction
Lovely problems arise when you guess at God's values! We have the same problem. Would you kill a poacher who was wiping out the last remaining lions? How many lions would you kill to save a human?
| 20773 | The origin of justice can only be in Zeus, and in nature [Chrysippus] |
| 23348 | Both god and the good bring benefits, so their true nature seems to be the same [Epictetus] |
| 5752 | Where does evil come from if there is a god; where does good come from if there isn't? [Boethius] |
| 19344 | God prefers men to lions, but might not exterminate lions to save one man [Leibniz] |
| 6254 | We are asked to follow God's ends because he is our benefactor, but why must we do that? [Hutcheson] |
| 6255 | Why may God not have a superior moral sense very similar to ours? [Hutcheson] |
| 16006 | Either Abraham rises higher than universal ethics, or he is a mere murderer [Kierkegaard] |
| 7158 | Morality kills religion, because a Christian-moral God is unbelievable [Nietzsche] |
| 7199 | It is dishonest to invent a being containing our greatest values, thus ignoring why they exist and are valuable [Nietzsche] |
| 4488 | Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality [Nietzsche] |
| 20701 | Can God be good, if he has not maximised goodness? [Davies,B] |