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The Watcher · (#1 (**permalink**))

And the Lord spake unto the philosopher, "I am the Lord thy God, and I am the source of all that is good. Why does thy secular and moral philosophy ignore me?"

And the philosopher spake unto the Lord, "To answer I must first ask you some questions. You command us to do what is good. But is it good because you command it or do you command it because it is good?"

"Uh" said the Lord "It's good because I command it?"

"Wrong answer surely your mightiness! If the good is only good because you say it is so, then you could, if you wished, make it so that torturing infants was good. But that would be absurd wouldn't it?"

"Of course!" replieth the Lord. "I tested thee and thou has made me pleased. What was the other choice again?"

"You choose what is good because it is good. But that shows quite clearly that goodness does not depend on you at all. So we don't need to study God in order to study the good."

"Even so", spake the Lord, "You've got to admit, I've written some pretty good textbooks on the subject..."

Adapted from Euthyphro by Plato and extracted from "the pig that wants to be eaten" by Julian Baggini.