What is Good Belief?

Susan B Anthony once exclaimed “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” It is often difficult to figure out what is a true belief. Today we will be discussing what the basis of good belief ought be. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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Sources

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard (page 22)

“The human job description (the “creation covenant,” we might call it) found in chapter 1 of Genesis indicates that God assigned to us collectively the rule over all living things on earth, animal and plant. We are responsible before God for life on the earth (vv. 28–30).”

Making the Best of It: Following God in the Real World By John Stackhouse

“In the Synoptic Gospels, however, we encounter a second definition of the Kingdom of God. Jesus proclaimed that “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). Jesus’ life inaugurated God’s direct and uncompromised rule on earth. The Kingdom of God is where, we might say, God’s ways are the way and God’s rules are the rule. The Kingdom of God is where God’s judgement, which both assesses good and evil and restores them to their rightful places, has taken place, and shalom characterizes all things. The Kingdom of God is thus where God’s authority is joyfully embraced as legitimate and welcome.” (page 19)

"Furthermore, the influence of God’s Kingdom has been spreading, bit by bot, wherever individuals, groups, nations, and transnational realities have been influenced for the better. In our day, for example, the increased profile of universal human rights in national and international politics, with particular attention to women, children, and the poor, is an example of the spread of the influence of the Kingdom of God incognito, so to speak." (page 21)

The Talmud

“There were 613 mitzvot stated to Moses in the Torah, consisting of 365 prohibitions corresponding to the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive mitzvot corresponding to the number of a person’s limbs."

"King David came and established the 613 mitzvot upon eleven mitzvot, as it is written: “A Psalm of David. Lord, who shall sojourn in Your Tabernacle? Who shall dwell upon Your sacred mountain? He who walks wholeheartedly, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. Who has no slander upon his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up reproach against his relative. In whose eyes a vile person is despised, and he honors those who fear the Lord; he takes an oath to his own detriment, and changes not. He neither gives his money with interest, nor takes a bribe against the innocent. He who performs these shall never be moved” (Psalms, chapter 15). Eleven attributes that facilitate one’s entry into the World-to-Come appear on this list."

"Isaiah came and established the 613 mitzvot upon six, as it is written: “He who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands from holding of bribes, who stops his ears from hearing blood, and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil” (Isaiah 33:15)."

"Micah came and established the 613 mitzvot upon three, as it is written: “It has been told to you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord does require of you; only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).”

Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Ephesians 6:5: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ."

Aquinas on slavery: “for men of outstanding intelligence naturally take command, while those who are less intelligent but of more robust physique, seem intended by nature to act as servants;”

Tertulian on women: “And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die. And do you think about adorning yourself over and above your tunics of skins?”

Saint Albertus Magnus on women: “And so, to put it briefly, one must be on one's guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil. … Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer, that is, slyer, than man. Her feelings drive woman toward every evil, just as reason impels man toward all good.”

Martin Luther on women: "Even though they grow weary and wear themselves out with child- bearing, it does not matter; let them go on bearing children till they die, that is what they are there for."

Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Romans 1:18-20: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Catholic Catechism: “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.”

Charles Peirce: “The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit; and different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise.”