John Fisher wrote: First, you must describe why the parents set a standard of academic perfection. God's moral law is not merely arbitrary as you seem to indicate. I am not privy to all the reasons, but some are pretty clear. Second, you must establish a correlation between the lack of academic perfection and punishment. Why are the parents punishing the children if they don't achieve? Again, God has given us reasons why this works. Your analogy has not done so for the parents. My point is this: God's system is logical and you are trying to draw an analogy against a currently illogical system. If you claim that a standard of "academic perfection" is arbitrary, then you must either think that parents desiring good school results is arbitrary (which it surely is not) or that the arbitrariness comes in the desire for perfection. How do God's standards compare? I will grant you that many (though not all) of the moral standards laid down in the Bible can be supported with good reasons, but when it comes to requiring perfection (and having horrendous punishments for failing to meet it), that seems to me to be just as arbitrary as requiring perfection in academic performance. Arguments about God's nature requiring perfection don't work for me. The parent's nature could equally be said to require it. As for the "reasons why it works", the parent's justification is presumably that it is a motivator. What is the reason for God's punishment? If it is to satisfy God's need for justice, holiness etc., then I can say analogous things for the parents. If it is a motivator, then it plainly is a rather poor motivator. On the Bible's own claims, many fail to heed the message. This is no doubt partly because the truth of God's existence and of the specifically Christian interpretation of God are far from clear to a large proportion of the human race. Whatever you might say about the reasons for this, it is plain that God could make it vastly clearer what the choices are. Imagine if the parent didn't make clear to the child what the child was liable to be punished for. Wouldn't we consider the parent arbitrary and unreasonable? John Fisher wrote: John Carson wrote: What it comes down to is that, except when it serves your short term propagandist purposes, you reject any analogy with God. I just proved you wrong above. I haven't denied your willingness to make some analogies; you have made many. I have denied your willingness to follow them through with any con
