There is an interesting discussion happening on Aaron’s blog concerning the following argument:

P1. God is by His nature perfectly loving.
P2. God is not not-loving.
P3. It is not-loving to not love mankind.
C1. Therefore, God must love mankind.

I’m posting my comment here as well as on his site. I suggest that you check out the discussion.

Sharon says that the following argument is better (she’s not sure the original argument is deductively valid):
P1. God cannot be other than what it is His nature to be.
P2. It is against God’s nature to be not-loving.
C1. Therefore, God cannot be not-loving.
P3. It is not-loving not to love mankind.
C2. Therefore, God must love mankind.

I say that in either argument, there is a problem with P3, “It is not-loving not to love mankind.” “Not-loving” is the negation of loving. In order to define it a little more carefully we should say that not-loving means “not actively loving.” It does not mean “committing an unloving action.” So as long as God loves someone, He is still “actively loving” and is therefore not “not-loving.” Then we can say:

P1. God is love.
P2. If x is love (n), x must also love (v).
C1. God loves. (P1 & P2)
P3. A perfect being is more valuable than an imperfect being.
P4. God is the only perfect being.
C2. God is the most valuable being. (P3 & P4)
P5. It is best to love most what is of most value.
C3. It is best to love God most (C2 & P5)
P6. Necessarily God does what is best.
C4. God must love Himself most. (C3 & P6)

So as long as God continues to love Himself, He is actively loving and therefore cannot be not-loving.

If we start filling in the blank in “It is not-loving not to love ______” with other things, we can run into problems. For instance: “It is not-loving not to love Satan… therefore God must love Satan.” Perhaps He does. But must God love everything and everyone in order to be loving? I do not think He must.

God must love, but I do not think God must love us. He loves Himself. Then He chooses to allow that love to overflow to us.

Post your thoughts on Aaron’s blog…

-T