The Good Place & Christianity

Michael: While time on Earth moves in a straight line — one thing happens, then the next, then the next — time in the afterlife moves in a Jeremy Bearimy. Eleanor: What? Michael: In the afterlife, time doubles back and loops around and ends up looking something like Jeremy Bearimy. This is the timeline in the afterlife. Happens to kind of look like the name Jeremy Bearimy in cursive English, so that’s what we call it. Eleanor: Sorry. My brain is melting. How can events happen before the ones that happened before? Michael: It’s just the way it works. It’s Jeremy Bearimy. I don’t know what to tell you. That’s the easiest way to describe it. Chidi: OK, but what the hell is this? The dot over the i — what the hell is that? Michael: OK, um, how do I explain this concisely? This is Tuesdays. And also July. Janet: And sometimes it’s never. Michael: That’s true. Occasionally that moment on the Bearimy timeline is the time moment when nothing never occurs. So you get it. Chi

Jason: I am here to learn about ethnics. Chidi: Wow, that’s great, man. I mean, it's “ethics,” but that’s great. Jason: Pretty sure it’s “ethnics.” - - - Chidi: Let’s move on to this week’s main event, David Hume’s “A Treatise of Human Nature.” You read this, right? Eleanor: I did. Well, I tried to. Well, I tried to want to. (Season 1, episode 4) Continuing from part one , here are some factors Christians might take into account when deciding on an action to take. Loving God. The reason God created humans was to love and be loved by him. His people are called the bride of Christ, and he is deeply in love with us. Jesus said the most important command was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.” That isn’t something we strive to produce; it is a response to knowing we are loved: “we love because he first loved us.” The motive isn’t to repay him or gain his approval, it’s just about loving the one who loves you. Love for others.

Michael: Why don’t you just tell me the right answer? Chidi: Well that’s what’s so great about The Trolley Problem – is that there is no right answer. Eleanor: Aargh! Michael: This is why everyone hates moral philosophy professors. (Season 2, episode 5) Ethics is a foundational theme of The Good Place , and many moral philosophers are mentioned in the show: Aristotle, Plato, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Scanlon, Sartre, Hume and others (see this reddit thread for more). There are also references to The Trolley Problem, Utilitarianism, Contractualism, Deontology, the ethics of lying and murder (of Janet (not a robot)) and various moral dilemmas. As a professor of moral philosophy, Chidi constantly questions himself about the right thing to do in each situation, and usually just ends up with a stomach ache. His 3600 page treatise with title beginning, “Who We Are and Who We Are Not: Practical Ethics and Their Application in the Modern World;

Michael: You know how some people pull into the breakdown lane when there’s traffic, and they think to themselves, “Ah, who cares? No one’s watching.” We were watching. Surprise! (Season 1, episode 1) Eleanor: I just want to say once more, for the record, that this whole good/bad system is bullshirt. (Season 1, episode 8) Why should there be a judgement anyway? This hasn’t really been explained in The Good Place (as of season 3), but reading between the lines, the idea may be that there is justice and fairness in the universe, and what you do on earth matters. (Though as Michael has discovered, the system has some major problems). There are two kinds of final judgement according to the Bible: one for people who have accepted God’s forgiveness, and one for people who have not. These two judgements are about very different things. For the second group, the central idea is justice; it will be clear to everyone that God’s judgement is right and fair, and that turning from Go