The Good Place & Christianity

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...

Michael: So, Chidi, just want to double check. How do ethical philosophers feel about murder? Chidi: It’s frowned upon. Michael: OK. What if the reason you want to murder someone is to make your life easier? That’s OK, right? (Series 2, episode 7) The characters in The Good Place struggle to identify what makes a particular action “good.” They are initially told that this can be precisely determined (to two decimal places): Michael: During your time on Earth, every one of your actions had a positive or a negative value, depending on how much good or bad that action put into the universe. Every sandwich you ate, every time you bought a magazine, every single thing you did had an effect that rippled out over time and ultimately created some amount of good or bad. (Series 1, episode 1) Which is quite similar to Utilitarianism, where the sum total of positive and negative effects is what matters: Chidi: Utilitarianism posits that the correct ch...