Monday, June 14, 2021

Bearing Burdens is Necessary if not Sufficient

When I talk about legitimacy, I say that absolute ought can't be argued with, and that this requires that the laws of reality are instituted by a being which is disposed to take on the full burden possible, of what the law exacts. I think it may seem that I mean that that is both necessary and sufficient for legitimacy. So this note is just to clarify that there may well be more to legitimacy than just burden-bearing. But burden-bearing is a necessary condition.

Currently, the Father and Son (and I suppose the Spirit) of the Bible fit the bill for "burden-bearers". If there were additional conditions for legitimacy, maybe they would not live up to those. The Bible would still be a useful document in giving us some idea of what legitimacy prefers, although not as strongly as if there were no conflicting additional conditions. Christianity (at least of the major religions) is the most legitimate, and we have some reason to think that the Father, Son, and Spirit may be "hazy" views of the truly legitimate God, and that the Bible is a similarly "hazy", but useful source of the true God's preferences.

But for now, at least, I think the God of Christianity is the only one of the major religions (and possibly of all religions?) that fits the bill of legitimate, and this recommends the Bible to us.

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