Yes, he fails to account for neutral or indifferent acts. I don't think that's a fundamental flaw in his model, because all he'd have to do is tack on another paragraph saying, "Of course, this only pertains to acts with moral weight to them; some acts are of indifferent value." Whoops ... hmm ... I'm not sure whether he can account for neutral though.
Okay, come to think of it, without that hypothetical extra paragraph, I guess one could interpret any "not specifically 'good' (towards-God)" act as being absolutely evil simply by its lack of goodness; if that's what he meant then that's a BIG problem, but I doubt that's what he meant.
"At the risk of sounding like I'm trivializing this, God doesn't care which grocery store I go to, y'know?"
No, that doesn't sound like you're trivializing the discussion; it sounds like you're pointing out that within the scope of the discussion there exist some things which are trivial.
"Christianity (as far as I can tell, not being of that persuasion) teaches that people are born evil."
Depends on the sect. For some, oh yes. For others a better adjective would be "imperfect", rather than "evil". (Personally, I believe that people are basically good in the sense of wanting to do good, but are just often kind of bad at it. Don't we call someone with no desire to do right and/or no concept of right and wrong, a "monster" or a "[psycho|socio]path"? So even the folks who stake out a philosophical stance that humankind is essentially evil don't act as though they entirely believe that.)
Your point about actions vs. people is a good one.
(no subject)
Okay, come to think of it, without that hypothetical extra paragraph, I guess one could interpret any "not specifically 'good' (towards-God)" act as being absolutely evil simply by its lack of goodness; if that's what he meant then that's a BIG problem, but I doubt that's what he meant.
"At the risk of sounding like I'm trivializing this, God doesn't care which grocery store I go to, y'know?"
No, that doesn't sound like you're trivializing the discussion; it sounds like you're pointing out that within the scope of the discussion there exist some things which are trivial.
"Christianity (as far as I can tell, not being of that persuasion) teaches that people are born evil."
Depends on the sect. For some, oh yes. For others a better adjective would be "imperfect", rather than "evil". (Personally, I believe that people are basically good in the sense of wanting to do good, but are just often kind of bad at it. Don't we call someone with no desire to do right and/or no concept of right and wrong, a "monster" or a "[psycho|socio]path"? So even the folks who stake out a philosophical stance that humankind is essentially evil don't act as though they entirely believe that.)
Your point about actions vs. people is a good one.