In re all the email about Plato’s Euthrypho, this touches on a subject my dad has talked about for years. I don’t think it’s in Euthrypho (or in Star Trek), but where this dilemma leads to is the definition of God.

For example, if you see a miracle in the desert, such as a forest appearing instantaneously, and a supernatural being takes credit for it, all you can conclude is that the supernatural creature is supernatural, but you don’t know if he’s (or she, as the case may be) is good or evil.

If this being commands you to do abominable things — such as commanding Abraham to kill his son Isaac — you could reasonably conclude that this being is the devil, but of course we are applying our own instinctive appraisal of what is good and what is bad. Or, we could have done what Abraham did, which is assume that this creature was good and is God, and that whatever he commands has to be for good, either in the short or long run. But the bottom line is that we are defining God, because without us doing that he just as well might be the devil, especially since the ways of God are mysterious and the devil is a liar. The saving grace in Judaism, my dad always taught me, is that we question God at every turn.

It’s a question he’s always discussed with me and which has always fascinated him. Personally, I’m not sure the question is answerable to the satisfaction of everybody. But in the off chance that it is, I keep watching reruns of Star Trek.