in God”, they may mean a number of things. A man may mean, “I believe that there is an occult invisible being somewhere; but frankly I do not know much about him. I doubt if he is interested in me; and I'm certainly not going to worry my head about him”. One should hesitate before saying that such a man is a hypocrite for going to church, because he is saying something positive and of value; he is saying, “I believe that God exists, and that he is one; and reject the idea that his existence is mere myth and fantasy”. Whether it is right or wrong, such a statement is a positive statement of belief, and it is only qualified by the doubt that God does not seem to involve himself very obviously in the contemporary affairs of the world, which is after all most people's experience.
Another man may go further; he may mean, “I believe that God is good”. This is a tremendous step forward, because not only does God exist, but something positive is known about him. It is true that there is no generally accepted definition of what goodness is; indeed there cannot be, because the very attempt to define it is rather putting the cart before the horse. It is more intelligent to regard goodness as one of the fundamental qualities of life, and to use the concept of goodness to define other things. Nevertheless I think it is probably true to say that there is a fairly generally accepted image of goodness which men have in their minds. They may like it, or they may despise it; but in broad outline it is the same, in this country at any rate.
The positive assertion that God is good, means of course that God is against evil. All the murders of the Inquisition, the deaths of the Smithfield Martyrs, and the deaths of the victims of the Solemn League and Covenant must be anathema to God; and their perpetrators evil, however much their dark deeds were dressed up in self-righteousness and conscience. The time-honoured custom of persecuting those whose opinions are different from one's own, cannot appeal to a God who is good, and who turns the other cheek. Crusades take on their…