Might the idea of "god must be good" emerge from the principle of balance? A balanced system certainly isn't cannibalizing itself. And the definition of "good" is a bit circular.
Not following what a "principal of balance" is. There is no physical law of nature that is defined like that. Maybe you mean "conservation of mass/energy". Unfortunately, if you think of things like "good" and "evil" as if it was heat, then you've already made a leap of faith. There is no scientific evidence of Karma, or any such effect for the abstract concept of "morality".
For example, you could just as easily imagine a world where, for every "evil" thing that happened, two good things happened in response. There is no evidence to support that either, but there is also no evidence to deny it. We can't observe the entire universe, so it's vacuously unprovable.
I think the arrow of good is like the arrow of time. It points in one direction because it has to. The fundamental constants encode a precise and balanced harmony of physics. The article is saying the choosing of the constants is a balanced process. "Good" is anything that contributes to the harmony. If the arrow of good pointed in the other direction, there is no harmony of forces, the constants would be different, and there would be nothing.
> fundamental constants encode a precise and balanced harmony of physics
We don't know where the constants come from. As such, we can't say if they independently and randomly arose or came forth from a system in which they balance.
More boldly, any assortment of constants can produce a universe. Each of those universes will be different. Calling some of them "good" and some of them "bad" is an inherently subjective exercise. Even delineating "good" and "evil" on a single dimension is a choice.
When so look at how ecosystems and food chains work, and how microbes and necrophages recycle resources, ‘cannibalizing itself’ seems to be exactly how the world works.
It seems to me that a ‘good’ world implies an over balancing tendency towards harmony, plenty and comfort for all, whereas ‘evil’ implies a tendency towards horror, suffering and deprivation. We see both these things in the world all the time. A time of plenty for flesh eating parasites and brain fungi is a time of horror for their victims.
I think people believe god is good because hope is adaptive and despair is maladaptive. Our evolution has conditioned us to see the good possibilities, because organisms that didn't were less fit.
Or in other words, survivorship bias. Of course god is good, otherwise we’d have been killed along with all those other people (who also believed in god).
