Definition of godness

(Brand Blanshard, "The Emotive Theory," Robert...)

But neither was the statement empirical , for goodness was not a quality like red or squeaky that could be seen or heard .

He holds that goodness and badness lie_in feelings of approval or disapproval .

If goodness and badness lie_in attitudes only and hence are brought into being by them , those men who greeted death and misery with childishly merry laughter are taking the only sensible line .

On_the_other_hand , to greet them with delight would convert what before was neutral into something good ; it would bring goodness into the world .

(Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land....)

Mike remained in trance ; there was much to grok , loose_ends to puzzle_over and fit into his growing - all that he had seen and heard and been at the Archangel_Foster_Tabernacle ( not just cusp when he and Digby had come face_to_face alone ) - why Bishop_Senator_Boone made him warily uneasy , how Miss_Dawn_Ardent tasted like a water_brother when she was not , the smell of goodness he had incompletely grokked in the jumping_up_and_down and wailing -