Is God evil?

[MarkMono]

What I said.

[Dario]

Originally Posted by MarkMono

What I said.

Aye, you posted faster than I did.
Show-off.

[MarkMono]

You were more eloquent, but my imagery was more evocative.

We're both winners.

[LesMTS]

Only vaguely related to the thread, but on the "freedom to choose" theme - I was reading a promotional booklet for Islam today (a friend had to visit a mosque for uni and brought back some propoganda) which got itself in quite a muddle while trying to argue that everything in the universe is predetermined except human behaviour, as God gave us free will, but God still knows everything that will happen in the future.
A bit confusing, that. They seemed to settle on "eh, that's just the way it is - don't argue".

They also "proved" that the Koran was the word of God by saying that no-one has ever written a piece of text which is as beautiful or poetic or unambiguous (someone tell all those different schools of Islam that the Koran is unambiguous, please, they seemed to have missed that bit) and grammatically and semantically correct as the Koran, despite many attempts. Bizarre line of reasoning, there, but that's religion for you.

Anyway, it's not much on topic. But that's one of the things that happened to me today, and this seemed as good a place as any to dump the quasi-interesting anecdote.

[StepVheN]

Originally Posted by ugolino

Seems like an odd question, but I've been thinking about this ever since I read a thriller called "The Armageddon Conspiracy" by mike hockney in which a group of people plot to kill God. The book presents the Gnostic view of history and this amounts to a belief that the material world was created by an evil demon (Satan) for the purpose of entrapping souls. Since it says in the Bible that "God" created the earth then "God" must be Satan. The True God, meanwhile, lives in a spiritual paradise that has no connection with the earth. It's the task of a Gnostic to see reality as it really is and acquire the secret knowledge (gnosis) to allow his soul to be freed from its prison in this world and return to heaven.

The curious thing is that the "God" worshipped by Christians, Jews and Muslims is, according to the Gnostics, pure evil. Isn't it totally amazing that billions of people worship a God that some people believe to be the very quintessence of wickedness? Judging by some of the things that Christians, Jews and Muslims inflict on their fellow human beings (mass murder, torture, inquisition, suicide bombings, massacres, death camps etc), don't the Gnostics have a very good case?

One of the reaons that religion is so absurd is that it frequently allows the precise opposite views to be arrived at from precisely the same theological "facts". The Gnostics and the Christians both accept that "God" created the earth, but the former conclude that this was an act of supreme evil while the latter celebrate it as a great and glorious thing. Same "facts" - entirely different conclusions. Religion is plainly just a matter of interpretation, opinion and taste. There are no objective standards whatever. Some religions can actually contain diametrically opposed views...how is it possible for an extreme capitalist and an extreme left winger to both claim that they are good Christians obeying God's will? At least one must be wholly wrong.

In democratic terms, no religion on earth commands the allegiance of more than about 16% of the world's population (Catholic Christianity and non-Catholic Christianity must, of course, be considered as separate religions since they have precious little in common). So, whatever set of beliefs you choose to adopt, at least 84% of the world's population say you're wrong. Isn't it bizarre that people who trumpet the wonders of democracy, reject utterly the precepts of democracy in terms of religion? The democratic verdict regarding every religion is that it's wrong. In political terms, people are willing to accept the majority view. In religion, they reject it utterly. How weird!! Shouldn't the fact that no matter what religion they belong to, religious believers are in a tiny minority, cause them pause for thought and make them question their beliefs?

Yup. Seeing as God Is everything he is then evil.

Some might say "yes he is everything therefore he is the opposite of evil" and back up that argument.

Some might say no he is Good and back up that argument.

Some might say God is Love and back up that argument.



Well my answer to all of them is that If God is everything that means that he is "everything he is" and "everything that he is not"!!! The devine Dichotomy!
Therefore yes God is evil. But he is more. He is evil+not evil+theopposite of evil+all that contradicts evil.

A Funny thing to note is that evil seems to be breaned as a force with a negative relationship to peoples lives. And funnily enough that has been encoded in our language.

Evil is is the negative of Live. It is Live backwards. Live being the positive opposite of Evil. ...

[Bunnylingus]

Nope, human nature and our free will determines good/evil.

[Dec]

There is no such thing as good or evil.

[StepVheN]

Originally Posted by Bunnylingus

Nope, human nature and our free will determines good/evil.

I don't buy into the good evil thing at all. We just are
there is too much of a reliance on variable spatio/temporal factors for the determination of whats right and wrong.
Like prostitution is legal and not considered wrong by many in a border town in Texas for example. Just over the border under a mile away it is iilegal and wrong?

Even the catholic church changes there mind on good and evil. 20years ago eating meat on a sunday was a 1 way ticket to hell. Now it's all good!!!

I don't belive in good and evil. I just believe each person should decide what kind of person they are and then do what is best for them (as that person they have chosen to be) in every situation.

Originally Posted by Dec

There is no such thing as good or evil.

I agree See my last post.

[The_librarian]

God, if he exists, is neither good nor evil, he merely is.

Good and evil are human concepts, crerated by society. God trancends these and to use such human terms is crazy.

We don't use these terms refer to other creatures that live on the earth, we say it's their nature. So why would we use such terms to describe a being who we have no idea,and possibly no way of finding out, what his motivations are.

Wish I had reasdall of this befor postig as it seems my point wasw made earlier

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by The_librarian

God, if he exists, is neither good nor evil, he merely is.

Good and evil are human concepts, crerated by society. God trancends these and to use such human terms is crazy.

We don't use these terms refer to other creatures that live on the earth, we say it's their nature. So why would we use such terms to describe a being who we have no idea,and possibly no way of finding out, what his motivations are.

I've got a wildlife textbook from the 1940s that calls crocodiles evil and demands they be hunted to extinction. In all seriousness.

[The_librarian]

Originally Posted by LesMTS

I've got a wildlife textbook from the 1940s that calls crocodiles evil and demands they be hunted to extinction. In all seriousness.

Typical, bet the guy that wrote it lost his dad to a crocodile.

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by The_librarian

Typical, bet the guy that wrote it lost his dad to a crocodile.

I think it was his dog.
There's a line in it that says something like "when you have seen a beloved hound snatched from the water by one of these brutes....".

[Diabolical]

Originally Posted by Elite

not evil just made up!

Word!

[Ultima]

Its amazing if ye talk to god then yer praying, but if god talks to you then your insane.



FTW!!

[endless psych]

Nah whats amazing is that you aren't considered insane if you think 'God' is listening.

EDIT:- Feel free to use this post of why I am a massive retard...