God Is all Evil?

Atheists and god believers often debate whether any gods exist. God believers actually mostly agree with atheists without realizing it. Most god believers reject 99.9% of gods as being fictitious. They only believe in their god or gods. Atheists just take it to 100%.

But I think there is a more interesting debate: If there are gods, are they worthy of respect? Polytheistic religions had a pantheon of gods. Think of the Greek, Egyptian or Hindu gods. Some of these gods were in conflict with each other and not all were admirable.

But the Abrahamic god of Jews, Christians and Muslims is endowed with “Three O’s”: Omniscience (all knowing), Omnipotence (all powerful), and Omnibenevolence (all loving).

The latter raises the Problem of Evil. If God has the Three O’s, including being all loving, why is there evil in the world? “Theodicies” – arguments designed to explain the world’s evil in the context of God’s goodness – are invented to answer this. One is that God gave us Free Will. This answer has problems. The Bible never directly mentions Free Will. In fact, some versions of Christianity deny free will. Calvinism says that you are preordained at birth for salvation. Or not.

Another theodicy says that some goods require evils. You can only be charitable if others are in need. Pleasures require pains for contrast.

Oxford philosophy professor Stephen Law wrote a brilliant counter to this called “The God of Eth” in the September 2005 Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He imagined a Great Debate on the planet Eth. The topic: Is God in fact all evil as their dominant religion believes?

Their great philosopher Booblefrip argued that God is all evil. Their opposing great philosopher Gisimoth points out that God allows at least some good to occur. Why does God give us beautiful children to love? Why does he give some people good health, wealth and happiness? Why are there beautiful vistas and rainbows?

Booblefrip answered that some beauty is necessary in order to show off the vast amount of ugliness in contrast. God gives some people joy to make others feel miserable. And God snatches away the joy from many who have it. The children get sick. The wealth and health is lost.

Yes, there are some good things in the world. But only as part of His Plan to create as much misery and evil as possible. Remember that God is a mystery to us. Far beyond our comprehension.

Can you see that these arguments for God being all-evil make as much sense as those for him being all-good? Such arguments are called “mirror theodicies.”

As a secular humanist, these arguments are laughably absurd. It is clear that there is no guy in the sky who is all loving or all hateful. I think of a child at the beach who has just built a beautiful sandcastle. A wave comes in and destroys it. The child cries at his loss. Perhaps he thinks the ocean is mean and nasty. If he has heard of a god he will think it is a nasty god.

But to an adult, we see a bigger picture. The child built his beautiful work of architecture in the zone where waves regularly wash up and knock things down.

Adults try to learn the forces of nature and work with that reality – not deny that reality, or attribute good or evil intent to those forces.

When anesthesia was first developed, some religious figures opposed its use for childbirth. Because Genesis 3:16 said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.” Euphame MacCalzean was burned at the stake in Scotland for requesting pain relief while birthing twins.

When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, some religious leaders opposed it as interfering with God’s use of lightning as punishment. Franklin replied that lightning is no more supernatural than rain, evidenced in part by the fact that we are allowed to put a roof over our heads.

It is up to humans to improve the world for humans and other living things. And humans are not all good or all evil. Human nature is another force that must be accommodated as we work to improve the world.