Is God Evil?

[Farnhamia]

I find that in the Bible it says that God is mean when he needs to be, like a strict dad.

If a human father treated his children the way Yahweh treats humanity in the Bible, Child Protective Services would take them away faster than you can say "Jack Robinson," and the cops would throw his strict ass in jail.

[NewLakotah]

What is a double standard?

I'm already a sinner just because of being born (the original sin). God cannot sin. But I'm forgiven for something some supposed (AKA: fictional) ancestors did, while God can slaughter an entire town and still be sinless. See the double standard?

God is not an all loving God that hands flowers out. God is judgemental because, well, he is God.

[Ceannairceach]

Just wait and then someday you will care.

I doubt it. If I die and if I end up standing in front of Saint Peter or some sort of throne, I'll say, "You gave me a brain and didn't want me to use it? Pretty incomprehensible, dude."

@ Ceannairceach: 17,260 but who's counting?

Bah, close enough. But still mighty pretty, I might add.

[Keronians]

What is a double standard?

I'm already a sinner just because of being born (the original sin). God cannot sin. But I'm forgiven for something some supposed (AKA: fictional) ancestors did, while God can slaughter an entire town and still be sinless. See the double standard?

If you could be in a state in which you didn't possess the knowledge of the Forbidden Fruit (and didn't commit any sin either), then I'm sure you'd be sinless as well.

[Tsarsgrad]

I find that in the Bible it says that God is mean when he needs to be, like a strict dad.

If a human father treated his children the way Yahweh treats humanity in the Bible, Child Protective Services would take them away faster than you can say "Jack Robinson," and the cops would throw his strict ass in jail.

And yet we still act like we had Demetia Hippies for parents.Such a shame.

[Ceannairceach]

I'm already a sinner just because of being born (the original sin). God cannot sin. But I'm forgiven for something some supposed (AKA: fictional) ancestors did, while God can slaughter an entire town and still be sinless. See the double standard?

God is not an all loving God that hands flowers out. God is judgemental because, well, he is God.

That's like saying a dictator is genocidal because he can be.

[Farnhamia]

I'm already a sinner just because of being born (the original sin). God cannot sin. But I'm forgiven for something some supposed (AKA: fictional) ancestors did, while God can slaughter an entire town and still be sinless. See the double standard?

If you could be in a state in which you didn't possess the knowledge of the Forbidden Fruit (and didn't commit any sin either), then I'm sure you'd be sinless as well.

He'd have not be descended from Adam. All Adam's children bear the taint of original sin.

[Samuraikoku]

I doubt it. If I die and if I end up standing in front of Saint Peter or some sort of throne, I'll say, "You gave me a brain and didn't want me to use it? Pretty incomprehensible, dude."

I'll say "Are you threatening me!?"

Samurai culture comes from Buddhism...

That's alright, but it doesn't mean everyone followed it. Most, sure, but all, I don't think so. It's logical to suppose some people wouldn't have minded.

I said everybody will sin but I did not say everything you do is sinful. HUGE difference. And what you said is not true again. If you like somebody that is not sinful but if you want to actually sin with her/him then you have sinned. But not if you like someone. Thats utter stupidity and not Biblical.

What does the Bible say? "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's (insert other person here)". In no way it explains what you're telling me.

Not to mention Cennairceach's examples of not evil sins, to which you haven't replied.

And yes everyone in the Bible has commited a sin and many of them, not all are going to Heaven

What does it say here? First you said "everybody", then you said "not all". Another self-contradiction.

[Farnhamia]

If a human father treated his children the way Yahweh treats humanity in the Bible, Child Protective Services would take them away faster than you can say "Jack Robinson," and the cops would throw his strict ass in jail.

And yet we still act like we had Demetia Hippies for parents.Such a shame.

"Demetia Hippies"? what are those?

[Cenetra]

In my honest belief (not trying to intrude on those who do not share my views or atheists):

Evil is allowed by God and is created by man. For example, to Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man whom killed dozens in a Norway terrorist attack just recently, his actions may be heroic. Hitler may have thought he was ridding the world of evil by killing Jews, homosexuals, the mentally-challenged, and others whom he thought were 'inpure'. God allows evil because without it, he would have to make us all mindless beings.

it doesn't matter what the individual thinks; morality is not relative, and as such, their opinions on how the world should be does not negate the fact they they were wrong.

"Morality is not relative, and of course mine is right and yours is wrong."

Sadly, that's exactly what Anders Behring Breivik and Hitler thought (no, this does not invoke Godwin's law because he is a legitimate example, and was already mentioned).

Whether morality is objective or subjective, because it is impossible to know if there is a "true" moral system, and which one it is, for all practical purposes it must be treated as subjective.

Anyway...

God allows evil because without it, he would have to make us all mindless beings.

According to Genesis, that was his original plan, but Satan ruined it with the fruit he conveniently placed in the middle of the garden. However, given that he's supposed to be omniscient, he would have seen that coming...

You forgot, however, that the Judeochristian God is also supposed to be omnipotent. Therefore, he should be able to create beings which simultaneously know good from evil and cannot be tempted. Do you argue that's impossible? Nothing should be impossible an omnipotent being who wrote the laws of physics and created the universe from scratch.

God cannot be simultaneously omnipotent and purely good, given the following facts: (a)humans know good from evil, and therefore it's not that God's definition of good is incomprehensible. (b) there is evil in the world. Quite a lot of it, in fact.

In the traditional Christian worldview, God is assumed to be omnipotent, therefore he must be at least partially evil.

[NewLakotah]

God is not an all loving God that hands flowers out. God is judgemental because, well, he is God.

That's like saying a dictator is genocidal because he can be.

Your really missing the point. But I'm sick and tired of talking with everybody and them not seeing the truth. If you don't want to believe, then well, wait and see and I believe what I want. We'll both find out when we die.

[English Penguins]

No, God is not evil.

[Keronians]

If you could be in a state in which you didn't possess the knowledge of the Forbidden Fruit (and didn't commit any sin either), then I'm sure you'd be sinless as well.

He'd have not be descended from Adam. All Adam's children bear the taint of original sin.

Because they all possess the sin of the forbidden fruit.

Though wouldn't it be more correct to say descended from Eve?

[Cenetra]

No, God is not evil.

Then why is there so much evil in the world?

[Ceannairceach]

it doesn't matter what the individual thinks; morality is not relative, and as such, their opinions on how the world should be does not negate the fact they they were wrong.

"Morality is not relative, and of course mine is right and yours is wrong."

Sadly, that's exactly what Anders Behring Breivik and Hitler thought (no, this does not invoke Godwin's law because he is a legitimate example, and was already mentioned).

Whether morality is objective or subjective, because it is impossible to know if there is a "true" moral system, and which one it is, for all practical purposes it must be treated as subjective.

No, it mustn't. Morality is simple; If it harms someone who wasn't harming you, it is wrong. For example, murder and rape are wrong. The reason is because it violates people who weren't harming the attacker.

[Samuraikoku]

Your really missing the point. But I'm sick and tired of talking with everybody and them not seeing the truth. If you don't want to believe, then well, wait and see and I believe what I want. We'll both find out when we die.

You HAVE no point, you're leaving under a cop out, and you're doing a Pascal's Wager. Meaning...

Samurai wins again.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

No, God is not evil.

Then why is there so much evil in the world?

Time and unforeseen circumstance.

[Keronians]

According to Genesis, that was his original plan, but Satan ruined it with the fruit he conveniently placed in the middle of the garden. However, given that he's supposed to be omniscient, he would have seen that coming...

Depends on what kind of omniscient being God is.

If His omniscience is inherent, then it's not contradictory at all.

[Ceannairceach]

That's like saying a dictator is genocidal because he can be.

Your really missing the point. But I'm sick and tired of talking with everybody and them not seeing the truth. If you don't want to believe, then well, wait and see and I believe what I want. We'll both find out when we die.

Bah, you mike idle threats of an afterlife that I don't believe in.

[Samuraikoku]

If you could be in a state in which you didn't possess the knowledge of the Forbidden Fruit (and didn't commit any sin either), then I'm sure you'd be sinless as well.

When I was a baby I didn't know what my name was, what my parents' names are, not even what I was, you think I would have known something about the Forbidden Fruit?

[Farnhamia]

He'd have not be descended from Adam. All Adam's children bear the taint of original sin.

Because they all possess the sin of the forbidden fruit.

Though wouldn't it be more correct to say descended from Eve?

Adam is an unindicted co-conspirator. And that sentence right there is where so much misogyny comes from. I never have understood why the children of Abraham had such a grudge against women. Not enough hugs, I suppose.

[Geilinor]

I find that in the Bible it says that God is mean when he needs to be, like a strict dad.

If a human father treated his children the way Yahweh treats humanity in the Bible, Child Protective Services would take them away faster than you can say "Jack Robinson," and the cops would throw his strict ass in jail.

Exactly, a real father would never be able to treat their children the way God does in the Bible. I suppose if God exists, he's an abusive father.

[Genivaria]

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
--Richard Dawkins

[Keronians]

"Morality is not relative, and of course mine is right and yours is wrong."

Sadly, that's exactly what Anders Behring Breivik and Hitler thought (no, this does not invoke Godwin's law because he is a legitimate example, and was already mentioned).

Whether morality is objective or subjective, because it is impossible to know if there is a "true" moral system, and which one it is, for all practical purposes it must be treated as subjective.

No, it mustn't. Morality is simple; If it harms someone who wasn't harming you, it is wrong. For example, murder and rape are wrong. The reason is because it violates people who weren't harming the attacker.

So, me shooting a man who was attempting to shoot my kid is wrong because that man wasn't harming me?

[Geilinor]

No, it mustn't. Morality is simple; If it harms someone who wasn't harming you, it is wrong. For example, murder and rape are wrong. The reason is because it violates people who weren't harming the attacker.

So, me shooting a man who was attempting to shoot my kid is wrong because that man wasn't harming me?

The death if your kid would harm you, would it not? So I presume you could shoot the man.