suppose there is a god. why does everyone assume he is good? isn't there just a big a possibility that he's evil? what if he's creating all these souls simply to kill and destroy them and cause eternal and infinite pain to them. scary.

Yeah it's possible, what kind of good person/thing would create such a screw up of a planet just to satisfy his own ego?

Allow meto show you straight Dialogue from one of Dogma's deleted scenes: Evil Is An Abstract.



AZRAEL

Human, have you ever been to Hell? I think not. Did you know that once Hell was nothing more than the absence of GOD; and if you’d ever been in HIS presence then you’d realize that’s punishment enough. But then your kind came along, and made it so much worse.

BETHANY

Humans aren’t capable of 100th the evil a shit-bag Demon like you is.

AZRAEL

Evil… is an ABSTRACT! It’s A HUMAN CONSTRUCT! But true to his irresponsible nature, Man won’t own up to being its engineer so he blames his dark deeds on my ilk. But it’s not enough to shadow his own existence, no. He turned Hell into a suffering pit. And why? Because it is beyond your abilities to simply make personal recompense for the sins you commit. No, you’d choose rather to create a psychodrama and dwell in a fallace belief that “GOD can never forgive your grievous offenses.” So you bring your guilt, and your inner decay with you to Hell, where the horrid imaginations of so many gluttons for punishment gave birth to the sickness that has infected the abyss since the first one of your kind arrived there, begging to be punished. And in doing so, they have transformed the cold and solitude to pain and misery. I’ve spent eons, privy to the flames, inhaling the decay, hearing the wail of the damned. I know what effect such horrors have on the delicate psyche of an angelic being! I’d rather not exist than go back to that.

If god was evil he would not have made the ten commandments

He made them because he's evil. He wants us to violate them so he can have his sadistic way with us.

I certainly hope this discusison won't be bound to Christianity. God can be evil no matter what belief system hes associated with. Theres nothing saying he can't be one dirty hate filled bastard.

Who's to say it would be evil anyways? Animalistic means evil? Since when was that an absolute?

God, being an omnipotent and omniscient being, could only be good. Think, since he knows all he would logically know the ultimate value, which would be good. The converse of the ultimate value would be evil. God would adhere to this value since the point of an ultimate vale is to triumph over all else. If God were to be evil, then he would lose his omnipotence, because he would be doomed to fail, something an omnipotent being cannot do.

-As always, crusading in the name of The Ugly Fish, our lord-

That makes no fucking sense at all. Evil is just as viable a route for omnipotent and omniscient behavior as it's just the animalistic characteristics, whereas good is defined by altruistic characteristics. Altruism might be the ultimate value in your mind, but I'm sure there are plenty of other people who define the ultimate value as being in touch with your base desires. Neither one is really good or evil, we just give them misleading labels for our own peace of mind.

God A: Promotes benevolence, forgiveness, loving, caring, generosity, humbleness, abstinence.

God B: Promotes selfishness, grudges, distrust, lust, greed, hate, indulgence, pleasure, pride.

While I'm sure most people would be eager to label God A as good, I find it quite easy to label them both as good, and both as evil.

God A is evil for worshipping it and adhering to its rules would be denying yourself of your primal urges and some of the more satisfying areas of life, you are being denied life experience in the name of a god. They're good though for promoting qualities which bring humans together.

God B is evil for worshipping it and adhering to its rules would possibly force you into a small and barely trustworthy group of friends, and likely chisle away at certain social bonds, denying you life experience in their name. They're good for the reasons that it makes each individual adherent of the faith feel complete within themselves rather than of their relationships; their urges satisfied with no restrictions met, so no part of them needs to reside in the subconscious; their mind is whole and it is all their own. There wouldn't be much personal physical suffering as people would be driven to satisfy the wants for pure self pleasure.

I'm not talking about just the christian god or the christian hell. all i mean is: what if a creator was evil and created life just to punish it and cause immeasurable amounts of pain to it.

I'd say they're doing just as bad as the Christian God is with that eternal bliss shit...

i agree, Hexadecimal; Quetzalcoatl, that made no sense.

edit: syntax

[This message has been edited by ashesofzen (edited 02-02-2004).]