Is God Evil?

No worries, mate I guess I could do with cooling down, too.

Hi PD, can you clarify for me whether you believe Yahweh either was or is evil from our Western point of view?I'm not picking a fight; I just can't quite work out where you stand.

I think the point is that your god has done some very evil things and no amount of balancing things out will make up for the misery and torment he has made happen.It's like Stalin being let off for all those murders because he saved a few of his cronies from being shot.

The point is that your Yahweh created and allows evil to exist.He even punished Job to prove an egotistical point to Satan.I dare say he sent Satan to tease Jesus in the wilderness, too.Yahweh? Loki, more like.

That makes no sense.First: lets not get bogged down with us having free will.Second: We are talking about Yahweh doing evil things to people for his own reasons when he does not have to (what with being all powerful and all).Any way.Yahweh permitting evil is just as evil as if I permit my next door neighbour to burn down the local orphanage.Yahweh could give people the choice of being evil and refrain from doing it himself because he is better than us!ABE: Nice pic: is that you there?Edited by Larni, : abe

What does free will have to do with Yahweh doing good or evil?Our capacity to have free will has nothing to do with Yahweh's capacity to commit evil acts.Why should Yahweh's evil acts be contingent on our ability to commit evil acts?When new born children were drowned in the Flud they were not evil and yet Yahweh committed infanticide as a direct result of his actions.That is evil.ABE: Congrats on the wedding, mate. I got married this May. Going anywhere nice on Honeymoon?Edited by Larni, : Congrats

So when a child is born with AIDS they are wrong doers? Where is the justification for AIDS babies?You do realise that you are now explaining away the fact that Yahweh performs evil acts? This then argues very strongly that you agree that Yahweh is at times an evil entity. AIDS babies are guilty of what now? Not so when Yahweh can click his fingers and rearrange reality rather than kill pretty much every one on the planet durring the flud!

You wiley fox, you. I have no problem with this concept:I'm imagining the wife beater telling his wife that he only does it because he loves her so much And how common is it that the beaten wifes says "it's not his fault, it's my fault"? Or "he only does it because he loves me so much"? The husband may love his wife but he hates her as well.I believe I'm being fair when I say this behaviour is evil. Can't beat being happy, eh?

No and that's why when we went to war with him we tried to focus on milltary targets; rather then wicked Yahweh who (in his mercy) killed the children of the 'wicked'. If it was not what Yahweh wanted it would not happen, would it? He could use divine 'smart lightining' like we use 'smart bombs' to limit damage to non military targets.It seems your god is more innept at minimising civilian causalties that the US or the UN (if such a thing can be imagined).

Dude, if you use the reply button in the lower right you can cause an email to be automatically sent to the recipient.It makes Peq aware that you have lest her a message.Hope this helps.

Um...the flud?ABE: Hey, what happened to the kitty in the wizard hat?Edited by Larni, : No reason given.

If Yahweh is real we blame him and he is evil.If he is not we blame Dubya and he is a twat.

Easy.Husband: "You bitch! You know my rules, you know what I'm like (smack!). There, you see what you made me do?! I love you so much but you make me do this to you (smack)!"Wife: "You said you loved me, why do you keep doing this? I'm leaving you"Husband: "What? (cuts wrist with razor) You can't leave me! I love you so much I'll kill myself for you (cuts wrist with razor). I'll die for you..."Wife: "He must love me if he's prepared to do that for me." C'mon you don't look that old

It's a heavy handed analogy I grant you but I see Jesus as Yahweh self harming himself (as an aspect of the Trinity) to make right a situation he engineered. If Yahweh (like the wife beater) could only exercise control in his behaviour he would not have to 'make things right' through self harm.It seems to me that people can believe in him because of evidence as well as faith so why not give people proof to ensure that they do not go to hell? Free will is all very well but if some one says "act this way or the inevitable consequence of your actions is pain and sorrow" I'll be quick to agree.How is giving each individual ever to have drawn breath a very explicit choice "do you take the blue pill or the red one?" compromising free will?As it stands Yahweh leaves it to chance; If I knew for a fact that Yahweh was real I would be fare more likely to follow his laws. Saying faith is the conduit is all very well but if Yahweh limits faith to a state of not having evidence Moses would be in hell because he sure as hell had evidence. I would wonder why he could not talk to me in my own language