Totally evil God hypothesis

[_zeezrom]

A God that is totally good can be believable despite evil in the world because of explanations like:
1. Free will (cannot be forced to be good)
2. Character-building (suffering helps us be better people) We can't understand how good something is until we feel the bad
3. Mystery (we can never understand the mind of God, be humble and know that God is great)

What if we turned the good God hypothesis around to an evil God hypothesis? Can we support this hypothesis using the same explanations used for the good God hypothesis? How could there be a totally evil God even though there is good in the world?

1. Free will (can't be forced to be evil, and he could mess with our minds rather than just poking us with a burning stick). God has to allow the Mother Teresas of the world in order to bring about his evil.
2. Gives us some beauty to help us understand how bad the bad stuff really is. Let's some people have great lives in order to make the rest of us feel bad. It is a win-win for this God because people that appear to be having a great life are actually not happy either.
3. Mystery (God's ways are beyond ours, be humble and know God is great).

Sorry for being so negative but I just wanted to say that my explanations for the completely evil God hypothesis are likely not convincing in the least to anyone. Therefore, how can the explanations for the completely good God be any more convincing?

[_truth dancer]

Hey Zee,

how can the explanations for the completely good God be any more convincing?

Thy are not!

;-)

I have yet to hear any (even remotely decent) argument for the problem of suffering. All the excuses and justifications are nonsense.

Just keeping it real,

~td~

[_JAK]

A God that is totally good can be believable despite evil in the world because of explanations like:
1. Free will (cannot be forced to be good)
2. Character-building (suffering helps us be better people) We can't understand how good something is until we feel the bad
3. Mystery (we can never understand the mind of God, be humble and know that God is great)

What if we turned the good God hypothesis around to an evil God hypothesis? Can we support this hypothesis using the same explanations used for the good God hypothesis? How could there be a totally evil God even though there is good in the world?

1. Free will (can't be forced to be evil, and he could mess with our minds rather than just poking us with a burning stick). God has to allow the Mother Teresas of the world in order to bring about his evil.
2. Gives us some beauty to help us understand how bad the bad stuff really is. Let's some people have great lives in order to make the rest of us feel bad. It is a win-win for this God because people that appear to be having a great life are actually not happy either.
3. Mystery (God's ways are beyond ours, be humble and know God is great).

Sorry for being so negative but I just wanted to say that my explanations for the completely evil God hypothesis are likely not convincing in the least to anyone. Therefore, how can the explanations for the completely good God be any more convincing?

Cogent as your discussion may be, it begs the fundamental question of evidence, compelling for any God claim.

“Explanations” for “God” are not compelling.

JAK

[_The Dude]

You are right that both hypotheses can be explained by the same reasoning.

What about he totally indifferent God hypothesis? He lets stuff happen and doesn't give a crap. It's a big experiment in non-intervention, to see who wins, who is the fittest.

[_truth dancer]

What about the hypothesis that there are many, many gods each trying to gain more earthly followers?

Or the hypothesis that there are two Gods... one trying to get people to obey, the other trying get people to become enlightened? (I made this one up... LOL)!

Then there is the hypothesis that there are really millions of tiny fairies who are playing with us... (I heard this one from a psychic).

;-)

~td~

[_zeezrom]

What about the hypothesis that there are many, many gods each trying to gain more earthly followers?

True we have many hypotheses to choose from but it seems most people these days like the single, all good one.

[_honorentheos]

What about the hypothesis that there are many, many gods each trying to gain more earthly followers?

True we have many hypotheses to choose from but it seems most people these days like the single, all good one.

I have to first point out that this is, in all fairness to most of the world, not true. It's hardly true of most westerners. Even among the monotheists Big Three the actual actions of worship or belief give only title authority to "God" given that Satan, saints, and all sorts of what-nots are associated with supernatural powers to harm and help. I suspect most people actually practice something other than what is formally taught in their religion itself.

But that aside, I find it interesting that most ancient religions, including Judaism, placed notions of God in the realm of the sublime - something so beyond Good and Evil as to be incomprehendable. It is a tough question for the Hebrews, "Why would the God that delivered us from Egypt then allow is to be taken into captivity again?" Their answer - We didn't obey enough. Be more exacting, more precise in worship and it won't happen again. Only, it did.

I think, personally, the notion that God is Good is a luxury of our success as a modern culture and species. The world has been, and really still is, the sort of place that stamped out ideas of supreme good being real.

Oddly, though, when bad things continue to happen our answers still haven't changed much from the Jews in captivity. "Worship will change the tide, create spring out of winter." Only it doesn't. Not in any way that could be considered consistent and directly relational to the objective of worship.

One has to question other angles as well - instead of "good", could we honestly say God is just? merciful? caring? Or the flip side, is God malicious? vengeful? vain?

In the end, I think if one believes in God one has to do so through hope in his divine character and faith that you have it right. The evidence, alone, will not support a view of God being anything but Nature with a capital "N". And she can be both beautiful and a bitch. And she doesn't seem to care either way about worship.