If there is a god is he evil?
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:29 pm
It is often argued that believers know God is there because of the good that exists all around us. If in response someone wonders, what of the bad that happens all around us? How does that suggest a God. There are three popular ways to address that from a believers perspective (I'm taking much of these thoughts from "The evil-god challenge", from "Cambridge University Press 2010. Religious Studies, 353-373, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... B25F649F27:
1. God gives people free will. In order for someone to truly be good, they must have an evil possibility. If not, then God is simply forcing people to do good and they really aren't choosing good, learning good, and being good. So, as it is, the argument for evil in existence is free will. God gives free will and free will is meaningless without evil choices happening or under consideration.
2. God needs to get people to desire second-order goods. In the face of travesty or natural disaster people or someone might desire bravery, for instance. As Stephen Law puts it:
"Take, for example, charity. Charity is a great virtue. Yet we can only be charitable if there exist others who are needy. Charity is a so-called second-order good that requires first-order evils like neediness and suffering (or at least their appearance) to exist. The second-order good outweighs the first order evils, which is why God allows them."
3. If there was only good, then people would not appreciate good because everything is good. God needs evil so people learn to recognize and appreciate good. This can be summed up as the appreciation argument.
There are other theodicies that have been proposed.
Ok. Let's reconsider all of this from an opposite perspective. Let us consider God, but not a good God but an evil God. All of these reasons can apply equally to it. If God is evil then we must ask, in a similar vain, why is there good? You see the presence of evil on the good God hypothesis is explainable by suggesting evil must be allowed.
You might say, that is absurd God is not or cannot be evil? I would ask why? Is God not the one who has commanded murder and slaughter (according to the Bible)? Is God not the one who claims to not have ever known believers? Has it not traditionally been true that God is the one who maintains life, chosing to end it as He pleases? Maybe the question is why do we assume God is good rather than evil?
If God is evil, then (1) He has to allow good, in order for people to choose the evil. No one is really evil if they are forced to be evil. They are simply robots, of sorts, doing exactly as God forces them. If God is evil, then (2) he must have a way for people to desire second-order evils by allowing respite from plagues or draughts. Or if the second-order evil is betrayal, betrayal does not exist without the good of trust and friendship. If God is evil, then (3) He allows good so people appreciate the evil. If everything was just evil, then we would not know anything but evil. So we need good to appreciate the evil that is God.
Consider (from Stephen Law, "The evil-god challenge"):
"The challenge is to explain why the hypothesis that there exists an omnipotent, omniscient and all-good god should be considered significantly more reasonable than the hypothesis that there exists an omnipotent, omniscient and all-evil god. Theists typically dismiss the evil-god hypothesis out of hand because of the problem of good - there is surely too much good in the world for it to be the creation of such a being. But then why doesn't the problem of evil provide equally good grounds for dismissing belief in a good god?"
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... B25F649F27
Why I normally find theodicies lacking, I wanted to point out even if we grant them, there is no real reason to trust the assumptions behind them. If you are in wonder of the beauty, and goodness and think it must be a God...then you ought to, for consistencies sake, wonder at the ugly and evil around and think it must be God.
1. God gives people free will. In order for someone to truly be good, they must have an evil possibility. If not, then God is simply forcing people to do good and they really aren't choosing good, learning good, and being good. So, as it is, the argument for evil in existence is free will. God gives free will and free will is meaningless without evil choices happening or under consideration.
2. God needs to get people to desire second-order goods. In the face of travesty or natural disaster people or someone might desire bravery, for instance. As Stephen Law puts it:
"Take, for example, charity. Charity is a great virtue. Yet we can only be charitable if there exist others who are needy. Charity is a so-called second-order good that requires first-order evils like neediness and suffering (or at least their appearance) to exist. The second-order good outweighs the first order evils, which is why God allows them."
3. If there was only good, then people would not appreciate good because everything is good. God needs evil so people learn to recognize and appreciate good. This can be summed up as the appreciation argument.
There are other theodicies that have been proposed.
Ok. Let's reconsider all of this from an opposite perspective. Let us consider God, but not a good God but an evil God. All of these reasons can apply equally to it. If God is evil then we must ask, in a similar vain, why is there good? You see the presence of evil on the good God hypothesis is explainable by suggesting evil must be allowed.
You might say, that is absurd God is not or cannot be evil? I would ask why? Is God not the one who has commanded murder and slaughter (according to the Bible)? Is God not the one who claims to not have ever known believers? Has it not traditionally been true that God is the one who maintains life, chosing to end it as He pleases? Maybe the question is why do we assume God is good rather than evil?
If God is evil, then (1) He has to allow good, in order for people to choose the evil. No one is really evil if they are forced to be evil. They are simply robots, of sorts, doing exactly as God forces them. If God is evil, then (2) he must have a way for people to desire second-order evils by allowing respite from plagues or draughts. Or if the second-order evil is betrayal, betrayal does not exist without the good of trust and friendship. If God is evil, then (3) He allows good so people appreciate the evil. If everything was just evil, then we would not know anything but evil. So we need good to appreciate the evil that is God.
Consider (from Stephen Law, "The evil-god challenge"):
"The challenge is to explain why the hypothesis that there exists an omnipotent, omniscient and all-good god should be considered significantly more reasonable than the hypothesis that there exists an omnipotent, omniscient and all-evil god. Theists typically dismiss the evil-god hypothesis out of hand because of the problem of good - there is surely too much good in the world for it to be the creation of such a being. But then why doesn't the problem of evil provide equally good grounds for dismissing belief in a good god?"
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... B25F649F27
Why I normally find theodicies lacking, I wanted to point out even if we grant them, there is no real reason to trust the assumptions behind them. If you are in wonder of the beauty, and goodness and think it must be a God...then you ought to, for consistencies sake, wonder at the ugly and evil around and think it must be God.