This text presents three arguments that if there is a god, it is an evil god. Each of the three arguments take a standard argument for theism and use it to uncover the truth that an evil god is more likely to exist than a good one. Spot the "sensible refrains" that look at arguments from a normal atheist point of view.
Read / Write Comments1. Existence of suffering
1.1. The existence of suffering
If God was all-powerful and all-loving, with free will yet perfectly good, God would create life with similar properties: with free will and perfectly good. Meaning that there would be no human-created evil, and no need for evil, suffering or death in the world in any way. However, there is evil and death in very great quantities, therefore it holds that if the situation was created by a god, rather than natural forces, then such a god is not omnipotent and benevolent. Given that such a god exists, it must be malevolent: An evil god, who created life for the sole purpose of watching life suffer.
Such a god would make life, in its very essence, impossible to exist without death, violence, suffering and struggle. Advanced life, especially, would be inherently prone to nastiness, wars, immorality, killing and causing of suffering. As this is how it is in the world, it holds that the existence of such levels of suffering, if it is the result of intelligent design, is thoroughly evil, and to call god "good" is a corruption of the truth.
1.2. Cause of confusion
An evil god, if it wants to spread confusion, fear, misunderstanding to cause wars, will no doubt present itself, from time to time, as a good god and fool people and communities into founding world religions, with the aim that these will in the future go to war with each other.
History makes much more sense if you assume an evil god instead of a good one.
Suffering exists because life is not an intentional function of the universe. The laws of nature exist, and life has evolved out of them and continues to do so, there is no design either for or against life, and therefore suffering is merely incidental and has nothing to do with any grand scheme. This is the most sensible conclusion to draw. However if it is felt that life hasn't evolved undirected, that a god has designs for life, then the next most sensible conclusion is that such a god is evil.
Links:Bane of Monotheism site: Introduction to the problem, for god-believers, of the contradictory existence of evil
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" A god could not have created a more vicious cycle if it tried: Tying the very existence of life with the necessary killing of other life is the work of an evil genius, not of an all-powerful and all-loving god "
Vexen
2. Dominance of death in nature
2.1. Life is sustained by death
The main piece of evidence here is biological matter and the food chain. All life dies - all biological life decays, erodes, fades, becomes diseased and ill if it does not sustain itself. To sustain itself nearly all life, except the least living elements of life, kills and eats other life. If not this, then it consumes biological matter at the expense of other living beings; the fight for food is also a case of living beings being required to outdo each other merely to survive.
If life was created, and not simply the result of undirected unconscious evolution (as seems sensible), this is surely the worst possible way to have created life. It appears very much that life cannot survive without causing suffering for other life. A god could not have created a more vicious cycle if it tried: Tying the very existence of life with the necessary killing of other life is the work of an evil genius, not of an all-powerful and all-loving god, that could choose if it wanted to sustain all life immediately and forever with manna from heaven. But it seems such an all-powerful good god doesn't exist.
2.2. Death is the ultimate victor
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Satanism is about reality. In reality, all living beings die. There are no known exceptions. Satanism, in embracing life and indulgence , is in affect striving against death. However, death will eventually win, it is inevitable. Satan, representing reality and the Human condition, symbolizes the victory of death. This eternal truth is more meaningful and potent than deceitful symbols of life, reincarnation or other spiritual pipe dreams. "
" Satan represents Death " by Vexen 2003
Life exists as a precarious balance of self-replicating chemicals, and such a balancing game is always bound to be temporary, pending major technological discoveries or serious and continuous genetical engineering. That such extreme measures have to be taken to prolong life is evidence to the fact that life is incidental to the universe, a by-product that exists due purely due to statistical likelihood, and that life is temporary is because all the physical constructs of the universe are temporary. However, if a deity was believed in, it would be sensible to assume that it was evil and created life as such a disharmony in order to cause the suffering and pain of living beings.
3. The evil god remains hidden and teasing
If we knew the truth, our existential crises, mental angst and warring world religions would have no grounds to vex. If god revealed itself to everyone, in no unclear terms, there could be no disagreement. But god does not do this. God remains hidden - and if god is the source of any of our world religions, it seems that it is intentionally giving conflicting messages. Saying one set of things to one group of people; appearing as a multitude of gods to others, and appearing not at all to many. These appear to be the tactics not of a god that wants us to understand and unite, but of one that actively encourages division, war, conflict, confusion and stress, it is clear that if knowledge is important, God is evil for denying us what it could easily give us.
Sensible refrain:Such a god remains 'hidden' because actually it doesn't exist. Experiences of god and experiences of other spiritual things are mistakes, ego-projections, psychology and misleading experiences which nonetheless appear true to those that have them and are even partially a side product of the way we've evolved. However, if there is a god and it intentionally hides and spreads confusion and disagreement about its own nature, then it is not a truthful, good-natured god but one that prefers conflict.
Bane of Monotheism: Misleading experiences of God, and psychology of belief in God
4. God can't possibly be "moral"
Can God be "good"?
If God is all-good, benevolent, then it implies on of two things:Everything God does is automatically good and perfect, no matter what it does
or
God only acts in a morally perfect wayWith the former, God could not be immoral even if it tried. Whatever it done would work the maximum amount of good because god's actions would be the definition of perfectly good. God has no choice in this matter - it is perfect, and there's nothing it can do about it! The second option sees god, as a perfectly-loving being, utterly incapable of doing anything that is bad or wrong, even though it would otherwise be possible for it do to them.
In both cases, unfortunately, it appears that God does not have a choice in its own morality. A good God can literally not choose to do the wrong thing. It is impossible. This makes God amoral, and not morally good, in the same way that any automaton with no moral free will is neither "moral" or "immoral", but amoral, as a computer is neither moral or immoral even if we program it to always do the right thing. Because there is no free will, there is no way to assert that God is moral.
That the idea of a perfectly good god contradicts itself means that it is impossible for a good god to exist. An amoral or immoral one could exist though. The evidence on this page on suffering, pain and the unsuitability of the universe for peaceful life is rather a big hint, however, that God is not amoral, but is actually immoral and sadistically evil. Of course it is completely more obviously the case that there isn't a god of any kind, but if there was one, it wouldn't make sense to call it "moral", it'd have to amoral at best.
Links:God has no free will and therefore cannot be moral (Offsite on my Bane of Monotheism website)
5. God does not prevent suffering
.. Arguments from the existence of Evil that there is no good god, by Vexen Crabtree
Unhindered natural evil
God could act to prevent all natural disasters, fires, earthquakes, radiation and accidental mishaps from afflicting pregnant women, young children, babies and innocent people. That God doesn't do this is a clear indicator that it doesn't want to do it - because it sees nothing wrong with our suffering. This is not a moral God, who can just sit around and do nothing all day whilst creation suffering in the hands of the stray photon particles God left laying around in their billions! God could prevent all background radiation from harming people... but it doesn't.Heaven
Whether people deserve it or not, a good God would elevate everyone to heaven immediately. Good and bad, moral and immoral... once in heaven where there is no evil and no suffering, even bad people who only do good things. If God is forgiving or loving (or exists...) then it would automatically and instantaneously place everyone in heaven. Why doesn't God do this? Because god is neither all-loving or forgiving! Life is a game intended to draw out peoples' lives as much as possible, making them endure the maximum amount of pain that is logically possible... because God, if there is one, is utterly evil!
6. The Evil God Says It Loves You!
If God was evil, it would definitely convince the weak-minded amongst us that it loves them. That's exactly what an evil God would do! In fact, it would make believing that this is true as one of the cornerstones of its teachings! Like the totalitarian government of George Orwell's 1984, like the Fascist governments of history, and like the leadership of every inhuman cult leader... get the followers to believe that the figurehead loves them, and they'll bend to your will! A pure evil God would boast about love, forgiveness, and compassion! And, being very powerful, an evil God would be convincing, too.
Of course, this is complete psychological wish making, people use God as a figure to replace their parents when they realize their parents aren't infallible or all-loving.
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Bane of Monotheism: Misleading experiences of God, and psychology of belief in God
7. Make Heaven Hard to Get To
www.vexen.co.uk/religion/heaven.htmlContradictions between the supposed existence of heaven, and the supposed existence of a perfectly good god
Pages by Vexen Crabtree
An evil God would create a beautiful, perfect, fabulous heaven, and then not let anyone go there. It would tell people *about* the heaven, and tell people that they *can* get there, but in reality there would only be hell and eternal suffering. It might even create human forms of itself (Jesus, Muhammad, etc) and go around preaching about heaven, in order to tease Humanity even more, and increase our suffering.
A good god would, obviously, put everyone in heaven immediately, whether they deserved it or not . So an evil god would have to invent reasons why it couldn't do this, so that people wouldn't realize it was an evil god. If a god was particularly evil, it could even tell people that you *had* to believe these reasons in order to get into Heaven! That would be a perfect circular argument, augmented by the emotional and selfish wants of people who want eternal bliss! A perfect deception!
8. Create Conflicting Religions
Religions that fight each other tend to make their adherents believe in them even more strongly! Group solidarity comes into effect... when you have enemies, you keep closer grip on your friends and reinforce your own group identity more. So, an evil God would appear to mankind in a variety of guises and preach a number of powerful, but conflicting, religions. It would therefore create maximum confusion, and maximum suffering, through war and intolerance. It would preach to each religion that its followers were right and other followers were wrong! That way, most of the weak, inferior, pathetic people that the evil god creates would fall foul of one religion or another, and be duped! Once duped, they'd cling to the lies even more the stronger because of the existence of competing religions! An evil God, indeed, would do this, and this is exactly the state the world is in. Coincidence? If there is a God, it is surely evil!
9. What Would Vexen do if He was God?Read the full page here: http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/if_vexen_was_god.html
Vexen would put everyone in heaven
Vexen would eradicate evil
Vexen would not create people who will sin
Vexen would cancel all religion
Vexen would dispense with the food chain: All beings to be fed with manna from Heaven" Why doesn't God do these things? And just as importantly... why did God create evil, suffering, sin, the food chain, etc, in the first place? There are two possibilities to explain God's confusing inaction: God Doesn't Exist or God is Evil. People who believe that a good god exists should probably spend more time wondering whether their God is actually really the good guy or not! Maybe if everyone believed in Vexen, the world would be a better place! "
" If Vexen Was God " by Vexen 2005 Jun
10. Conclusion
The existence of such large quantities of suffering, despair, pain, of natural disasters such as earthquakes, of the death of the unborn and the immense suffering of lovers & kind-hearted people means that god is evil and intentionally creates life in order to create suffering. That all life exists in a food chain means that life is completely tied to death, and such a barbaric biological cycle could only have been made by an evil god. Also, that such a god appears not to exist, or actively hides itself, is a source of confusion, conflict, war and stress and is again more likely the antics of an evil god. Given the state of the natural world, it is impossible that a good god exists. It is more likely that an evil god exists, but, it is sensible to assume that there is no god of either type. Even if there is not a god of either type, as the dominance of death and violence in the natural world, a result of nature being abused by life and not being designed for life, I think the evil symbol of Satan is the best representative of the state of reality and the universe, whether or not an actual evil god exists.
If God did exist and was evil, it would undoubtedly lie and tell everyone it was a good god and that it loved them. It would create maximum confusion by preaching multiple conflicting religions. It would create heaven and make it hard to get to in order to tease and torture people into making their own lives hell. As all of those things happen, if there is a God, it is doing the things an evil God would do!
Once I recognized and accepted this state of affairs and adequately called myself a Satanist, I could concentrate my life on happiness, love, stability and peace. Because I know and understand that death always wins, that life is temporary, I waste no time on short-term whims that reduce my quality of life, or of those around me, and I waste no time with spiritual pipe dreams. Recognizing Satan as the personified meta-figure of reality is self-affirming, life-affirming, positive, honest and clarifying.
Egocentrism
There is one flaw behind the arguments for the existence of a God that is either moral or immoral: It assumes that the suffering of Humanity and life on Earth is relevent to the intentions of that god. Life could merely be a by-product, a means to an and, and therefore suffering is completely irrelevent in the grand scheme of things. This points to the existence of a neutral god, if we speak in absolute terms. However, we are not speaking in absolute terms, we are specifically speaking from our own point of view and from the point of view of living beings. So, in the English language, according to Human Beings, and as highlighted by Satanism, if there is a God the evidence suggests we are justified in calling it evil. From its own point of view, it may not see itself as evil because our suffering is irrelevent to its plan, but from our point of view the suffering we endure is definately not an acceptable part of the universe, so much so that we consider the creator of the universe to be morally flawed; or in other words: to be evil.
Vexen Crabtree 2003 Aug 02
Links:
Vexen's Bane of Monotheism
Multiple and strong arguments against the existence of a good god
Notes:2005 Aug 15 - Substantial new text on "What would an Evil God do" is added © 2005 Vexen Crabtree. All rights reserved.
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