Is God evil?

[Theif of Time]

I was thinking the other day... in a conspiracy theory kind of way... all this assuming god exists (Which I'm not too sure about myself... All I know is theres a something, which is vague enough to get me out of most religious confrontations)

God is good and almighty and all powerful... but is he? We've only got 'his' word for it and 'his' representatives.
Maybe he just wants us to dedicate our lives to him so that when we die he can feast on our souls in a satanic ritual?
Maybe he is satan, and deposed the 'good' god millenia ago?
There are good christians and there are not so good ones... does 'god' influence the good ones or the bad ones? Which are which?

In short, is the major religion of our planet actually a satanic cult, cleverly disguised, which the majority of its members know nothing about but still 'spread the word', and those members are damned by association? We have but gods word for it. History shows that many good (and evil) things were done in gods name, so which of these were truly in his name? Or, if god is a omnipresent personification of human nature, does that mean that today he is greedy and selfish, consuming more than he needs to survive and ruining the (other)world? Or, is he poor, helpless and starving, disease ridden like a large majority of the 3rd world? Or is he just watching us imparitially, letting us destroy the world, or is he egging us on... a prod in the weapon trade here, a new reserve of oil there, one egotistical and short tempered dictator later and before you know it we're in nuclear winter?

Evidence seems to point to the fact that god is out to get us...

[za gophar]

maybe god just lets earth just run itself because everyone deserves a miracle at least once in their life, but that just is not realistic.

[Subjugation]

I don't think god is evil, but I'm pretty sure Christianity is.

[DUMBRIT!]

God is cruel, doesnt it say that in the Bible?

[eehh]

no, "god" does not exist. (so he, or whatever, cant be evil)

[Ephemeral]

I can’t answer that one, but how about this?

First of all, God has to be a time traveler. Since He is omnipresent, that means that He is present here around us AND present on the opposite side of the universe at the same time. Obviously this implies time travel.

Since God is immortal and can time travel, a thousand years of time would be but a flash to Him. So given this, why would have God decided to present His son (Jesus) at the time when the ability to communicate His word would have been so difficult, if not impossible, world-wide? Makes no sense. Why not wait until now, when communicating something like this would have given everyone an equal opportunity to hear it at same time?

Or if He was hell-bent (pun intended) to present his Son when he did, why did He not then give us the ability to communicate His word to native peoples on all continents in roughly the same time?

[Superted]

So given this, why would have God decided to present His son (Jesus) at the time when the ability to communicate His word would have been so difficult, if not impossible, world-wide? Makes no sense. Why not wait until now, when communicating something like this would have given everyone an equal opportunity to hear it at same time?

Who would actually listen if his message was presented now? If somebody went on the internet and claimed to be the son of God, how do you think he'd be treated? His message has gone around the world though hasn't it? It might have took 2000 years or so but as you said, that amount of time is nothing for him.

Back to the topic; is God evil? Well firstly I guess you'd need to define evil, to me an evil act or person is something or someone that goes against my morals. Now, in some ways I believe our/my/the God to be a utiliterian God (even though it's impossible to even class It with any of our defined terms), i.e. 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.' Hence, why things like murder and all the bad stuff in the world happens, it may be bad for a few but better for a few more etc. I'd like to add that "evil" things exist in the world because God wants you to have choice, the choice to worship It and not to simply blindly worship It, because that's what you would do if everything was given to you on a silver platter.

In conclusion, Its wisdom is far beyond our understanding, but we nevertheless try to comprehend Its actions and the reasons behind them.

[Ephemeral]

Who would actually listen if his message was presented now? If somebody went on the internet and claimed to be the son of God, how do you think he'd be treated? His message has gone around the world though hasn't it? It might have took 2000 years or so but as you said, that amount of time is nothing for him.

Going on the internet? Hmmm. Not exactly what I was thinking. How about some of those miracles? Resurrection would definitely be a cool thing to demonstrate now-a-days, web cam or not.
In fact, given the higher order of science compared to 2000 years ago, the magnitude and power of any miracles would be exponentially more significant than before (given that science could verify and the communication potential to spread the word).

And why would He have been 'selective' about presenting his Son to such a small area of the world? Why not present several Sons, perhaps one on every continent? Sure 2000 years is nothing to God, but it’s kind of important to the many, many, generations of people who missed out during their lives by never even hearing the name Christ.

[NaiLed]

we've been doing a bit of this in philosophy for the last year. even if you don't find the following interesting, it helps my revision. hah.

one of the arguments goes like this:
god's aim was to create us flawless - in His likeless. but he could not do this because prefection can only be achieved - must develop thorugh free choice. since god had to give us free choice, it gives us the chocie to disobey Him. humnas can use their freedom to disobey god and do evil

another goes:
god is perfect and he created a world free of flaws. evil is a deprivation of good and not a substance in itself, and it makes no sense that god created a deprivation. evil comes from humans (and angels who deliberately turned away from god. the posibility of evil in a natural world is necessary. as everybody is seminally present in Adam, everyone deserves to be punished. therefore god is right not to intervene and put a stop to suffering.

[Ephemeral]

My understanding is that the older scriptures (ones that did not make it into the bible) have many, many named angels. These angels, including Satan, were there to help God. Satan served at God’s feet as a kind of ‘Public Prosecutor’ for humans as they attempted to gain entrance into heaven. So the original Satan did not stand for everything evil, although it is clear that many humans had things to fear from him (since he was the angel who delivered the news of your sins to God).

As the early Christians sorted through the scriptures and decided which to include and which not to include, they tended to leave out the sacred documents which included named angels. My understanding was at that time, people were questioning why God would even need angels (God wouldn’t need ‘help’). Satan became an icon for ‘all things evil’ after this time.

I have often wondered that if God were to appear to us today, would he look at the King James version of the bible and make any revisions?

[Bob (SRB)]

God didn't create humans, humans created God. I can only imagine God as a metaphor, not a living entity. God is the projection of human values over a mass scale, he/she is just a synonym for perfection. God is an ideal that is simply too flawless for any of us to attain. That's why nobody ever sees God, nobody can ever become god, because he/she represents something that we cannot achieve.

Until someone comes across scientific proof that there is a "divine" being, (the existance of a higher being is quite believable, but the christian depiction of god is pretty farfetched) then that is the only way I will ever be able to comprehend "God."

[Squeezer]

Actually, going to a catholic school, we debate this quite often. One of my friends said it best, when he said this: "What if the whole God and Devil thing is like WWII. If you lived in Germany during WWII, you were led to believe that your country was right, and that all the Jews were evil when in reality, you were the ones commiting immoral acts. What if we are the Germany, and God is our Hitler, showing us one sided propoganda that says the Devil is evil, when in reality, it is God that is commiting all the immoral acts."

It was quite deep, considering the fact that none of us were stoned at all.

[Mr. Peanuts]

I nearly got the shit kicked out of me for going on the Athiest's side in a Religious Studies debate because none of the Catholics could counter my arguments. There's so many forum threads about this crap and so I have gathered knowledge over the years.