Is God a moral monster?

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I get the impression with a lot of atheists that they see the Judeo Christian God as “a little bit more” than us.

Like He’s the biggest, smartest, most powerful, but only by a hint or shade.
Like maybe God is about 2% smarter than the smartest human.

Also, a lot of outspoken atheists seem to be operating out of the adolescent brain. That place in life where the teenager “discovers” flaws in mommy and daddy and decides to reject everything mommy and daddy taught them.
To be all independent. And stuff
 
I heard of the book of Paul Copan I got the title from the book I similarly haven’t read it though.
 
Duke12VonFalkenburg said:
In fact the Greek Plutarch wrote that the villagers would beat their drums louder so the parents wouldn’t hear the screams of their own children being sacrificed
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This is quite interesting can you point me to the source of this and other immoral practices they did.
 
Plutarch, De Superstitione section 13


John Day, Molech: A god of human sacrifice in the Old Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1989), 62. [↩️]

“The word ‘Canaanite’ is historically, geographically, and culturally synonymous with ‘Phoenician,’ the title immediately becomes more impressive, since it also deals with the role of the Phoenicians in the history of civilization” (W. F. Albright, The Bible and the Ancient Near East: Essays in honor of William Foxwell Albright, G. Ernest Wright, ed. [Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1965], 438). [↩️]
 
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Hello @Eaglejet23!

God is the Creator of life, He’ll never let them die just like that. Maybe, God wants them to suffer no longer and to sin no longer. The y could’ve sinned against the Lord too much and God would help them to avoid the torments in the afterlife. God could’ve took their lives to make them as an example that humans aren’t perfect. We should remember that God knows more than we do!
 
EugeneCharles said:
God is the Creator of life, He’ll never let them die just like that. Maybe, God wants them to suffer no longer and to sin no longer. The y could’ve sinned against the Lord too much and God would help them to avoid the torments in the afterlife. God could’ve took their lives to make them as an example that humans aren’t perfect. We should remember that God knows more than we do!
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Can you speculate then on the reason God allows the daily suffering and death of literally billions of creatures who have no capacity to sin and no prospect of eternal life to offset their suffering?
 
Animals, fish, birds, insects, monkeys, dolphins, human ancestors before humans were ‘ensouled’.
 
You already know the answer to that.

Sin brought suffering and death into the world.
Exactly how and in what manner we aren’t given to understand.

But I’ll ask you the same question I would of the OP friend who imagines they’re more moral than God.

Do you support legalized abortion?
 
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
You already know the answer to that.

Sin brought suffering and death into the world.
Exactly how and in what manner we aren’t given to understand.
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So how are we to explain the deaths, in agony, of trillions of creatures before sin ‘brought suffering and death to the world’.

What has my view on whether women should have no option but to bring any pregnancy to term to do with the issue at hand?
 
FiveLinden said:
What has my view on whether women should have no option but to bring any pregnancy to term to do with the issue at hand?
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Because it isn’t fair to give yourself the right to decide who lives or dies, then turn around and deny the same right to God.
 
I thought about that before actually, I was not specific enough: there is nothing immoral in any acts of God in the OT, any Laws of God, or anything God ordered people to do in the OT, or anything approved by God in the OT. That kind of thing. God condemned what King David did, and King David condemned himself (“deliver me from bloodguiltiness o God,” “for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me”).
 
Hello FiveLinden!

I’m aware that it’s God’s mystery that I can’t answer this question correctly but I’ll try.

God allows us to suffer because there are many things that we should learn. Alright God knows that we’re fragile, He has the power and He should’ve taken us away from the influence of evil so we’re not suffering anymore. However, God gave us free will and freedom to choose. If it is correct that the animals had no souls at all they don’t suffer. But if by any chance that they have souls, I really don’t know why they should suffer but the only thing that I know is they’re meant for something better or they could’ve been an instrument of God to make us feel that humans are superior and more loved by God.
 
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FiveLinden said:
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So how are we to explain the deaths, in agony, of trillions of creatures before sin ‘brought suffering and death to the world’.
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There is metaphysical evil, moral evil, and physical evil. The general opinion is that moral evil brought physical evil, however metaphysical evil is a necessary “so called” evil. Catholic Encyclopedia has:
Metaphysical evil is the limitation by one another of various component parts of the natural world. Through this mutual limitation natural objects are for the most part prevented from attaining to their full or ideal perfection, whether by the constant pressure of physical condition, or by sudden catastrophes. Thus, animal and vegetable organisms are variously influenced by climate and other natural causes; predatory animals depend for their existence on the destruction of life; nature is subject to storms and convulsions, and its order depends on a system of perpetual decay and renewal due to the interaction of its constituent parts. If animals suffering is excluded, no pain of any kind is caused by the inevitable limitations of nature; and they can only be called evil by analogy, and in a sense quite different from that in which the term is applied to human experience. Clarke, moreover, has aptly remarked (Correspondence with Leibniz, letter ii) that the apparent disorder of nature is really no disorder, since it is part of a definite scheme, and precisely fulfills the intention of the Creator; it may therefore be counted as a relative perfection rather than an imperfection.
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Sharpe, A. (1909). Evil. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05649a.htm
 
FiveLinden said:
Animals, fish, birds, insects, monkeys, dolphins, human ancestors before humans were ‘ensouled’.
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We don’t know that there was that kind of death, if any kind, before Adam and Eve. I would say it probably wasn’t present before their sins, given what we understand of Catholic theology.
 
Anyone who has an opinion about God could be called a theologian. It has been said that theologians reveal more about their own character than they do about God.
 
@Raxus and @Vico - you are both skipping the ‘before’ in my question.

How do we explain the suffering of animals before there were humans and therefore before there was any possibility of original sin?
 
FiveLinden said:
@Raxus and @Vico - you are both skipping the ‘before’ in my question.

How do we explain the suffering of animals before there were humans and therefore before there was any possibility of original sin?
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I may have missed it: where did you provide evidence that this occurred?
 
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