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Achilles6129
Guest
The question is simple: Suppose God exists but that he’s reprehensibly evil by your standards. Would you serve him?
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oldcatholicguy
Guest
The flaw is the “by your standards” part. It assumes one’s standards are the correct standards.
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blase6
Guest
It does not work. God is being and evil is non-being. God cannot be evil. Though he can seem that way sometimes, it is because we have an imperfect understanding of him and will have to accept that.
An “evil God” is meaningless.
An “evil God” is meaningless.
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seagal
Guest
Satanists worship an evil being as a “god”. You’re asking essentially if I could worship Satan. Not on my life.
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fhansen
Guest
If God was evil there’d be no point in serving him; no good would come of it; existence would be pointless.
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Even_So
Guest
Seriously? Like, no way. Seeing as you posted this question, would you? Curious question.
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on_the_hill
Guest
Of course. If I were evil, why wouldn’t I serve an evil god?
meltzerboy
New member
I would be a slave if I served an evil god, and therefore I would not provided I had the power to avoid doing so.
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Jon_S_1
Guest
I think we would have to serve him if he is the creator of life and all that exists…But if he was evil, why would he create us?
I think you may have a simplistic view of God…He is not a benevolent bearded man in the sky waiting to give us hugs.
He is being itself…He is the unmoved mover, the first cause, the reason for existence…something that we cannot fathom… He is not the highest being, but is what it means to be!
With that…God is all that is good, pure holy…he is love. By his nature that is what he is. So there is no possibility whatsoever that God can be evil.
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DanielJT
Guest
If there were a God that were evil and created us, I can’t see a reason this God would give free will at all. And without free-will, we wouldn’t really have much of a choice.
God’s creation of us was an unselfish act, thus the gift of free-will. I imagine an evil creator creating as a selfish act.
We would basically be automatons here to serve the selfish ways of the evil creator.
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Robert_Sock
Guest
There are many gods who are evil and people serve them all time. Heck, I believe my computer is evil and I often catch myself worshiping it.
LOVE!
LOVE!
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Nixbits
Guest
Jon S:
Jon S:
Jon S:
In reply to the original post, I would not willingly serve a god that I believed to be evil. As for deciding that the god was evil ‘by my standards’, they are the only standards that I have. I have only my intelligence, my reason and the system of morality that I have developed through experience and empathy. On this basis I have to make all of my moral decisions. What other choice do I have?
Entertainment?
Jon S:
If God is something that we cannot fathom, then is there any point in questions like this? It suggests that the answer is: Serve him, don’t serve him, it doesn’t matter because we don’t have the ability to understand what God is. I’m not convinced that humankind cannot fathom what God is, at least to the extent required to work out how to act with respect to God.
Jon S:
I have never understood what either of these assertions actually mean. Can anyone enlighten me?
In reply to the original post, I would not willingly serve a god that I believed to be evil. As for deciding that the god was evil ‘by my standards’, they are the only standards that I have. I have only my intelligence, my reason and the system of morality that I have developed through experience and empathy. On this basis I have to make all of my moral decisions. What other choice do I have?
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schaeffer
Guest
If I truly believed that the being was God, then yes I would serve and worship regardless of my personal feelings about that being’s actions.
Otherwise I would be a person who picked and chose their God according to my feeling whether or not I liked what they did. If God is God, then you serve and worship because it is God, otherwise you have allowed yourself to be the judge of what God should or should not do and what defines God.
Otherwise I would be a person who picked and chose their God according to my feeling whether or not I liked what they did. If God is God, then you serve and worship because it is God, otherwise you have allowed yourself to be the judge of what God should or should not do and what defines God.
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seagal
Guest
I was just listening to a CA radio podcast about natural law. Natural law comes to us from our creator and part of that is our concept of what is good and what is evil. Now, if we consider your philosophical question that the creator is evil and not the greatest possible good, then that is the moral law that would be imprinted in our hearts. In other words, we would not consider him evil.
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schaeffer
Guest
This flies in the face of the standard answer to “how could God have allowed this to happen?” that leads so many people to a crisis of faith.
Usually their question is countered by “God is good, he works in mysterious ways, we just can’t see the big picture, you have to trust” etc.
Meaning, God has done something they consider reprehensible, yet they are counciled by other believers to keep believing in and worshiping a God who has done what they can only understand as evil.
Of course, when it comes to philosophy, people are perfectly capable of holding beliefs that are opposed to one another, and trotting out whichever one they want to apply at any given time. Myself included, lest anyone think I am pointing fingers.
Natural law or not, people have all through history believed gods to be capable of horrendously evil acts, yet continued to believe and worship them. Others make excuses that God’s acts only appear evil to people. Indeed some people worship all the harder because they believe God is likely to do some very evil and horrendous things to them if they don’t worship.
meltzerboy
New member
Judaism has a tradition of questioning and even accusing G-d when it is thought that He does not live up to His own moral standards.
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Achilles6129
Guest
Aha! It’s not a flaw
I asked it that way on purpose.How would you ever truly know or prove that God was evil? The best you could do is say “he’s evil by my standards.”
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Achilles6129
Guest
Not at all - God isn’t Satan! I’m asking if you would serve a God who’s evil by your standards. Evidently the earth-dwellers would not:
" 8 Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth." Rev. 11:8-10 (NIV)
There you have it - they believe that God is evil.
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DrTaffy
Guest
I think the number of different answers to this question show that it is a very good one, or at least a very thought provoking one.
Hallowed are the Ori!
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Robert_Sock
Guest
Worship and serve only LOVE and you cannot go wrong. The problem is that many people seek, and worship, immediate gratification and falsely worship it.
LOVE!
LOVE!
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