If God Turned Evil...?

[The Sum of Awe]

What could we do if God turned evil? Whatever God is, I'm sure most theists can agree that God is very powerful compared to humanity, correct?

So, whether you believe that God is a force of nature, an omnipotent and omniscient being, that there are many limited gods, or even that God is nature itself, what could we do if God turned evil?

I'm asking because on Facebook I saw a picture that said "Faith is not believing God will do whatever you want. Faith is believing that God does whatever is right." or somewhere along those lines.

While I agreed with the message there, it had me thinking about what if God one day did something unjust? It was hard for me to answer, because in my belief everything that happens, happens for a reason. A good reason according to God, and even if I regarded it as immoral, that would be a limiting outlook for me, me limiting myself, God allows me to see certain events as bad, but I do believe everything is, not good or bad, just is.

So it led me to another question, what factor would determine whether an action from the king of the universe was right or wrong? Which I cannot answer because of my moral relativism, and my belief that the superior force of God is always right, so I got entangled in a circle of everything will always be a good thing because God deems it good, and that nothing will ever be good or evil because it's all an opinion.

Too long; didn't read: How would we know if something God does is wrong? And what could we do about it?

 

[Skwim]

How would we know if something God does is wrong? And what could we do about it?

Not so much a matter of knowing, but accepting. I think the common believer would view any evil god does in the same way they view the god-preventable tragedies that currently take place: God's will is always good so these on-going tragedies are allowed to exist because they must serve some higher good; ergo, there's no need to do anything.

 

[Mycroft]

If god turned evil I doubt it'd be able to do much worse than the crimes against humanity it committed in the Old Testament.

 

[Quintessence]

How would we know if something God does is wrong? And what could we do about it?

I see the gods/reality as fundamentally amoral. The gods simply are; any assessments of "rightness" and "wrongness" are projections humans slap onto things. Therefore, we "know" the gods are "right" and "wrong" based solely on our own arbitrary judgements. There are a handful of oddball exceptions to this, but even for those, human knowledge is always limited to a map of the territory, not the territory itself. If we decide to make the map of the territory one way, then we "know" that to be true even if the actual territory is something completely different.

As for what we can do about any acts of the gods? Diddley squat. But as a hard determinist who finds all in the Weave is fated to its path based on its intrinsic nature, of course I'd say that.

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

What could we do if God turned evil? Whatever God is, I'm sure most theists can agree that God is very powerful compared to humanity, correct?

So, whether you believe that God is a force of nature, an omnipotent and omniscient being, that there are many limited gods, or even that God is nature itself, what could we do if God turned evil?

I'm asking because on Facebook I saw a picture that said "Faith is not believing God will do whatever you want. Faith is believing that God does whatever is right." or somewhere along those lines.

While I agreed with the message there, it had me thinking about what if God one day did something unjust? It was hard for me to answer, because in my belief everything that happens, happens for a reason. A good reason according to God, and even if I regarded it as immoral, that would be a limiting outlook for me, me limiting myself, God allows me to see certain events as bad, but I do believe everything is, not good or bad, just is.

So it led me to another question, what factor would determine whether an action from the king of the universe was right or wrong? Which I cannot answer because of my moral relativism, and my belief that the superior force of God is always right, so I got entangled in a circle of everything will always be a good thing because God deems it good, and that nothing will ever be good or evil because it's all an opinion.

Too long; didn't read: How would we know if something God does is wrong? And what could we do about it?

Being 'evil' is normal for my God, but He only does it to uphold Dharma and punish those evil-doers who affront Him directly....otherwise He couldn't care less. They don't call Him 'Shiva The Destroyer' for nothing!

Yeah, my God does this (it's so beautiful and amazing):

[youtube]2jTf36EZbDI[/youtube]
Veerbhadra The True Avenger - YouTube

So, if my God turned 'evil', it is normal...it's only when he turns good and does good things, I am like - :sarcastic

This is one of the reasons why I love Siva so much. He is not your 'stereotypical God image'.

 

[Me Myself]

What could we do if God turned evil? Whatever God is, I'm sure most theists can agree that God is very powerful compared to humanity, correct?

So, whether you believe that God is a force of nature, an omnipotent and omniscient being, that there are many limited gods, or even that God is nature itself, what could we do if God turned evil?

I'm asking because on Facebook I saw a picture that said "Faith is not believing God will do whatever you want. Faith is believing that God does whatever is right." or somewhere along those lines.

While I agreed with the message there, it had me thinking about what if God one day did something unjust? It was hard for me to answer, because in my belief everything that happens, happens for a reason. A good reason according to God, and even if I regarded it as immoral, that would be a limiting outlook for me, me limiting myself, God allows me to see certain events as bad, but I do believe everything is, not good or bad, just is.

So it led me to another question, what factor would determine whether an action from the king of the universe was right or wrong? Which I cannot answer because of my moral relativism, and my belief that the superior force of God is always right, so I got entangled in a circle of everything will always be a good thing because God deems it good, and that nothing will ever be good or evil because it's all an opinion.

Too long; didn't read: How would we know if something God does is wrong? And what could we do about it?

Wrong to whim? Evil to whom?

A lot of people feel god has done wrong today.

I certainly beleive God is evil. And holy, and compassionate and pretty much any adjective you can think of. God as a whole goes beyond any adjective you can rhink of though IMHO.

 

[Me Myself]

Being 'evil' is normal for my God, but He only does it to uphold Dharma and punish those evil-doers who affront Him directly....otherwise He couldn't care less. They don't call Him 'Shiva The Destroyer' for nothing!

Yeah, my God does this (it's so beautiful and amazing):

[youtube]2jTf36EZbDI[/youtube]
Veerbhadra The True Avenger - YouTube

So, if my God turned 'evil', it is normal...it's only when he turns good and does good things, I am like - :sarcastic

This is one of the reasons why I love Siva so much. He is not your 'stereotypical God image'.

Thanks for sharing and remembering us that dancing can be hardcore when Shiva does it

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Wrong to whim? Evil to whom?

A lot of people feel god has done wrong today.

I certainly beleive God is evil. And holy, and compassionate and pretty much any adjective you can think of. God as a whole goes beyond any adjective you can rhink of though IMHO.

Which is why I asked - some people (even me at least most of time) think that because God is the greatest in the universe, God is the maker of morality. So it would be impossible to find a deed of God's that is immoral. Right?

 

[Me Myself]

Which is why I asked - some people (even me at least most of time) think that because God is the greatest in the universe, God is the maker of morality. So it would be impossible to find a deed of God's that is immoral. Right?

Everyone is the maker of morality.

As someone who believes God is everyone, that means, to me, that God is always a victim and the victimizer , the judge, the jury and the executioner.

So God is both guilty, innocent and beyond both.

Last my concept of him ("him" )

 

[psychoslice]

What do you mean by evil, he's always been evil.

 

[InChrist]

God is absolutely holy and therefore cannot turn or do evil.

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

God is absolutely holy and therefore cannot turn or do evil.

Agreed.

As humans with an agenda, we have our own interpretation of what is 'evil' and what is not.

We think that anything opposed to our personal notion of 'good' must necessarily be evil - so if God comes down from Heaven (or wherever it is that God 'lives') to destroy a few irreligious people and make an example of austerity, is that good or evil?

As humans, we would think it is evil, because God has just became wrathful/angry and is now destroying stuff...

In the overall scheme of things though, God only does this to preserve the 'greater good' and therefore, nothing God does can be seen as being 'evil'...just 'necessary' according to His Divine Will.

 

[InChrist]

Agreed.

As humans with an agenda, we have our own interpretation of what is 'evil' and what is not.

We think that anything opposed to our personal notion of 'good' must necessarily be evil - so if God comes down from Heaven (or wherever it is that God 'lives') to destroy a few irreligious people and make an example of austerity, is that good or evil?

As humans, we would think it is evil, because God has just became wrathful/angry and is now destroying stuff...

In the overall scheme of things though, God only does this to preserve the 'greater good' and therefore, nothing God does can be seen as being 'evil'...just 'necessary' according to His Divine Will.

I can agree with what you've said that as finite human beings with limited perspective we cannot see or understand the entire picture or eternal reality which God sees.

 

[idav]

What could we do if God turned evil? Whatever God is, I'm sure most theists can agree that God is very powerful compared to humanity, correct?

So, whether you believe that God is a force of nature, an omnipotent and omniscient being, that there are many limited gods, or even that God is nature itself, what could we do if God turned evil?

I'm asking because on Facebook I saw a picture that said "Faith is not believing God will do whatever you want. Faith is believing that God does whatever is right." or somewhere along those lines.

While I agreed with the message there, it had me thinking about what if God one day did something unjust? It was hard for me to answer, because in my belief everything that happens, happens for a reason. A good reason according to God, and even if I regarded it as immoral, that would be a limiting outlook for me, me limiting myself, God allows me to see certain events as bad, but I do believe everything is, not good or bad, just is.

So it led me to another question, what factor would determine whether an action from the king of the universe was right or wrong? Which I cannot answer because of my moral relativism, and my belief that the superior force of God is always right, so I got entangled in a circle of everything will always be a good thing because God deems it good, and that nothing will ever be good or evil because it's all an opinion.

Too long; didn't read: How would we know if something God does is wrong? And what could we do about it?

My hope is that all of this is for some greater purpose, my fear is that it is not. Im an optimist at heart so thats how I normally lean. Come the day he goes crazy in wrath hopefully I was raptured out first. Ive said it a couple times, it takes faith to believe this is the best of possible worlds.

 

[Emp-Naval]

First of all I don't believe there is a god to start with, but I'll just assume that there is a god and carry on.

This is related to the definition of what is wrong or right, and somewat related to the Euthyphro dilemma, which is simply the frustration when trying to distinguish between what is good and what the god(s) wish for.

For me, I think that we already live in a world where god have shown what we can consider the dark side of his/there personalitie(s) -and remember this is built on the assumption that god dd exist, which I don't really believe is correct-.

Wat I mean is, just look at any natural catastrophy, this tragedy always leaves a striking number of casualties, homeless children, hideous shortage in food and water supply, and the list of bad or 'evil' things goes on and on.

Now god creared everything -hypothetically speaking-, so he is responsible for this event, or at least had the power to stop it from happening -he is all knowing after all and saw all this coming, according to abrahamic religions and a handful of others-.

According to our stand point, God has shown us his dark side there, but we just invented -or was it implemented in the religous system anyway- the principle of Devine tests of faith, and the principle of good ultimate reason, to cope with that.

So to answer your question, we already live in such a world >.>

 

[idav]

So to answer your question, we already live in such a world >.>

It really is a matter of perspective. Likely the Dinosaurs think God is pretty evil, allowing evil apes to take over the earth. God is evil if he isn't on our side.

We could just turn it around and just say that humans are evil that way anything God does should be for the greater good. I think that is how the bible reconciles it by saying we aren't worthy and should just be lucky that God even acknowledges our existence.

 

[Skwim]

God is absolutely holy and therefore cannot turn or do evil.

Isaiah 45:7
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
​

I think this suffices as doing evil.

 

[Iti oj]

Man has more power then God.

 

[idav]

Man has more power then God.

Not necessarily but apparently enough power to make God nervous. I find it interesting that God got nervous about us eating the fruit of knowledge and he also got nervous when we started building the tower of Babel. I wonder how humans can make such a powerful bible god nervous all the time.

 

[InChrist]

Isaiah 45:7
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
​

I think this suffices as doing evil.

I don't think it suffices, since properly translated and in context the word evil means calamity and is not referring to the creation of moral evil or sin.

You can certainly continue with your way of thinking if you choose to take scriptures out of context or interpret words improperly to suit your antagonistic attitude toward God. But I've had this discussion with you before, as have others, so not much point in going on.