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Essay:Arguments against a BENEVOLENT god
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This essay is an original work by Doublethink (talk) 03:12, 28 November 2018 (UTC). It does not necessarily reflect the views expressed in RationalWiki's Mission Statement, but we welcome discussion of a broad range of ideas. Unless otherwise stated, this is original content, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 or any later version. See RationalWiki:Copyrights. Feel free to make comments on the talk page, which will probably be far more interesting, and might reflect a broader range of RationalWiki editors' thoughts. |
A benevolent god can't exist if 1. Our perceptions of reality are sound 2. Mass suffering is immoral 3. God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient.
"Now, let's take a case of someone who's been "dealt a bad hand". What about Fräulein FritzlWikipedia's W.svg, in Austria? Whose father, unwilling to get out of the way, kept her in a dungeon, where she didn't see daylight for 24 years. And came down most nights to rape and to sodomize her, often in front of the children who were the victims of the previous attacks and offenses. And it's only purely by accident that Herr Fritzl is now in custody. And it's a shame he's 76, because his life imprisonment isn't going to feel enough like that to him. I want you to just take a moment, since [religious apologists] are so interested in the downtrodden and the helpless — imagine how she must have begged Him. Imagine how she must have pleaded. Imagine for how long. Imagine how she must have prayed, every day — how she must have beseeched heaven. Imagine. For 24 years. And no, no answer at all — nothing, NOTHING! Imagine how those children must've felt. Imagine what they felt when they saw one of their number, the dead twin, being borne away from neglect, on top of everything else. Now, [religious apologists] say; "That's allright, that she went through that, because she'll get a better deal in another life?" Are you- I have to ask you if you can be morally or ethically serious and postulate such a question!? "No, that had to happen! And heaven did watch it with indifference, because it knows that that score will later be settled. So it was well worth her going through it, she'll have a better time next time." I don't see how you can look anyone, ANYONE in the face — or live with yourself — and say anything so hideously, wickedly immoral as that. Or even imply it."
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens
The Logical Problem of Evil[edit]
If god is all powerful then why does he allow suffering. Why did he see people like Herr Fritzl doing [missing bit detected]
Victim Blamming[edit]
Similar to victim blaming but with more zing. Basically if there was an omnibenevolent deity then that deity is choosing who suffers or not. Ergo, anyone who is suffering must have done something really bad to annoy the deity and deserve it, because there is no way the omnipotent and omniscient deity could be slacking off or irrational, right? This goes directly into the realm of Theodicy, where scholars perform mind bending feats of brilliance to produce bollocks that tries to explain how this could make any sense whatsoever. If you don't believe their crap, the deity will get angry with you and you will suffer for eternity in hell. This is basically just a big con where clever people try to shift the blame from their inability to explain their ideas to your refusal to believe them, and try and make it all someone else's fault that suffering exists in the world.