Yahweh is Evil

In many of my posts I have actually been quite lenient to the God of the Bible. Something occurred to me a few days ago however that permanently solidified Yahweh as an evil malevolent God who, if it exists, should be opposed by all reasoning empathetic beings. I used to poke fun at Satanism both as a Christian and later when I became an atheist however after reading some more of the Bible and really thinking about it I can see why someone would rebel against Yahweh and seek to stand for everything that being hates. This will be the last blogpost I make directly regarding Yahweh's moral character, the proverbial nail in the coffin.

In order to make my point I am going to bring up a favorite historical figures who theists like to pretend was actually an atheist - Hitler. For the record Hitler was a theist, although he wasn't what anyone should consider a traditional Christian he was, indeed, a Christian. I really don't care what he was, neither Christians or atheists should attempt to use Hitler's religious beliefs as ammunition for an argument.

The aspect of Hitler and the Nazis I want to talk about is the horrible things they did. As most of you know Hitler and his minions massacred millions of Jews and people from other minority groups deemed "undesirables". In particular I want to focus on the Jews. What Hitler did to these people - forced labor in camps, gas chambers, disease and hunger and thirst and cold in the camps. People burning. Mass graves. What Hitler did was wrong.

If you are a Christian than you believe those Jews had souls and, depending on what they believed, they had a chance to go to Heaven or Hell. I imagine that many of these Jews did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah at all and were not Christians in any sense. Some of them may have been. Those that were not Christians would have, after laboring, starving, and finally dying in horrible concentration camps, been sentenced to an eternity of torment by a God who supposedly loves them. Imagine if those Nazis had looked into the eyes of each Jew and told each Jew that they loved them unconditionally before pulling the trigger or pumping in the gas.

When I think about this I grow sick to my stomach. What sort of God do you serve Christians? The sort that would damn people to Hell after they've suffered through Hell on Earth. And you can't deny it, you can't pretend it isn't part of your religion. Its right there in Revelation 21:8.

"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

The unbelieving. How many people killed by the Nazis fit that description? Only those who believe on the name of Jesus Christ can be saved, so says Christianity. Now I know that many kinder gentler Christians would dispute everything I've said here and I applaud them for seeing and ignoring the immoral aspects of their own Bible. There are also those who know that the Bible translates a number of different words as Hell leaving the actual interpretation of Hell wide open.

Who is Worse?

So who is more evil? The Nazis or Yahweh? It is generally held that with great power comes great responsibility. Hitler had an awful lot of power and he abused it to kill millions. Yahweh, however, possesses ALL POWER and therefore possesses ALL responsibility. Yahweh is considered by many to be the Lord of all, a divine King. He is essentially a dictator. Set aside for a moment that dictatorships are one of the worst forms of government imaginable and ask yourself what sort of Dictator Yahweh has shown himself to be. Remember that one of his first acts in the Bible was to drown everyone. Does this sound like the actions of a merciful and good leader? And what's his excuse - the people were the ones that were evil. What sort of God blames his creations for their imperfections and then seeks to kill them all?

Hitler was just a man. Yahweh is a God who plans on doing far worse than what Hitler did. It is my opinion that Yahweh is worse than Hitler.



Literal Hell and Free Will

How many people are burning in Hell for the mere act of exercising religious freedom? Let's not forget that the very first commandment says that YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME. Yahweh doesn't want you to think for yourself, he doesn't want you to be free. Religious freedom is a sin in Yahweh's dictatorial kingdom, and the wages of sin is death. Many people claim that God himself gave us free will and the ability to make choices so that we could freely choose him. The only problem is we are not free to make a choice other than Yahweh, if we do we are destined for eternal punishment. Think of Yahweh and other god(s) as people you might want to date. Yahweh in this case is your ex who is letting you be free to choose who you want to be with, the catch is that if you choose someone other than Yahweh he will kill you. In fact Yahweh can do WORSE to you than death and, if you do happen to use your God given freedom in a way he doesn't like, he will do worse.

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. - Luke 12:4-5

So Yahweh doesn't like free will. Yahweh created Hell for the devil and his angels according to the Bible. So after Lucifer's rebellion God's first act is to create a place of eternal torment to throw them in? Rather than attempt to reconcile his differences with the fallen angels, perhaps offer them forgiveness of some sort, instead he plans on burning them for eternity. Imagine for a moment that God truly is a Father. What sort of Father plans on torturing his rebellious child? Is this the sort of punishment a loving Father would enact? Imagine for a moment you have a rebellious teenager who attacks you, after you defend yourself your rebellious child runs away. Would you immediately begin plotting to light your child on fire? A loving Father would want only the best even for a violent and rebellious child.



Yahweh Created and Owns Hell

I get told by Christians all the time that Satan is real and is trying to do us all in. I see ramblings posted all over the internet of people claiming demonic influence in the music industry, television, movies. Satan is apparently everywhere and he's planning on doing bad things to you. Ask yourself - Are any of the things Satan wants you to do as bad as being tortured forever? Obviously being burned forever is about as harsh a punishment as can be imagined and yet it isn't Satan who threatens us with Hell. I've also heard Christians say that Satan wants you to engage in his rebellion against God. The Biblical God, if it exists, should be rebelled against.

Salvation

Supposedly Jesus came to Earth so that he could sacrifice himself for our sins and thus become the Savior of the world. But what is Jesus saving you from exactly? Some may answer that Jesus saves us from sin but as any Christian will tell you sin is still an ever present danger long after you've accepted Christ. Many Christians are susceptible to falling into temptation, it could happen to anyone. Some claim that Christ exempts you from the law of sin altogether so that even if you do sin you don't really have to ask forgiveness again, you're automatically saved no matter what. This thought is disconcerting as it means Hitler might be up on a cloud playing a harp somewhere.

Others say that Jesus is saving us from Hell. But that's not really salvation at all. If Jesus is truly God in another form than he's the one who owns Hell and decides who goes there. God sets the criteria for who goes to Hell - so why is anyone going to Hell? Surely Yahweh doesn't think we deserve infinite punishment for a finite list of sins - does he? If he does he is even more evil than Hitler. If you're a Christian you believe all people have sinned at some point, this would include the Jews Hitler planned on murdering and the wages of sin IS DEATH. So what Hitler was doing was merciful compared to what Yahweh plans to do (remember that verse from Luke we looked at earlier).

Jesus/God are saving us from what exactly? Hell, a place that he created owns and controls where he will throw everyone who doesn't live by his rules and believe in him. Its like holding a machinegun offering salvation from it but only if you do what he says. And the audacity on top of it all is that this machinegun wielding maniac claims to love you UNCONDITIONALLY. Christianity refutes itself.

A Father should not, when his children leave the house, grab them as they leave and say, "Obey my every word, or I will kill you, but don't forget that I love you. You must do only what I say if you want my blessing or my help" - That is not the love of a loving Father, it is a conditional love and a threat of violence, yet that is how the Bible makes Yahweh come off.

In Conclusion:

If the Bible is to be believed literally than its God is evil. Whether you look at the wrathful slayings of the Old Testament where God's first inclination is typically bloodshed or if you look at what God plans to do to you after you're dead. A finite list of sins is enough to damn even the nicest person to an eternity of Hell while the mere act of belief is enough to get you a ticket to Heaven (in some interpretations anyway). If Yahweh existed I would be opposed to it but luckily there is no evidence that such a being exists so I am left having to oppose the idea and belief of Yahweh.

Just for the Lulz:

Satan and the Origin of Evil

This week we're going to be talking about the arch-enemy of the God of the Bible, namely, Satan. Now I am aware that there are many different interpretations of Satan's role in Christian mythology. Some see him as the same as Lucifer and the Devil while others view them as separate entities. Some also claim that Satan has been given dominion over the Earth in order to test humanity. I'm going to be focusing primarily on the more mainstream view of Satan as God's antithesis and the source of all Evil.



The Origins of Evil

Back when I was a Christian I always asked this question every chance I got but I never received a satisfying answer. Many brought up the story of Lucifer as it appears in the Old Testament, however some historians believe the verses in Isaiah talking about Lucifer might refer to a Babylonian King. Regardless it is generally believed that Lucifer/Satan was an angel who was God's second in command. One day he becomes full of pride, Ezekiel 28:15 describes it this way:

15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

It is from these verses, along with those in Isaiah 14, that originate the idea that Satan was the serpent in the garden. Both Chapters say that Lucifer was there in the Garden of Eden however they do not make the claim that he was the snake. In fact in both accounts the Garden is mentioned BEFORE Lucifer's fall from grace and Genesis identifies the serpent DIRECTLY as a snake. It seems apparent that, in fact, Lucifer was there AS AN ANGEL in the Garden but people love a good scapegoat and blaming a talking snake makes Christianity out to be even more silly than it already is.

So where does Evil come from exactly? If God is ALL POWERFUL, if he begins with ALL POWER and is good than where exactly does evil come in? Do they really expect us to believe that evil comes from the Free Will that God gave us? So God decides to give people free will AND that creates the ability for good and bad decisions but rather than pre-program us to know good from evil God leaves Adam and Eve without anyway of discerning the two. God is responsible for the creation of evil IF evil did indeed stem from free will and original sin. But then, that's just it, an All Powerful being inherits All Responsibility for everything.

The only way to reconcile this problem, when I was a Christian, was for me to believe that Evil always existed in some form. I borrowed this idea from Taoism, I believed that God was Yin and Evil was Yang and that Evil could attach itself to people like Satan or anyone else. Not only did this help me hold onto my beliefs but it also took away a defense that I HATED people using - THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT. Even as a Christian I hated when people scape-goated the devil for their own behavior, or blamed him for essentially ANY viewpoint that didn't cram itself into their narrow-minded views. Rock and Roll - that's of the Devil. Liberals - that's of the Devil. Any religion other than Christianity - that's the Devil deceiving people. This of course leads me to my next point.



The Devil is Powerless?

Even if Satan existed he would be entirely powerless. This goes back to that All Power = All Responsibility point I made earlier. Surely Satan is not equal in power to God, two beings cannot both have infinite power can they? So if God IS All Powerful and Satan is not than how exactly does Satan plan on doing anything without God's express permission? The only way Satan can mess with anyone or do anything is if God has given him free will and power. It would seem to me that if an angel rebels against you and you damn them you would remove essentially ALL of their power, leave them with free will if you must but don't allow them supernatural powers and demonic cunning.

So did God make another mistake in letting Lucifer retain his powers? Well not if you ask some Christians because some believe Satan is here to test us. There is scriptural evidence to support this the most glaring of which is Job. In Job Satan asks for permission from God to take everything Job has away to TEST Job's loyalty to God. God regrets this in the third verse of the second chapter and admits that there was no good reason to do it (another Godly mistake).

Personally I think the first choice here is the only one that makes sense. Believing that God unleashes Satan to test people just makes God out to be a total dick. In truth it seems Satan is Lex Luthor to God's Superman, essentially harmless. (I am aware that Lex Luthor does pose a threat to Superman, the point here is that Lex Luthor in a fair fight, without Kryptonite, would get his ass kicked by Superman every time without fail).

Another thing to ponder: Read your Bible, how many people does Satan kill? How many people does God kill? How many does God throw into a lake of fire in agony? How many does Satan throw in there?

The Demons:

Not only do Christians believe in Satan but most also believe that Satan's got helpers. Demons are generally considered evil spirits, they are fallen angels that also rebelled against God. Hmm... One has to wonder, if God is so good why people who decide to rebel against him? Maybe he was letting angelic children die of cancer and AIDS, you know, the kind of stuff he still does today despite being All Powerful.

So these demons ALSO have supernatural powers and supposedly can even possess the bodies of the living. Aside from a few extreme cases these "possessions" usually only manifest themselves in symptoms of mental illness - meaning they aren't actual possessions. There are a handful of severe of unexplained cases of "demonic" possession however I think any explanation is better than invoking the boogeyman. Demons were, at one time, the explanation for a wide array of physical illnesses as well as mental illnesses. Luckily superstitious beliefs like this are on the decline and amazingly as the beliefs decline so do the reports of demonic possession, its almost as if people are getting the correct diagnosis and treatment from medical science.

Demons are meant to be able to tempt people as well, meaning those dirty thoughts you've been having about your daughter's high school age friend's upcoming slumber party might just be demons in your head. Demons are also a great scapegoat for superstitious believers, it is amazing how we humans will shirk responsibility for actions ANY WAY WE CAN.



Conclusions:

While the Bible is unclear on the subject of Satan and the Origin of Evil people still have strong personal beliefs on the matter. Whatever you believe about Satan (I think he's fictional personally) it seems clear to me that Satan should not be blamed for your own personal actions. Please remember that this is the 21st Century and while your first instinct might be to be superstitious it would be wise to employ logic and reason before leaping to the conclusion that Satan was involved.

That's all for this week, thanks for reading.