So basically, God asked a man to kill his only child, allowed slavery, made women inferior to men, and caused all the suffering in the world, while Satan apparently just pushes people to do bad things, yet is universally hated for doing it.

I'm not trying to say that Satan is good while god is evil. I just want to know that isn't god supposed to be the perfect example of good?

Welcome, Kardia.

Well yeah, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We totally imperfect, animalistic, fucked-up humans fret over whether or not the death penalty is too cruel. Meanwhile, the supposedly perfect and pure God creates people who (because of his omniscience) knows they are bound for Hell for the high crime of picking the wrong religion (or no religion) where they will endure torture for all of eternity for an error in judgement.

We are all atheists here so of course we all find this ludicrous.

(September 21, 2026 at 10:32 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: Welcome, Kardia.

Well yeah, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We totally imperfect, animalistic, fucked-up humans fret over whether or not the death penalty is too cruel. Meanwhile, the supposedly perfect and pure God creates people who (because of his omniscience) knows they are bound for Hell for the high crime of picking the wrong religion (or no religion) where they will endure torture for all of eternity for an error in judgement.

We are all atheists here so of course we all find this ludicrous.

Thanks for the welcome!

That's right. It's clear that we humans, who have been given the world, are often more merciful than God Himself, who supposedly created it.

One of the MANY problems with the God of Christianity that stands out like a sore thumb to those who examine it critically. Most of its more serious adherents do not examine it critically. Those who notice the problems wave it off as God working in 'mysterious ways'.

Mysterious indeed. Fucking incomprehensible is more like it.

I don't know how old you are or how long you have pondered the logic of religion but one thing you should learn is that it is the rare Christian that is swayed by logical arguments. We have learned that emotional attachment trumps logic. It's not just true of Christians but of all people. The human brain is wired that way.

(September 21, 2026 at 11:32 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: One of the MANY problems with the God of Christianity that stands out like a sore thumb to those who examine it critically. Most of its more serious adherents do not examine it critically. Those who notice the problems wave it off as God working in 'mysterious ways'.

Mysterious indeed. Fucking incomprehensible is more like it.

I don't know how old you are or how long you have pondered the logic of religion but one thing you should learn is that it is the rare Christian that is swayed by logical arguments. We have learned that emotional attachment trumps logic. It's not just true of Christians but of all people. The human brain is wired that way.

Yeah, I highly agree with you on that point, and I've seen that too in Islam (as an ex-Muslim), where a very high majority of Muslims don't examine Islam critically, and those who do notice the problems usually wave it off as God working in a 'mysterious way',  as you said, or come up with literally the most stupid nonsense arguments.

Nope. Both are really make-believe.

God, by definition, always has to turn out as evil because whenever you imagine an omnipotent being, he has to look bad because he is letting all this suffering in the world. That's why the idea of God is pointless.

(September 21, 2026 at 10:02 pm)Kardia Wrote: So basically, God asked a man to kill his only child, allowed slavery, made women inferior to men, and caused all the suffering in the world, while Satan apparently just pushes people to do bad things, yet is universally hated for doing it.

I'm not trying to say that Satan is good while god is evil. I just want to know that isn't god supposed to be the perfect example of good?

Yeah, that's been a head-scratcher at least since Epicurus decided that sitting and thinking was preferable to working for a living. Attempts to resolve that paradox are unconvincing (to put it mildly).

Boru

Welcome

If we’re granting the idea of there being both a God and Satan who are actively at work in the world, I have to admit that when I was still being raised a Christian, I couldn’t come up with any solution other than Satan is to God what O’Brien was to Big Brother and the Party in 1984.

And this recent Dean Withers debate really highlights why I couldn’t avoid this conclusion: