Theists: how do you account for psychopaths?

[Edwardo Piet]

You're right, I should have added that after realizing what their caricature God really is, they may or may not choose to carry on worshipping it. But it causes some to "snap out" of religion, even if it only brings them as far as deism.

I'm just guessing of course, as I'm still learning about how the religious mind works. It seems this way from a lot of stories I've heard.

I think it's largely based on (1) The being unable to cope with the alternative. A life without ultimate meaning or a caretaker to take care of them and say everything is okay. (2) This includes the inability to cope with the notion of no afterlife. Failure to face death (3) This all leads to the presupposition that God MUST be good (otherwise they wouldn't cope) (4) And when all else fails they fall back on God's "Mysterious ways" or "You gotta have faith."

When running out of reasons the theist temporarily switches their brain off on the matter.

It's emotional thinking I think. In fact, I think even the most rational of us are ultimately driven by our irrational passions A LOT of the time... it's just that some of us don't need to be driven that way in all areas because some of us can face reality. I think theism is basically a coping mechanism for how shit life is and most people need it. And THAT is how shit life is. The fact that MOST people are theists and MOST people need that crutch.

What it comes down to is this: How many theists do you know that believe in God but wish they didn't and wish God didn't exist? Can you think of ANY at all? I can't. Their reasons for belief are psychological.

On the otherhand I can already think of two people who wish there was a good God: LadyForCamus and myself.

I think it would be great if a truly good God really did make this universe and he truly could make things better at the end of it all (better, but not worth it). However, I don't think it's possible for such a God to be truly good and all powerful. An all powerful God wouldn't NEED to allow these things. A truly good God that was at least as intelligent as you and I would also know that none of this is worth his making things better in the end. But if we get to heaven at the end of it all that's still better than nonexistence. Perhaps his powers are very limited (of course I don't actually believe such a God exists lol. Being hypothetical here. I'd MUCH sooner believe that we are living in a simulation) . . . personally I think the most moral kind of afterlife would be EVERYONE going to heaven. Even the very worst people. As there's no point in punishing people in an afterlife as it isn't going to improve their behavior as it's the supernatural realm anyway and in Heaven there is no harm to protect anyone from anyway. And it isn't going to detain them to protect them from others as there's no harm to be protected from in Heaven anyway (once again). So, I think that for a truly good God threats of hellfire should just be a way to dissuade people from bad behavior on earth... but then at the end of it all there's a surprise and everyone gets to Heaven. Of course that would mean that people like me are breaking the spell if believed... the worst people have to BELIEVE they'll go to hell if they do bad things otherwise it won't dissuade them. But I'm not sure if that's effective anyway. So I'm defending a kind of Universalism where everyone gets saved, but told differently in order to stop people doing bad things on earth. And also the idea that God isn't as powerful as he claims to be as that's yet another trick. I'm defending the idea of a God that isn't fully honest The next level of greater good

Again, such a God couldn't be all-powerful if he is all-good as there's literally no excuse for allowing what he allows.

TBH it wouldn't make any sense, to me, for God to only be unable to do logically impossible things... he ought not to be able to do metaphysically impossible things either. As metaphysics literally covers all kinds of reality including immaterial reality, that's why the etymology of it literally means beyond physics. What is metaphysically possible should apply to the supernatural realm just as much as the natural realm. And if God is in all things and reality can only be a certain way... then God cannot go beyond it because it's just as much his nature as logic is. If I believed in God I'd defend a logical and metaphysical platonism where there are two realities, the natural and the supernatural world: But God isn't beyond any of it they are just both part of his nature. And logic would be part of reality as well, it would be the most basic and binary rule of everything basically and ultimately (the law of identity, the law of non-contradiction)....

I think I'd be a very interesting theist if I had any reason whatsoever to believe such a being existed.

Such a limited and NOT all-powerful Godly being perhaps WOULD use human form to visit humanity to help them at some point. But I don't see why it would have to be Jesus. There's been plenty other claimed messiahs throughout history. Or maybe he'd be all of them (or some of them) and then plenty more? God can take whatever form he likes. I don't think that's logically impossible or metaphysically impossible (When thinking about metaphysical possiblity I ask myself "Could a being with extremely advanced technology achieve it?". Metaphysical possibility would certainly be beyond the natural world if we imagine two worlds... the natural and the supernatural. BUT if we can imagine it being possible in the natural world then it's DEFINITELY metaphysically possible..... of course that doesn't make it at all likely, plausible or believable and there's absolutely zero evidence for it and no reason whatsoever to believe it).