Why should we think that this very same being, that created the universe, hung around doing nothing for fifteen-billion years, and then suddenly starts parcelling out real-estate and impregnating virgins?
In the first world war, millions of young men died agonizing deaths from poison gas. I can’t begin to imagine how it must have been like to die from being gassed. If god is benevolent, and he is so powerful, couldn’t he have made their suffering just a little bit less?
It seems to me, that any reasonable view of history of this world, will give us far better reason to think that Satan is in charge around these parts, not Jehovah.
-Arif Ahmed
Arif is damn good, word.
Obedience to the vengeful, despotic, God would not be morally virtuous; it would be, at best, prudent. One does not owe allegiance to another being simply because that being is stronger. And it does not matter if the being in question is responsible for your very existence.
No one thinks that an abused child is morally obliged to obey an abusive parent, simply because the parent gave the child life. Parents do not own their children, and their right to expect obedience is contingent upon their being benevolent and competent trustees of the child’s own Welfare.
- Louise M. Antony