James Barry, Satan at the Abode of Chaos and Old Night, c. 1792-95
I don’t get the philosophical rhetoric for or against God. Dostoevsky’s moral argument still works. If one is to assume that God is in charge than one would have to conclude that based on the empirical evidence God is a sadist. To outsource the blame to a Satan is about as original as the “dog ate my homework” excuse.
This explains why most religious groups have displayed exceptional cruelty in each and every single manifestation of the belief. Naturally people recognize that God must be a sadist so in the spirit of imitatio dei a believer is compelled to unconsciously emulate the sadism of the supreme being to the best of his or her abilities.
Images licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Ben, I would have agreed with your thoughts about God unt perhaps 11 or 12 years ago. Not tryining to justify or sell anything but to give a different perspective. As you may know by now, I am in love with history, and I read and study what I can and I even had and have the opportunity to try and see and visit sites as well.
When you said “why most religious groups have displayed exceptional cruelty in each and every single manifestation of the belief” I thought of a debate a while back with two Copts and they made a point that soon after reflection found to agree with.
It is not, as the idiom goes “religion is the cause of all evils” in mankind but rather it is what “man does in the name of religion. ……… “. The argument for my part is that religions guide mankind in the right direction, point out the important things, the objectives for what and why we live.
The endless battle is for man to improve himself and be as “close to God” as He wishes/demands us to be. We fail and each times we do, it is God that is blamed, the followers of the faith. More than that, mankind does so miserably, he will use God as an excuse because man’s faith is one of those core key factors that man finds important and gets people’s interests up, emotions heated and pockets empty.
Donny, I think there is something indeed called “the mob switch”. Every time a group dynamic takes over, the worst part of human nature seep in. And since every religion wants to be as large group as possible this inevitability makes things worse. But I don’t want this to distract from the theological and physiological meaning of my statement. I am talking about God more than I do about people. This is the difference between our statements.