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From: jho@ihu1m.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen)
Newsgroups: net.origins,net.religion,net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Coming to know God (or is God evil?)
Message-ID: <651@ihu1m.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 21:42:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihu1m.651
Posted: Thu Aug 29 21:42:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 08:07:15 EDT
References: <8508172148.AA02946@sdcc6.ARPA> <308@pyuxn.UUCP> <2195@sdcc6.UUCP> <316@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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Xref: watmath net.origins:2261 net.religion:7508 net.religion.christian:1183

In recent postings, Paul Zimmerman charged that the god of the bible is an
evil god.   I agree that if such a deity exits and the stories of the
bible are to be taken at their face value then that god can be viewed
as an evil god.  Tim Maroney in his famous article titled, "Even If
I Did Believe", clearly demonstrated this darker side of the biblical
god.   While Paul eloquently describes his point of view, it is
clear that he is guilty of the same presumption as the religionists'
side.  Namely, he presupposes that god exists without providing us
with a shred of evidence that there is a god.  The observation that
there is destruction and evil in our world is not a proof for the
existence of an evil god.

I think that it is impossible to prove that Jehovah, Zeus, Odin
or Ubizmo do not exist.  Yet, evidence  is lacking to support
the notion that any  of the above deities or other creatures of the 
imagination exist.  It seems more likely that men created gods
then gods created men.  The question is why men would create an
evil god?   I will offer the following conjecture:  Men created
an evil god because they were evil men.  By inventing a god,
these men could scare and dominate others.  They could also
justify their evil deeds, since they would claim that their
actions are supported by their god.  Finally, as time elapsed, 
the god creation event had been forgotten.
-- 
Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Naperville, Illinois,  Mail: ihnp4!ihu1m!jho