"God--the Perverse One, not the Benevolent One--had only waited until Hauser imagined that he had something to live for before he pulled the rug out from under him." Nelson DeMille in By the Rivers of Babylon
This passage stood out for me so strongly that I had to copy it into OneNote...I've long thought that, if there is a God (which I no longer believe there is), he is not by any stretch of the imagination a benevolent one.
Good catch! What's the point of being an all powerful deity, if you can't mess around with the mortals you created. Imagine a god who just left us alone. Wasn't jealous of other gods and loved us without having to prove it to us? No, that one doesn't exist either.
Ov course he's not read the bible one minute he loves you only wants what's best for you the next thing you know your as easy to dismiss as the tide and it's all justified because he is god no questions I believe in give and take fair trade for equal goods not hoarding power over lesser beings
Indeed! However, benevolence (or as it is sometimes called, ‘beneficence&rsquo was not historically required of a god—even the so-called ‘one true God.’ It only mattered that He was omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient—not ‘omnibenevolent.’ As a matter of fact, according to the Christian system, God’s goodness and mercy are not subjects we are allowed to judge: “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9: 20-21 (NIV)
In other words, we are, according to this system of belief, pieces in a grand chess game—some of us pawns, others more powerful pieces. But each of us designed by the potter to be what we were meant to be.
you make some good points but we are not clay. we are self aware fashioned in his image not him separate. even a potter knows some pieces will have to be discarded not all are perfect chess as an analogy might give some insight as to possible moves how ever the human factor is always present .we are more the experiment for a grater plan to see if we will be able to join the club. i hope to think that we are grater than intended that we may be come the gods .however whatever force guides the universe has already struck us down once for are pride. but maybe it was we were not ready yet.then god aliens or the devil the future is unwritten in my book but if you look at your self as an image of the creator. i don't think you can judge him by you without being bias in nature. all have sined and come short of glory of what it might be to be a god peace