I of course don't believe that there's such a thing as a god, but I used to think that it wouldn't be so bad if there were a god. In other words, I used to wish that god were real. In retrospect, I think that all I really wanted was an eternal life in heaven, which is a nice idea. But there's no need to confuse the idea of an eternal paradise with the idea of a mentally insane god. When one looks at things honestly, the idea of a god like the one in the bible really isn't such a nice idea at all.
Let's pretend for a moment that the bible is true and that god actually exists. Would you believe in him? Would you become someone who believes in god? I think I would, I mean, provided I were able to be led to that conclusion based on evidence. And at one time I probably would have gladly worshiped a god like that too. After all, who wants to spend eternity in hell?
I've changed though. Nowadays, if a god were to reveal himself to me, I think I would become the single member of a new, bizarre church., the church of people who believe that god exists but refuse to call him good. This opinion of mine has less to do with the way the christian god acts in the old testament, despicable as it is, and more to do with his behavior in the new testament, which, upon closer inspection, is actually much worse. And it is my goal to convince everyone who's reading this, that if god we're real, it would be morally irresponsible to worship him, and that the only moral thing to do would be to hate him, even if it meant spending eternity in hell.
Imagine for a moment, a society in which the government has gone mad with power. They now care not only that you refrain from acts like murder and theft, but from acts such as lying as well, and even completely harmless acts such as looking at others lustfully., along with thousands of other nit-picky and intrusive DOs and DON'Ts. The laws are so strict and unreasonable in this society in fact, that the government just assumes that it's impossible for anyone not to break them. Newborn babies are automatically labeled as criminals, and it is decreed IMPOSSIBLE for anyone ever to be a good citizen. And the methods of punishment used by this country are far worse than the death penalty. Through technology, they have devised a way to keep people alive eternally and have invented torture devices more heinous than anything imaginable. And according to this government's understanding of morals, this is the fate that each of their citizens deserves.
It becomes obvious to the government though that having nothing but criminals for citizens is not a very good way to run a country, so they enact a plan. One of the men who runs the country has himself publicly executed (and then promptly brought back to life via their advanced technology). The government then declares a new law stating that if you opt to love this man, that not only can you avert your impending eternity of torture, but can actually go live in a paradise instead. The only thing is, you can't just love the human sacrifice a little. You must love him as much as is possible for a person to love someone else. You must love him more than yourself, your parents, your spouse, and even your children. Indeed, not killing your children at his mere request is a grave insult. -- And all this is justified by the idea that what this man has done is noble, because he gave his own life to save the citizens from punishment (which is close to meaningless, since he was just brought back to life again later anyway), even though he was the one who came up with the absurd and unreasonable laws in the first place.
To keep disobedience to a minimum, the government requests that their citizens continue to refrain from committing criminal acts as much as possible, but make no secret that if you lie or kill someone, it will not go against your eternal bliss plan, provided you maintain an unconditional love for the human sacrifice. If however you do not offer your love to the human sacrifice, then the government has no choice but to allow you to be tortured for eternity, regardless of which specific laws you have or have not broken.
I can't imagine that a single person reading this would approve of such behavior from a government, and yet this is no worse than what christianity teaches. According to christianity, every man, woman, and child deserves to spend an eternity in hell simply because they are unable not to sin. Then, to add insult to injury, one's "debt" can be forgiven, regardless of which sins they've committed, but only if they accept jesus as their savior. In other words, christians are forgiven, but jews, muslims, hindus, and atheists must burn in hell. A businessman who refused to provide service to someone based on their beliefs would be viewed as a bigot. So why then shouldn't we think the same thing about a god who only provides salvation based on what people's beliefs are?
The truth is, there is no such thing as a god, but if there were, he would be a bigot. And much in the same way that it would be immoral to respect the demands of a government like the one I described earlier, I think it should also be considered immoral for people who believe in a bigoted god to worship and love him. It's delusional for anyone to believe that such a god exists, but for anyone who does, I would at least hope that they hate him for what an awful being he is. But where are these people? A third of the world's population believes in the god of the bible, and presumably most of these people have the idea that their god allows some of his children to suffer eternally while others go off to live in paradise, based on nothing other than what religion they subscribe to. But I know of not a single church that condemns god for judging people based on their beliefs. That saddens me. What that says is that these people, a solid third of the earth's population, are not only dangerous in that they believe in fairy tales, but that they're also dangerous in that they see nothing wrong with religious discrimination ultimately resulting in eternal torture. This cannot stand. There is no excuse for not being disgusted by behavior like this, and there's nothing moral about religious discrimination, regardless of whether it's being practiced by a man or by a god. Anyone who is unable to see that is morally unbalanced.
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