Theists- Would you commit an evil act if God ordered you to?

Assume you have proof to your satisfaction that it IS God, Supreme Being of the Universe, Father-Son-Holy Spirit, Whatever.....and NOT "the Devil" or your own fevered imagination....


and He orders you to torture a man?

or rape a woman?

or kill a child?

Something that violates your own personal ethics and morality? Do you do it?

Even with perhaps in the hope of a "sparing of Isaac" moment, where just before you actually do it....you hope God will "call it off"? But no assurance that will happen?

 

As I understand it, an act ordered by God is not evil. If it were evil, it would not be ordered.

 

Not a single response from our theist friends

Evidently this is one of those questions Pastor Cheesecake never prepared them for.

As Vicariously mentioned in another thread ... they just don't consider the implications.

 

If God demanded that I do something that goes my moral code I would immediately reject God. As a Deist I believe in God, but we Deists reject dogma and believe that God gave us a brain to use and He expects us to use it. Honestly if I heard the voice of God in my head I would run to the nearest psychiatric unit fearing for my sanity.

 

I cannot imagine what proof there could possibly be that any voice I heard or image I saw was indeed God. Having seen "Real Genius" as a child pretty much convinced me of the foolishness of attributing any "commands" to God.

 

God has a lot of evil angels who eagerly do his evil bidding. And people will willingly sell their "souls" for fame and personal fortune, just like Abraham did.

 

MittRyan took this question and answered it on his Part 23 Tough Questions thread. ("answered" it, I should say, by saying "The question is invalid" )

Interestingly, he will come here and grab questions I ask and "answer" them......but he REFUSES to answer the question I asked him ON his thread....i.e. "Was Barabbas a rapist?".....because he knows it will either make him look foolish or contradict his "buddy" WR.


As for the rest, it's a paradox. We know that God in the Bible ordered all sorts of atrocities (we note 1 Samuel 15:3 often) and so naturally they can't say "God would never do that"......so what can the Believer say?

A. "No, I'd never kill a child even if God ordered it"....and thus say their personal morality would supercede God's???


or B. "Yes, if God told me to kill a child....I'd do it...because I know He would only ask that if it was for a greater good".....and thus show that they'd commit horrific obviously immoral acts at the behest of a Deity that they refuse to even question.

 

I have always wondered how the church could burn Joan of Arc... she heard voices just like the patriarchs,

 

That falls in the category of deceiver. Wolf in sheep's clothing. That thread is full of that kind of stuff. Not surprising it would get brought into the satanic world. LOL.

 

Joan wouldn't play ball with the politicians in power...to put it bluntly. And they used the Church to execute her.

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It is so strange we see people who claim "superior morality"....yet must use LIES to protect and defend it. Naturally this pops up with the "pro-lifers" as well.

 

NO, the God I believe in wouldn't ask for evil. It would have to be some other entity posing as God.

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It was wrong. The church is made up of humans who make mistakes and who commit evil

 

So you don't believe in the God of 1 Samuel 15:3 ?

 

I don't believe that story is literally true--it was written to get the attention of wild, semi-nomadic wanderers thousands of years ago. The point of the story is that obedience to God is more important than offering burn sacrifices to Him.

 

What ELSE in the Bible isn't literally true? Anything in the New Testament or just the Old?

 

IMHO, most of the Old Testament isn't literally true. Most of the NT is.

 

Doesn't matter.

Using the argument in your previous post, either those commands were from God, or they were not.

1 or 0. Yes or no. Black or white. No apologetics.

The question is simple, and you were given one of many instances where the god of the Bible commands violence.

 

Why?

Why should we accept one as "mostly true" and the other as mere folk-tales of the Hebrew tribe? Especially when Christians often use the prophecies of the Old Testamant as predictive of Jesus's arrival among them in Judea and that he is the Messiah?

 

perdidochas puts himself in a bind if he completely discounts the Old Testament...as noted above, much of the claim to Jesus "Messiah"-status is supposedly "corroborated" by prophecies from the Old Testament.

This is a "grey area" Non-Literalist Christians have (The Literalists having their own problems).....how MUCH of the Bible do we just "dismiss"? "All of the Old, but little of the New Testament"?

Why? Both are considered canon to Christianity. Do we say God just "popped" in around 4 BC....but before that He was standing on the sidelines, being all "deist" for Abraham, Moses, Joshua, et al?

 

If there is no doubt that it is God then I have already offered my self body and soul to him. As such if you are truly a believer then how could you tell the supreme being to take a flying leap. The act that would be asked of you would have a purpose. A purpose I might add that you would have no idea of the reasons. But God has the authority to tell us to do anything and as a believer we should accept his command and do our duty no matter how repugnant.

 

so you'd unquestioningly carry out evil, based purely on the belief that it would serve some unknown purpose? let me tell you something ... every serial killer and violently insane person who ever lived believed that their actions would serve some purpose ... and they were morally one step ahead of you because they actually knew what that purpose was.

what you have described, above, is the very definition of religious extremism. those men chopping heads off on youtube? they're your brothers.

 

There is a big difference by the way this question was worded I was in the presence of the creator and destroyer of our existence. My opinions mean nothing in the face of the divine. God stood before me and gave a command to his servant. How can some one say no in the face of God who can just as easily snuff out the universe as he can look at you.

 

a bind indeed!

step away from that final, safe corner (what came before? and/or 'you can't disprove god'), and you trip over those dang shoelaces. still, I takes me hat off to Perdi for pitching in. he/she can be generally relied upon to provide concise and direct answers, and seems an honest soul.

 

The Bible says that Jesus will torture mankind, kill all humanity and life, and destroy the Earth. Do you consider those acts evil?

 

Because they were written by humans, who are very imperfect.

 

Where, specifically? My guess is that you're taking that out of context somewhat.