Is god bad?

[pinto]

[elleng]

1. 'god,' being nature, is 'neutral.'

What happens, happens.

[hrmjustin]

2. God is Good.

[Brettongarcia]

6. Just one letter short?

[hrmjustin]

10. pardon?

[Brettongarcia]

11. The word "God" is like the word "Good"; but is one letter shorter

Some interesting speculations come out of this.

[hrmjustin]

12. Likely.

[lapfog_1]

3. to paraphrase a title of a sci-fi book... The Earth is a Harsh Mistress

adapt, evolve... or die.

So "god" is cruel... to individuals.

[longship]

4. Since god is not real, it cannot be bad or good.

However, maybe the idea of a masculine father god is bad.

[Promethean]

5. If...

If god is not able to prevent evil then it is not omnipotent. Why worship it?
If god is able to prevent evil but is not willing to then it is malevolent. Why worship it?
Yes, yes, I know incomplete quote.

All this assumes of course that the extraordinary claims of the adherents of the various religions are correct. Since no credible evidence has been presented for these extraordinary claims we must examine the effects of the idea of god on society. In that vein there is a very clear negative.

Religion openly discourages and more often than not outright seeks to destroy critical thought and inquiry. This malefic effect is well recorded throughout history and is blatantly present today. It isn't very hard to experience this personally. Just ask questions in a religious environment. You might be tolerated for a little while, especially if you ask easy questions that they have easy preplanned answers to. However that never lasts long especially if you try to get them to back up their answers.

On top of that every advancement in human knowledge that has contradicted dogma has met with the same response. Suppress and destroy. In years past it was the knowledge that the earth orbits the sun that was attacked. Today it is the basic foundation of our biological knowledge.

From the perspective of someone who views the advancement of human knowledge as an unequivocally positive effect I cannot come to any conclusion other than god is bad.

[cleanhippie]

7. Which one?

[Warren Stupidity]

13. I personally admire the greek pantheon.

They could be good, bad, indifferent, petulant, psychotic, awesome, heroic, stupid, basically just like us only magnified. Never a dull moment with those gods. Plus they were very involved in our lives. No guessing about "does god exist" or any of that post enlightenment bullshit.

[pinto]

14. "Just like us only magnified". Like that. I was fascinated with them at one time.

Would love to see a secular, history based overview of worldwide religions and religious traditions as part of a liberal education.

[trotsky]

8. Cthulhu is definitely bad.

You meant that one, right?

[edhopper]

9. I don't know if he is bad

but he is really, really hung up about sex.
It's weird that this behavior he created for the continuation of a species would be the basis for sin in his eyes.
He probably could use a shrink IMO.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. To be good or bad, he/she/it would first have to exist.