Is God a Sadistic Monster?

I posted the following on an atheist vs. Christian debate website. I have not become an atheist, just a disillusioned, disenchanted, disheartened former Christian who is convinced that God falls into one of three categories: one, he's an apathetic, ambivalent, indifferent absentee landlord, two, a sadist, or three, suffers with multiple-personality disorder. I CHALLENGE YOU TO PROVE TO ME THAT MY ANALOGY IS FLAWED.


The post was titled "Is God a Sadistic Monster?" A judge brings a frightened 18 year old girl before his court. The girl has committed no "crimes" per se, but has committed many of the same "sins" that an average young woman of her age might have committed in the course of her short life, i.e. white lies, masturbation, "mouthing off" to parents and authority figures, cheating in school, and a host of other petty misdeeds. The judge tells the girl that she will be allowed no legal representation. No one will be permitted to speak on her behalf but she herself. The judge tells this girl that although her "crimes" are minor, she will be taken out, doused in gasoline, set ablaze, and then thrown into a vat of sulfuric acid while she is still burning.. Then he, the judge, will stand over this vat and listen to her beg and scream for mercy until she finally expires in excruciating inconceivable agony.NOW, this is going to require an inordinate amount of objectivity on the part of any fundamentalist or evangelical reading this, which, having been one, I know is probably beyond your capacity. However, in all honesty, what would society call this judge? Righteous? Pure? Merciful? PLEASE!! Don't delude yourself! It is a safe bet that society would probably call him a sadistic beast not worthy to live on the same planet with decent human beings!Now, this same girl appears before "The Sinner's Judgment" withthe Honorable Judge Jesus Christ presiding! He also tells her that she will not be allowed legal representation. For no other reason than because she failed to "mouth out" the "sinners prayer", this merciless brute of a God (I use God and Jesus interchangeably because Christians consider them the same) will throw this terrified young, barely beyond adolescence (but beyond the scripturally ambiguous "age of accountability"), girl into the "Lake of Fire", a fate approximately one million times more agonizing than what the Earthly judge subjected her to.Now, what makes God, Jesus, whomever, any different than this Earthly judge? How is God different morally? Ultimately, there is no difference, and I have, in fact, "called the Emperor naked". For Godto throw ANY person into eternal fire where they will never die and never know respite, and scream and wail while God and Jesus treat it as "music to their ears" is such a morally unconscionable act it beggars description!! The fact is, God is a two-faced hypocrite who employs a "double standard". He claims not to tolerate cruelty and inhumanity, and he will become the most inhumane, vicious, merciless, animalistic brutal sadistic monster ever in history when, on Judgment Day, he throws the billions of "lost souls" into this eternal barbecue pit. Now, I would like to confront the most common(and inherently inane and ludicrous) arguments that Christians use to get God "off the hook" to keep him from appearing as I have described.
ARGUMENT 1)"God doesn't send anyone to Hell, they put themseles there!": Okay, so you're saying that if a person who dies "in their sins" stands before God and takes a good hard look at Hell, that he has the option to "decline"? Please! Get real! The Bible clearly states that the lost will be "cast"(the operative word here is "cast", not briskly walked, not gingerly ran, not eagerly waltzed) into the Lake of Fire! Now, lest you accuse me of being obtuse, I do understand what you're endeavoring to say, that being, that if a person "rejects Christ as their Lord and savior, doesn't repent of their sins, yadda, yadda, yadda," they have, by default, chosen of their own free will to go to Hell. The flaw in this "defense" is that it is a twist on the warnings that Draconian tyrants, emperors, and dictators have given their subjects since time immemorial. That as long as you play the game by their rules, they won't subject you to unspeakable torture! However, it doesn't make Hell one degree cooler whether or not God decides or the "sinners" decide where they spend eternity. It is still a morally unconscionable Draconian punishment. It's analogous to saying that if a father decides to allow his child to voluntarily dive into a shark-infested pool as a self-inflicted punishment for "wrong-doing", that gets dear old Dad "off the hook".
ARGUMENT 2) "The Lake of Fire was designed and prepared for the Devil and his angels, not people." Okay, but regardless, God intends to throw the lost into it. It may not "originally" have been meant for people, but God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has decided to take "the more, the merrier" approach, and use it as the primary method of eternal punishment for sinners. He has therefore, by default, designed it for both Devils and people.

31 comments:

Hellbound Alleee said...

very good. The questioin I ask to those who say "God doesn't want people to go to hell" is, why do nonbelievers have to suffer in hell? Why is it moral? How is it moral? Just explain to me why God, whether he wants people to go to hell or not, made the rule that says "if you don't believe, you burn?" Free Will is not an answer. Taking away such a penality actually makes the choice free.

For me, it's not so much a judgement of "Crimes," for many christians don't believe God judges people for crimes if one has taken Christ into his heart to suffer for them. No, they are judged only on whether they believe. It doesn't matter what you do. If you've repented and asked Jesus..blah blah, you can be a serial killer.

lycaphim said...

Too bad for all of us, I guess. Since God is a sadistic monster (I suppose we'll be wishing now that he didn't exist) let's be prepared to face torment forever and ever.

Even we Christians can't be sure. What if God (who is an almightily sadistic God), when we go to heaven, says to us "Sorry, I changed my mind. Even though you are a Christian, you're going to hell."

I shudder at the possibility.

AAAAAAAH!!!!!

Anonymous said...

"ARGUMENT 1)"God doesn't send anyone to Hell, they put themseles there!": Okay, so you're saying that if a person who dies "in their sins" stands before God and takes a good hard look at Hell, that he has the option to "decline"? Please! Get real!"
Where your flawed here is that the arguement is that people put themselves there through actions here on earth that are not repented of. No one I know of says you have an option of declining going to hell at the moment of judgement. Judgement day is the day of reckoning for our actions or works wether they be good or bad. Those are things WE do here in this life. God would love for every one to return to him but realizes that some won't choose to follow Christ.
The universal laws of Justice require a "payment" be made for our sins. Christ made that payment when he suffered in the garden of gethsemene(however you spell that, I didn't look it up) if we repent of our sins then they are removed from us through Christ. If we don't repent of our sins then we ourselves must pay that price. The mercy is allowing that sin to be paid for by someone else so we don't have to go through the suffering. So if a non-believer lives a moral good "Boyscout" life there is no reason to believe that they would go to hell just for not beliving. It has to do with how we live. I understand why you feel the way you do. No one would choose that kind of eternity. You are talking about universal laws that even the all powerful one has to obey, Justice. We live by rules and codes of behavior in every aspoect of our life, work, play, neighbor, ect. Work has rules, if I decide to walk up to some woman at work and grab her ass I'm looking for a new job, cast out of work. Now of coarse the boss knew someone would do this, he made the rule, but still sends me packing. Is it his fault or mine? I didn't follow the rule, I made the mistake, I get the punishment. This isn't comparable to what you are talking about but a scenario to explain my defense that we do choose our eternity by following Christ or not. There are consequences for every action, both good and bad, the difference is instead of being sent packing we have te opportunity to repent and try again and again until we get it right. Thats mercy.
I'm begining to think that handicap sign by the word verification was meant for me, lol!

Anonymous said...

Matthew Sims, see here, and see
here (Check out the links there also).

BlogIrony said...

See, every time we take another bite off that Tree Of Knowledgeof Good and Evil, we take another stab in the dark at what is good, and what is evil. GOD knows what is good, and what is evil. People know what's in their own self-interest. Self is good, according to people. Being selfish was once a sin. Now it's a way of life.

If you see GOD as an angry tyrant, that is who GOD is to you. From your own flawed point of view. Sometimes GOD goes to war. Sometimes GOD declares peace.
Who are we to judge GOD? We are only the dreamers of the dream. We are not masters of the universe. Aristotle said that man is the measure of all things. Plato disagreed, and pointed to GOD.

It's all a matter of where you start out. You can pretend you are The King. Or you can acknowledge that you are not. It's really that simple.

And you have the power to be The King. In your own, grand illusion. Jesus is there, reminding you that your fine garments are invisible. That's the reality of it all.

siehjin said...

hallo! =)

i'm a christian, but i don't believe 2 things which seem to be implied by u, DP:
1. i don't believe that ppl are sent to heaven/hell based on whether they 'mouthed out' the sinners' prayer.
2. i don't believe that hell is literally flames.

let me expand on 1:
i believe that ppl are sent to heaven/hell based on whether the sum total of their choices in life reject or accept God.

let me expand on 2:
flames give off light, yet the bible describes hell as a place of darkness. therefore, i submit that all descriptions of hell as fiery and wormy and etc are metaphorical. hell is a place of suffering, the exact nature of which we can't be sure of.

but i think that basically hell is suffering because hell is separation from God. separation from the Source of all life, goodness, meaning, joy, etc etc. that has to suck. but if the sum total of a persons' life choices reject God, how can He force the person to spend eternity with Him? therefore to respect the person's choice, there is no alternative but an eternity without God. which Christians call hell.

what do you think? does this make more sense than the concepts of hell and salvation as you wrote them, DP?

Anonymous said...

God is an sadistic, murderous, psychotic, bloodthirsty, disgusting vile creature and he must die!

Anonymous said...

The point about worshipping and obeying the LORD is that he is all-powerful .

Absolute power begets absolute authority.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. God is a piece of shit. These so called christians need to grow enough balls to say the truth, and the truth is "god belongs in hell much more than I do". FUCK that sadistic bastard!!!!

Anonymous said...

Think of this hypothetical but possible case:

God on Judgement Day loses all his power. Is he still good and perfect and right no matter what he does and says?

Even though might (power) does not mean right, because of God's might, Christians are too afraid to admit God is not right. Is George Bush right because he has the power to do what he does? Was Hitler right to do what he did coz he had the power to do it? Was Saddam Huessein right to do what he did coz of the power he had to do it? So then why is God right to torture people forever coz of the power to do so? He is not right.

As John Dalberg-Acton once said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"

And so God with absolute power is completely corrupted as can be seen in the Bible. Serial killers and rapists can have unimaginable eternal pleasure while good people who did wrong things unkowingly or were born in the wrong religion will be tortured beyond all rational understanding forever.

by Annunaki

Anonymous said...

And If that's not corruption, then I don't know what is.

Keep in mind I am speaking against christians and their belief about God, so non-christians who believe in God dont start attacking me Im not speaking against God, just the way christians believe in God. since i dont believe God is anything like that. I believe God is good.

by Annunaki

Michael Ejercito said...

God is all-wise, all-powerful, all-sovereign, and eternal. He can never lose His power.

Anonymous said...

If God is all-powerful....why could he not control Satan? Or any of the 'fallen' angels if you will......why did he allow incest, but now says it is wrong (or at least so the church says). why did he allow adultery & polygomy but now it is wrong morally (or so the church says)? There are too many questions like this that remain unanswered.....well its because he is the biggest hipocrit ever!!!!

gregs said...

This discussion seems to have centered on whether Hell as
a place of eternal torment is compatible with an all-loving and all-merciful God. What about the similar problem with the many old Testament verses that seem to indicate that God condoned, encouraged, or ordered things that if done by a human, would be described as monstrous and sadistic, including the rape, pilaging, slavery, or even mass murder of men, women, children, babies and animals? I trust I don't have to cite specific verses. I for one don't see how these are reconcilable with an all loving God, or love in any sense. The claim that its a mystery seems very unsatisfying. I can accept myteries that involve things that are simply profound or hard to understand, but not ones that seem nonsensical and opposed to logic and common sense. An example would be the difference between grasping that E=mC squared, and being told 2 + 2 = 5. Reconciling a loving God with eternal torment or the mass murder of innocent babies and children seems more like the latter than the former. Please don't tell us that no one is innocent due to "original sin"; that just worsens the apparent injustice.

gregs said...

Seihjin wrote "i think that basically hell is suffering because hell is separation from God. separation from the Source of all life, goodness, meaning, joy, etc etc. that has to suck. but if the sum total of a persons' life choices reject God, how can He force the person to spend eternity with Him? therefore to respect the person's choice, there is no alternative but an eternity without God. which Christians call hell.
what do you think?

Sorry, but I think this is very illogical. First, even if Hell is just "separation from God" (a common modern cliche Christians use when confronted with the Hell dilemna) why would separation necessarily entail such suffering? Supposedly nonbelievers are already separated from God on earth, and don't suffer on average more than believers. Moreover, if any kind of Hell was suffering, and lasted forever, it would be more merciful for God to simply destroy the person, or to send him to a spiritual place no worse than his earthly existence, or any number of other alternatives. To suggest God has "no choice" in the matter is in utter conflict with the idea that he is all powerful. To suggest any choice he has must entail suffering for nonbelieves is in conflict with the concept of an all loving God. If I and other humans can think of non-suffering fates for nonbelievers, certainly God can.After all, he is supposed to be MORE loving than us, and more merciful. Yet most of us would not send the adolescent in question to 10 years of prison, let alone death by fire or an eternity of suffering. Anyway you slice it, the traditional idea of Hell doesn't add up. I once tried to defend such things myself, but finally got the nerve to face what I knew deep down all along, that the idea of eternal torment was not compatible with love.

paleo said...

Its funny how a shift in one's perspective can turn your thinking around 180 degrees. As a former fundy, I used to spout the same BS about God being "just" to send people to eternal torment, that Hell is something sinners choose, bla bla. Deep down I knew it didn't make sense and made God a hypocritical monster. It also made no sense to me that God asks US to forgive each other whether we repent or not, and yet unless we repent to him, we're toast. To the guy who claimed those in hell would not cry for mercy, not according to the Bible you profess is so infallible. In the parable Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus which according to many refers to hell, the rich man begs for even a drop of water, which is withheld.
Another interesting aspect of the parable is that the rich man actually cares enough about his brothers to beg for someone to go warn them. If those in hell are so selfish and incorigible as many claim, why was this man concerned for his brothers? Like so many things in the Bible, it doesn't make sense. I for one am ashamed that for so long I denied or rationalized the problems, but they kept eating at my own conscience. I finally had to face the truth. Much of the Bible, especially the OT, is simply not consistent with basic ethics or even other parts of the Bible. I did not abandon my faith because I wanted to live as a hedonist, as many Christians imply nonbelievers want to do, but quite the contrary, becausemy conscience that told me, and should tell you, that eternal torment, genocide, infanticide, rape, slavery, and pilaging--all things the Bible has God condoning or ordering, are in no way consistent with love. As far as all those calling God a "sadistic bastard"... I supposed if the God of the OT existed and did the things attributed to him, that would be an accurate term. But it seems more reasonable to conclude that the OT is not the infallible word of God, but a collection of human accounts and musing reflecting archaic and ofteh barbaric values.

ghost86 said...

I think people are mixing up God(prime creator) with other entities that are lesser gods.
The God force or God mind being the
main source of all that exists.
The simplistic views of Christians
& Jews are creating GOD in their OWN
image & by doing this confusing themselves & others through out history. Why else would there be so many variations & versions of each?
Until people really KNOW what's going on & who the players are,good
& bad,I'd strongly suggest living
in peace with each other...No matter what you believe in! Just look at the state this world is in!
If that doesn't signify mass
confusion,then what does? Just know
one thing as fact...there are many
different entities & beings that exist,some good,some bad & if you think your above be tricked or fooled... Boy are u mistaken. If it helps anyone, here's a hint! Nothing good will ever ask or want you to hurt ANYTHING or ANYONE! Period! What kind of God needs books or text to interact with us when it's already there, written in our hearts.

lightbringer said...

Judeo Christian God is obviously a vain,(worship me), arrogant(do as I say),evil(if you don't off to hell you go) bastard.
The one thing I find amusing is that anyone would think that heaven and hell are not the same thing.
It appears to me that the universe is fundamentally evil place, and what does that tell you of the nature of God?disagree? turn on the news and tell me the world is not evil.
God is the Devil,the greatest con the devil pulled off was not in making us believe he did not exist, but that he was a kindly forgiving God that gave a shit.
I believe that if there is an afterlife,everybody is going to hell, no exceptions,no matter how good or evil you were,no good,no justice, no elysian fields for the faithful, just more of the same old pain and suffering for eternity,all because God/Devil is a cruel and heartless bastard that cares about you, the same way you care about a microbe.

Unknown said...

I was going to write a comment on your post, but it shortly became too long. As it were, I ended up posting it on my own blog, here

goprairie said...

birdgod guy: Ah, but if you go off into your corner, you can hardly be part of the discussion, now can you?
From your secret corner, you say:
"Those who would paint God as sadistic monster need realize their precarious position. The only impediment to a sinner being immediately cast into hell is God’s mercy."
But if there is no god nor any hell, there is no precarious position. Are you saying we should beleive ridiculous things out of fear? Sure, that holds water.
You can't have the God you claim. The descriptors don't fit. If he is all powerful and kind and loving, he ought to be DOING SOMETHING to fix some things. If he is loving, yet not powerful enough to fix things, he is not powerful enough to for sure damn or save me in the end, so why bother with him now? If he is powerful, then he is not kind or he WOULD be fixing things, so if he is powerful he is mean or uncaring, in which case, again, i need not waste time on him as he can't be trusted. I say there is no god, but if there is, I don't care anymore as he is either not kind, not fair, not interested, or not powerful. therefore, irrelevant to me.

Unknown said...

"But if there is no god nor any hell, there is no precarious position. Are you saying we should beleive ridiculous things out of fear? Sure, that holds water."

No, it doesn't hold water, which is why I'm surprised you should mention that. Obviously my post was written given the assumption that there is a god, and that there is a hell. Obviously. And no, I'm certainly not saying that we should believe in ridiculous things out of fear. If there is no God there is obviously no precarious position.

"You can't have the God you claim. The descriptors don't fit. If he is all powerful and kind and loving, he ought to be DOING SOMETHING to fix some things. If he is loving, yet not powerful enough to fix things, he is not powerful enough to for sure damn or save me in the end, so why bother with him now? If he is powerful, then he is not kind or he WOULD be fixing things, so if he is powerful he is mean or uncaring, in which case, again, i need not waste time on him as he can't be trusted."

God will indeed do something about our position, didn't you read my post??? Furthermore, I see no reason why God should fix things as you suggest. Didn't we chose this mess for ourselves? And last I checked we're choosing the same every day. What you're advocating is that God take away our free will, which really doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to me. Can't you see that if God fixed everything on this earth we'd just continue to mess it up? "That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9) We've dug ourselves into a hole through sin, and there's only one thing (aside from taking away free will) God could possibly do about it...actually something he's already done. I think you know what that is.

goprairie said...

Or: "free will"
There are tons of things that cause suffering that are NOT due to our choice, natural disasters that we call 'act of God' by the way and mean things done by a single person - God could intervene if he gave a rat's patootie in those things and not harm our general free will - you are trying to combine your notion that we are horrible sinners that need God to save us in the end with him leaving us alone to perserve free will, which are not related - but you have your mind made up and will continue to contort the logic to save your faith so anything I say is pointless.

Unknown said...

God could certainly intervene if he so desired, yet He choses not to. That says nothing as to whether God exists, does not exist, or doesn't care. Paul says in Romans 9:12 "Does not the potter have power over the clay...?"

God, of course, sees beyond death and is not confined to a temporal perspective so there is no reason He should subject His judgment to our opinion. Everyone will die nevertheless, when has always been up to God.

rodobrien1 said...

i used to be a believer until i was influenced by people of faith.i have 2 question for all you believers. does god own the universe or are all his or her possessions held in common? [acts 2:44] and are god's parents on the old age pension yet? so you think these questions are silly,just ask a believer how to rectify global warming if you want to hear something silly.

WildmanJoe said...

I wouldn't call Him sadistic... more like an extremely bizarre, warped, and crazed kind of 'love'. I feel, HE only helps those HE wants to help.

goprairie said...

yes, the reason there is absolutely no evidence on earth for the existence of god is because god chooses to remain hidden from us. how conveeeeenient. that there is no evidence whatsoeveratall does not mean there is no god, it just means god is hiding. for his own reasons. uh huh. maybe he is playing poker with the easter bunny, santa, and zues and is too busy to intervene to save us from natural disasters . . . yeah, that's it. oh, am i mocking now? sorry. oh, was i lying there? yep. but god is busy raising the easter bunny's bet so he won't strike me with lightning for it.

promoyourco said...

I do believe there is a god ( no capitalization for a reason ). I believe that if you indeed believe in his son etc that you will be continually tortured and screwed with as a "test"...if as the "father" of man god does this then I have no use for him...if I were to do this type of thing to any of my children I would be rightfully labeled as a monster and they would be taken away from me...but "god" does it and it makes it ok...because he only wants the best souls around him and not ones that might crack under pressure or some silly ass notion like that. the idea that if god allowed his child to jump into a shark tank that since they chose to do so lets him off the hook??? BS!!! as a father it is my JOB and my DUTY to protect my kids when they are doing something that could cause them harm...if I stood before a judge on this earth and tried to get "off the hook" by saying well I saw them getting ready to jump into a tank filled with man eating sharks...and I said no you shouldn't do that...but didn't do anything to STOP them the judge would lock me up and rightfully so! and then go way back in time to the Roman days....because of their beliefs God either made happen or allowed to happen his faithful believers to be eaten alive...thats right EATEN ALIVE by friggin lions and bears for others entertainment. Not once is it recorded where god stepped in and stopped it...not once. oh you hear about how god killed masses of people that pissed him off for on reason or another....an entire army of Egyptians...Muslims...etc. not to mention a few million of his " chosen people during WW2... Yes god exists, he has a son...and if your really lucky they will leave you the hell alone.

Unknown said...

Sorry pal, There Is No God. None.

When you die you become exactly what you were before you were born. Nothing.

However, if I'm wrong and I meet my maker, I'll give him a good punch in the mouth. What a piece of shit.

Mike Hunt said...

I think you forgot the most important ting about God. He's a liar.

Pray god out of existence!

Fat Bastardo said...

God is an egoistic sadist. The Bible proves that.

Anonymous said...

I love how the Christians argue until they are put in their place and have no more programmed answers, and then they simply retreat. Arguing with believers is like arguing with someone who believes magic is real, "No! The magician made a ball appear in his hand, it wasn't there a second ago, so it has to be magic I saw it withy own eyes! Yet somehow I'm more inclined to believe in magic than god because you can actually witness the magician making something appear to vanish or appear out of thin air, that's more proof than a collection of short stories that were probably originally written as a great fiction book. (bible/book of mormon also) Before someone else killed the author and marketed the book as his own taken directly from the word of god to control billions of people for personal gain.