ARE WE RULED BY AN EVIL GOD??? (PART THREE)

The Aftermath: Alternative Gods




Does the finding above prove once and for all that God does not exist? Of course not. The existence of evil proves only that a God with Type-3 Omnibenevolence does not exist. This is not to say that a 3-Omnibenevolent God cannot exist in the future, or that a God that is less than 3-Omnibenevolent now cannot evolve into Type-3 Omnibenevolence, removing evil from the universe upon transformation.

If one continues to believe in the existence of God, one can still choose between four versions of God. Each version is less than 3-Omnibenevolent, each differs in intention and behavior toward subordinate creatures, and each continues to possess omnipotence that could immediately remove evil from the universe at a whim. But in the absence of Type-3 Omnibenevolence, one is forced to logically conclude that any God that is not 3-Omnibenevolent is necessarily an evil God.

Marcion, the 2nd century sect leader, is presented by Tertullian in his Adversus Marcionem as presenting this puzzle: "Why does God, who is all powerful and has foreknowledge of the future, allow evil?" Marcion's answer is that god is in part evil himself.



(Wikipedia: The Problem of Evil, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil)


If any God that is not 3-Omnibenevolent God is necessarily evil, then one can categorize the remaining Gods according to the level and extent of their evil. It is assumed that out of the four evil Gods below, there is one whose evil is virtually nonexistent compared to that of the other three.

Given this, if the Judeo-Christian God is an evil God (inferred from the lack of 3-Omnibenevolence), then God is either:

1. A Blindly-Omnibenevolent God (Type-1 Omnibenevolence)

[Note: I am reluctant to call a God with Type-1 Omnibenevolence an "evil" God. This seems a bit harsh, considering that it is not the God's fault that he/she/it is catatonic or psychotic. For the purpose of this article, however, we will "play hardball" and state that a Type-1 Omnibenevolent God is harmful ("evil") due to his/her/its inability to prevent or remove evil because of its mental illness or distance]

2. A Knowing-But-Tolerant (Of Evil) Omnibenevolent God (Type-2 Omnibenevolence)

3. An Omni-Malevolent God (A malevolent God that, given the existence of goodness in the world, pretends to be or likes to think of itself as good but is ultimately malicious toward its creations)

4. A Quasi-2-Omnibenevolent/Quasi-Malevolent/Partially-3-Omnibenevolent God

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Evil Gods having Type-1 and Type-2 Omnibenevolence are described above. The two remaining Gods that may, for all we know, control human destiny are described below.


BEWARE THE OMNI-MALEVOLENT GOD!

An Omni-Malevolent God is maliciously harmful, all the time, to everyone. The malice is either savored (in which God "sets-up" his victims, allowing positive experiences that are suddenly undercut by frustration, heartbreak, and trauma) or orgasmic (relentlessly expressed without relief).





Figure 1. The fictional Earth of George Romero’s: Dawn of the Dead (1978) is a token of the type of world we would expect from an Omni-Malevolent God (expressing orgasmic malice).

The existence of goodness in the world, if this type of God is running the show, is the product of a malevolent deus deceptor or "deceiving God" who invents "goodness" in order to deceive victims into belief in just and fair world that punishes evil and rewards morality.

The deus deceptor, however, viciously tears the blindfold from the eyes of the deceived in the afterlife, imposing upon it’s victims a fate far worse than the trials of the previous life. If the world is controlled by an Omni-Malevolent God, those who profit from this God's existence are those who do not exist in the first place.





(Sinner: Scream For Your God! (Jack Chick parody), http://www.weirdcrap.com/chick/archive.html)
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And Now---The Final Contestant

Last (but by no means least), there is the final evil God that may exist in the absence of a God with Type-3 Omnibenevolence:




"It is, after all, the best of all possible worlds....."

-Bart Dawes, suicidal protagonist of Richard Bachman (Stephen King)'s short story: Roadwork

The Best Of All Evil Gods

A Quasi-2-Omnibenevolent/Quasi-Malevolent/Partially-3-Omnibenevolent God omits most of the subjective content in external replication of his foreknowledge of evil. The God creates an external replica of the evil in his pre-universe calculation of possible worlds, but ingeniously omits the conscious experience of victims of violent death, thus cheating evil beings of the rationale behind their sense of power over helpless victims.

The best of all evil Gods mitigates the emotional and physical pain of non-sociopathic humans (while refusing to do the same for sociopaths), and abducts the consciousness of non-sociopaths destined to suffer extreme physical pain and violent, painful death. The God substitutes philosopher's zombies or "bots" for the (previously) conscious victims; the zombies fool their evil tormentors into belief that they are having traumatic experiences.

This view, called the Heroic Override, holds that God "heroically overrides" the suffering of non-sociopathic humans destined for the worse of fates by creating a partial zombie world, populated by conscious human beings and human bodies with functioning brains that lack conscious experience. The zombies appear and behave in such a manner that they fool their conscious siblings into strong belief that they (the zombies) are conscious.

It is conceivable that there be a system that is physically identical to a conscious being, but that lacks at least some of that being’s conscious states. Such a system might be a zombie: a system that is physically identical to a conscious being but that lacks consciousness entirely. It might also be an invert, with some of the original being’s experiences replaced by different experiences, or a partial zombie, with some experiences absent, or a combination thereof.

These systems will look identical to a normal conscious being from the third-person perspective: in particular, their brain processes will be molecule-for-molecule identical with the original, and their behavior will be indistinguishable. But things will be different from what it is like to be the original being. And there is nothing it is like to be a zombie.

There is little reason to believe that zombies exist in the actual world. But many hold that they are at least conceivable: we can coherently imagine zombies, and there is no contradiction in the idea that reveals itself even on reflection. As an extension of the idea, many hold that the same goes for a zombie world: a universe physically identical to ours, but in which there is no consciousness.

(Chalmers, David J.: Consciousness And It’s Place In Nature, http://consc.net/consc-papers.html)


The Heroic Override, if true, justifies the Bible's praise of God’s goodness toward the non-sociopathic (God's wrath or aggressive hostility toward the sociopath is, according to the bible, a form of "goodness" for the sake of "karma" or vengeful justice). There are numerous biblical verses praising the goodness and trustworthiness of God in his concern for the "poor and needy". These verses are objectively verified if the Heroic Override is true.

However, an ethical problem exists: can a believer in HO approach the rape victim, or the parents of a murdered child, and state that the rape victim and the child were only zombies or "bots"? Not only would the explanation raise serious doubts about one's sanity, but it belittles the emotional reality of the pain of the bereaved and the living victim itself. Given this, a belief in the Heroic Override is best kept to oneself in traumatic situations.

A believer in HO can defend the Heroic Override by the observation that it cannot be ruled out, given the nature of consciousness. Despite the impassioned pleas and rebukes of a battery, rape, or burn victim, a zombie can, in principle, produce the same complaints.
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The Evil Of The Best Of All Evil Gods

The evil of the Quasi-2-Omnibenevolent/Quasi-Malevolent/Partially-3-Omnibenevolent God (henceforth shortened to the: Q2MP3O God when necessary) lies in the deliberate intention of the God to re-enact the evil in the God's prevision of possible worlds, when he could have ignored the contents of foreknowledge to create an all-good world. Why go through the zombie deception of the Heroic Override when one could create a world entirely absent of physical and emotional pain?

EXPLAINING THE EVIL OF THE BEST OF ALL EVIL GODS

At the end of the day, the conclusion is inescapable: the Q2MP3O God is evil. Fortunately, this God is evil only to the extent that he chose not to forego replication of the negative aspect of his omniscience, given the freedom to create a painless world from the start.

Remember, Jesus said:

“With God, all things are possible…..” (Matthew 19:26)

Thus an all-good world is not beyond the power of God.

To avoid confusion, let's be clear about the evil of the Q2MP3O God. The Q2MP30 God causes his subjects to experience harm, but the harm does not arise from malice. When one refers to this type of God as "evil", one is simply stating (in a theatrical or "poetic" way) that God is harmful. The same thing can be said of a God who, while taking no action to deliberately create evil, nevertheless allows it to exist. Such passive non-interference is harmful ("evil") in that it does nothing to prevent or remove the existence of negative experience.

However, if the Heroic Override is true and the Q2MP3O God is aiming toward a universal psycho-moral evolution (accompanied by the eternal removal of natural and deliberate evil), then the Q2MP3O God is not "into" human suffering.

The best of all evil Gods is in the business of turning junk cars or ‘lemons’ into rulers of the road. The God is a master "car makeover" artist---choosing an evil world to chisel into a good one. Despite the collateral damage, he sets upon a gutted hulk of scrap metal (rather than a new car fresh off the lot) in the creation of a beautiful, fully-loaded jalopy ready to win the next show.



END CHAPTER THREE