In January 2002 I came
across Citizens for the Ten Commandments on the Internet. I found it as I did a search for God Hates
Sinners.
The site is a rant
against Atheists by Christians.
It says that Atheists should not reject God because of the problem of suffering because they are not over God and cannot judge him. But if there is no answer to the problem of suffering that makes ethical sense, they can. If somebody told you not to question the king's tyranny you would consider that person to be evil and trying to prevent you seeing the evil. So, the Citizens are saying there is no such thing as morality. There is something just called morality which isn’t really and is just what God wants, it is just following his autocratic demands. Since man tells us what God wants it follows that it is really man that is trusted. How can we know that God is good or that the image we are given of him by religion is good if we cannot judge God? It is certain that if you say that God allowing evil is a mystery you are saying that the site is right. We can be thankful for the site for putting it so bluntly.
The site replies to the
objection that we cannot know if God is good unless we judge him as follows.
It says that we know that
God is good and the image we have of God is good because he is true to himself
and that makes him good. But that is
circular reasoning: “God is good because he is what he wants to be and what he
wants to be is good.” There is more to
it than that. Being true to oneself doesn’t
mean one is good. If God is good by
nature, then how come he isn’t bad? It
is easier to be bad than good or imperfect than perfect.
There is no practical
difference between obeying a man you believe you have no right to judge than in
obeying a man who gives orders allegedly from a God you cannot judge. One is as degrading and as bad as the other.
What they are really
saying is that God is right to do what he does because he is powerful and can
do what he wants. They are saying might
is right. So power not love gives God
the rights he has got. That is really
sick and twisted and anti-love. But what
else can a Christian say? What else can
any believer in God say?
To be supreme, God has to
be good for evil is a weakness.
Believers say that God is goodness.
He does not have goodness but he is it.
His authority comes from himself for he is the supreme good. If good were independent of God his authority
would not come from God for he would get his authority from seeing what good
was and following it so good would have the real authority. It would follow then that we have the right
to question God’s ways. We have the
right to test him and his morals and to reject him if we think he is bad. But he claims to be King meaning he forbids
this. The Devil was thrown out of Heaven
for thinking he could do a better job than God so God will not tolerate
rebellion.
For Christians if there
were no God there would be no good. We
know that is nonsense but the believer in God cannot admit that is
nonsense. To deny the existence of God
is to oppose goodness and to seek to destroy it if there is no good without
God. Therefore to hate the Atheist and
destroy him and consign him to everlasting torment is perfectly right and to
love him would be to hate God and other people for it is giving him the
strength to persist in denial of God. To
worship God is to set yourself on working towards arrogance and obstinacy and
snobbery as an ideal for you naturally have to become like the God you imagine
to be the perfect being.
They claim it is
blasphemous to suggest that human suffering disproves God. This shows exactly how religious dogma seeks
to stifle rational inquiry for they do their best to make the law of the land
make blasphemy a crime. Blasphemy laws
are an assault against human rights. First of all God cannot be injured
by what bad things are said about him for he is perfectly happy and good and
all powerful. Secondly, because the law of the land should be about looking
after human beings not some super-being that some people suppose exists. There is no way we can prove that God is more than
just a religious invention. Thirdly, if you forbid blasphemy how can you
justify letting a book exist or be published that politely questions God’s existence? Where do you draw the line?
They argue that all
Atheism comes from Satan who was the first Atheist for he tricked himself into
believing that there was no God who would punish him in order to do all the
evil he wished. This view makes Atheists
the main tools of the Devil and implies that before you incarcerate murderers
you should incarcerate Atheists for they are more aligned to the forces of
darkness and their influence is a major cause of murder. They make Christians doubt and fall into sin
and into committing murder.
They argue that all
Atheists are evil criminals though they do not go to jail for robbing banks for
they have made laws to get away with their evil Atheism and bad influence. This is a clear indication that the Citizens
hope to eradicate the possibility of anybody expressing Atheistic opinions and
to make the law persecute them. They say
that if the Christian met the Devil they would find him to be very pleasant and
charming and argues that Atheists have this same false dangerous charm. They warn that Christians should not have
Atheist friends because the Devil is using them to be a bad influence on you
and they remind Christians that the Bible forbids association with unbelieving
apostates or anybody who wants to see the Christian faith debunked and in
ruins.
Ridiculously, the Bible
is quoted to prove that Atheists know that God exists and they then say that
Atheists know God exists for they use his name a lot. The implication is that if you know what is
meant by God you will see from nature and his grace that he exists and if you
deny him you are the vilest of the vile.
Then the Citizens insist
that Atheists have no right to be Atheists for the right to believe in Atheism
came from man and not God and God is always right and gives no such right. The citizen of any land has no right to
believe that the government that rules him does not exist. That is saying the law has no authority and
the law claims the authority and right to command you to believe the law exists
and must be obeyed. We see then that the
concept of God is opposed to the rights of Atheists and even believers who want
religion to keep out of politics.
The Citizens say that God
does not have to love you because we belong to him and not him to us. They say that if you make something you have
the right to destroy it so God has the right to destroy us. They accuse Atheists of being tricked by
false Christians who say that God loves all which leads Atheists to think there
cannot be a God when people suffer.
Their reply is that God does not love everybody and that is the answer
for the problem of suffering. So if you
suffer it is because God hates you.
Then
with vitriol they say that God does not love everybody and that most people are
going to hell for God hates them and that there is no free will and that God
has ordained and caused the sins of the world in order to get damning
them. He loves a few and he saves
them. Romans 9:16-20 is quoted for it
says that God hates some and that the hated cannot complain for God made them
and the potter can do what he pleases with what he makes. The Bible says that man has no business
judging what God does implying that though when I have to live my life and my
life is my surest possession and the thing I am most sure I have I have no
right to judge God if he treats me in a way that seems abusive to me. A good God would explain to me exactly why he
lets evil befall me. The Citizens are
right that the verses teach a God of spite and hate.
Why do we fear certain
evildoers and not others or some a lot and others not a lot? Some people fear gays who are perceived as
evildoers and do not fear thieves they know as much. When you are not a liar yourself or when you
believe the best of everybody else you certainly don’t expect other people to
be liars or cynics. You only fear in
others then what you have already seen in yourself for their evil is more real
to you when you have been as evil as they have been. The hatred of the Citizens for those who
oppose their assumption that God exists shows they
know deep down he is a myth and is just adopted for the sake of venting abuse
at people they like being prejudiced against.
As hateful as the
organisation, Citizens for the Ten Commandments, is, we can only praise it for
not hiding what it really thinks like most Christians do.