29

Without God All Things Are Permitted

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan argues that without God all manner of evil would be permitted. The opposite is no less true.

Inspired by YHVH, the prophet Elijah ordered the slaughter of the priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:40). The people who did the slaughtering thought God was good and assumed that their actions were also good because God commanded them. The people being slaughtered thought this same God was evil and what was being done to them was evil. With God all things are permitted!

When Muslims speak of Allah as al-Rahman al-Rahim, All Merciful, All Compassionate, they think Allah is good. When ISIS beheads people in the name of Allah, they too think that Allah is good and that beheading is good. But the beheaded think Allah is evil (or they did until there were beheaded, at which point they stopped thinking altogether). God is only as good as the deeds of believers.

With great power comes great responsibility. With absolute power comes none.

RR

What is good is what benefits the well-being of all beings. What is evil is what benefits the well-being of some at the expense of others. If your God is biased, your God isn’t God, only an excuse for doing what you want.