Imagine if you were a God
If you could create a world from scratch and you made it exactly like this one, would this make you a benevolent god, or an evil megalomaniac?Imagine you could create a world with flowers and birds and trees and rainbows, and whatever else you desire. Imagine you had the ability to foresee every possible future within this world. Imagine you created inhabitants, and you gave them joy and laughter and music and art and poetry, but also disease and suffering and famine and drought and natural disasters and predators.
Imagine you gave the inhabitants a rule book, but rather than make your rules clear, you gave many horrible pseudo-instructions along with the good instructions, and you hid most of your messages in morally ambiguous parables. Imagine you also threw in some false rule books without clarifying which rule book was the real one. Imagine you demanded the inhabitants interpret your will from the real book, knowing that many will either read the wrong book, or no book, or misinterpret your will, and commit horrible acts in the sincere belief you had commanded them to do so.
Imagine you never revealed yourself to these people, but you demanded they not only accept the reality of your existence, but also demanded they worship you. Imagine you knew in advance which of these people would meet your expectations because, as stated above, you knew every possible outcome. Imagine you would eternally torture those who failed to fulfil your expectations, either because they failed to believe in your existence, or because they misinterpreted your views from your ambiguous rule book.
Imagine, you planned to forever torture people, even though you could so easily have created a world without suffering, even though you could so easily have made your rules clear, even though you could so easily have made yourself known. Imagine you chose to experiment on these people to decide who was and was not worthy, in the process inflicting suffering even on those who were completely innocent. Would this make you a benevolent god, or an evil megalomaniac?
Imagine you gave the inhabitants a rule book, but rather than make your rules clear, you gave many horrible pseudo-instructions along with the good instructions, and you hid most of your messages in morally ambiguous parables. Imagine you also threw in some false rule books without clarifying which rule book was the real one. Imagine you demanded the inhabitants interpret your will from the real book, knowing that many will either read the wrong book, or no book, or misinterpret your will, and commit horrible acts in the sincere belief you had commanded them to do so.
Imagine you never revealed yourself to these people, but you demanded they not only accept the reality of your existence, but also demanded they worship you. Imagine you knew in advance which of these people would meet your expectations because, as stated above, you knew every possible outcome. Imagine you would eternally torture those who failed to fulfil your expectations, either because they failed to believe in your existence, or because they misinterpreted your views from your ambiguous rule book.
Imagine, you planned to forever torture people, even though you could so easily have created a world without suffering, even though you could so easily have made your rules clear, even though you could so easily have made yourself known. Imagine you chose to experiment on these people to decide who was and was not worthy, in the process inflicting suffering even on those who were completely innocent. Would this make you a benevolent god, or an evil megalomaniac?
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