Misotheism

Dystheism (also called Maltheism) is the belief that God exists, but is not entirely good. In principle there are two possibilities regarding God: theism, or belief in God's existence, and atheism, rejection of theism. Dystheism is a form of theism, opposed to "eutheism", or belief in God as the summum bonum. The problem of evil, if accepted as a proof against eutheism, leaves open the possibilities of dystheism and atheism. An argument for atheism based on the problem of evil will therefore need an additional argument against dystheism (which for most atheists will be Occam's razor).

Dystheist arguments

Some dystheists believe that God is dependent on the worship and adoration of human beings for his existence, and hope that if he is deprived of humanity's worship, he will wither up and die, leaving humanity better off. This is akin to the belief that whatever we worship is given a sort of spiritual substance through the act of worship. Thus, according to this belief, those who believe in the God of the Bible give him life and form through their worship, and thus they create a world where such a God influences life on earth. In contrast, those who withhold worship of that God, or who offer worship not to a that deity but to another help to solve the problem of evil in this world.

Dystheism seeks to encourage people of all religious persuasions to see God as evil, as opposed to how we wish him to be or how we have been taught to believe him to be. They would see it as a good thing if theophiles (those who worship God) were to stop worshipping him in any form.

If God is indeed evil, as the dystheists say, and if his goal is not the benefit of mankind, worshipping an evil God is a treasonous act against oneself and the entire human race, since it feeds the force that enslaves people in general, even if it causes the worshippers to gain some short-term benefit for themselves.

Dystheism contrasted with Eutheism

Dystheists are in direct opposition to eutheism (or "theophilia"), distancing themselves from the conclusion that anyone who believes in God must believe that he is good and worthy of human devotion.

According to dystheists, the eutheists have come through a process of indoctrination that teaches them to believe that God is good, to the point where they do not even think to question this idea, likening eutheism to a cult, noting that eutheist religion exhibits virtually all the symptoms found on classic cult checklists. They note a correlation between the behavior of theophiles and the Stockholm syndrome, wherein victims of kidnapping or long-term abuse come over time to think of their captor/torturer in a positive way.

To dystheists, this explains what they see as the irrational behavior of eutheists, which they consider similar to that of abused children who still love their abusive parents. Such parents frequently hurt their children both physically and emotionally, berate and belittle them, take credit for good things their children have accomplished, and blame their children for acts they themselves are responsible for, all the while trying to convince those children that they should think of this abuse as love. Dystheists contend that this is exactly what God tries to do to do the human race: he blames us for the existence of evil in a world he created, he tells us that we are inherently sinful and evil, he tries to teach us that we need salvation because of our supposed unworthiness, and he threatens us with eternal torture if we do not comply with his demands—but at the same time, he tells us that he is a benevolent loving God who cares about us deeply (see also George Carlin)

History of dystheistic thought

• The early Gnostics believed in an demiurge that stood between us and some greater, more truly benevolent real God.
• Even before the Holocaust, the Jews wrote about putting God on trial for his crimes against his chosen people and against humanity at large

As examples throughout history, dystheists cite the slaughter of the native inhabitants of Canaan, the Christian Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the missionary practices of colonial Europeans, the Nazi Holocaust, and today's Islamist Jihad.

Bible passages suggesting dystheism

To the dystheist, the Bible is rife with contradictory and hypocritical statements and actions by God, leading to an inevitable conclusion that he is not a benevolent deity but rather a bully feeding on human worship. The dystheist interprets God as telling people that it's wrong to kill, but then exhorting them to do so in his name.

The Book of Job

The best known example to dystheists in the Bible of God demonstrating that he is not good is the Book of Job. In this story, God makes a bet with Satan that his loyal servant Job would continue to worship him even after he is plagued with devastating tragedies.

Some believe that the authors of the Bible knew God's nature all along and sought to placate him through their praises, but that the Book of Job has a not-so-hidden subtextual message for those who read it carefully — that the God whose praises were being sung throughout the Bible isn't really as good as he is made out to be.

The Tower of Babel

Another well-known example of this is the story of the Tower of Babel. In this tale, the people in the city of Babel work together to build a tower that "will reach the heavens". In the dystheist view God sees this as a threat to his authority, and confuses human language so that these people would not be able to work with each other.

While this story is often interpreted as an admonition about rebelling against God, it's not clear to dystheists that these people were doing anything wrong. What is clear to dystheists is the relative importance of values this story conveys: God's glory and ego are more important than humanity working together. Is it any wonder, say the dystheists, that religion since this time has been plagued with division and fractionalism? They see God talking about how following his way will lead to peace, but each group is told a slightly different "way", and the end result being interreligious hatred and violence.

The Garden of Eden and The Tree of Knowledge

In Genesis, we read that God told Adam and Eve, the first humans, not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, warning them that on the day they eat from this tree they will surely die. A serpent (often associated with Satan) convinced Eve to partake of the tree's fruit, and she in turn convinced Adam to do so. God punished them for doing this, banishing them from the paradise known as the Garden of Eden.

While this story is often seen as metaphorical in nature, it raises questions about God's nature. Why would a God who created humans to be curious and knowledge-seeking punish them for being curious and seeking knowledge? What is the "lesson" to be learned from this parable?—that seeking knowledge is wrong? Dystheists feel that God lied when he said that Adam and Eve eating this fruit would cause them to die.

Additionally, we see Satan again used as God's agent, unfairly blamed for things God himself does not want to be associated with, similarly as in the Book of Job. In this case, according to the dystheist perspective, God sets things up to entrap Adam and Eve, using Satan as a patsy. Dystheists believe that Satan is just an alias God uses to point fingers at when he (God) does evil things.

Comparison to other beliefs

Dystheism is often compared with Satanism, because it advocates rebellion against God, and with some forms of Gnosticism, which hold that the God that many worship really is tyrannous or evil but is not actually the ultimate God.

Satanism

The dystheist would say that Satan is just an alias God uses to point fingers at when he (God) does evil things, much like Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984 would blame all the evil in the world on imaginary insurgent Emmanuel Goldstein, who was really just a fiction invented by the Party as a scapegoat.

Gnosticism

Similarly, to the Gnostic who believes that the God many worship is not the "real" God but a demiurge standing between humanity and the true benevolent God, the dystheist would question why, if this true God was really more powerful than the demiurge and was benevolent, he doesn't step in and crush the demiurge.

Atheism

Finally, both atheists and dystheists note the what they see as contradictions and hypocrisies in religious texts such as the Bible. But while atheists say that these contradictions and hypocrisies demonstrate that God does not exist, dystheists believe that they don't rule out the possibility of God's existence.

Instead, they say, they only prove that if God exists, he's a liar and a bully. Dystheism has been described as the position an atheist would hold if it were proven to him logically that the God of the Bible really did exist.

External links

• Lecture by Robert Koons (utexas.edu)
• "Maltheism" (belief.net)
• Atrocities committed or commanded by God
• The moral imperative to rebel against God