To Survey Some Religions on the Bias Planet
On the Bias planet, there are some polytheisms, and those gods such as Greek gods are understandable. Those gods aren't all-powerful if they are very powerful, and they aren't morally impeccable. To think of gods that conform to the reality, gods can't help but be like that.
We can't deny the possibility of the existence of such gods because we can't indicate any indubitable contradiction with the reality.
As those gods aren't claimed to be morally impeccable, they can just enjoy vacations conniving at blatant unfair acts by humans, or they can take out their anger on humans.
As they are intrinsically whimsical entities, anything can be attributed to their whims.
On the other hand, there are some monotheisms that claim that God is all-powerful and impeccably righteous.
Hmm, according to such monotheisms, abundant blatant acts of unfairness are being connived at by God, and such connivance is completely righteous . . .
It's not just conniving. It is the very source of unfairness. There is a typical story. God harmed a faithful man named Job just because Satan tempted it to do so. Such a God's act is completely righteous according to those religions.
That seems to show the essence of those monotheisms. Whatever God does, it is righteous, and humans have to absolutely obey God without being allowed to ask questions.
Their God seems to be a grotesque monster. I don't know how their God is different from just a tyrant . . .
In short, their God doesn't give a damn about fairness. Unfairness is completely righteous. God has exemplified it.
It's a dismal, hopeless world . . .
Being dismal or hopeless doesn't prove its falseness.
I know. . . . So, might one of those monotheisms be true, regrettably?
They can't be literally true because there are descriptions that contradict the reality in their Bibles.
Ah, for example, descriptions on the creation of the universe, the Earth, animals, and human beings have been without doubt proven to be false: they contradict facts.
By consecrating their Bibles and refusing to admit any fault in them, believers of those monotheisms have placed themselves in the impasse: they can't make progress.
As every human makes mistakes, making mistakes is OK, but not admitting mistakes is a fatal flaw.
We don't particularly deny the possibility of the existence of a God who is somewhat represented by their Bibles, but we deny with confidence that the Bibles are correct word by word.
Harms of Some Beliefs in God
We have taken up the issue of God because some beliefs in God cause real great harms.
A harm is that such an act of consecrating Bibles and insisting on what contradict the reality is a hotbed of the evil practice of conniving at contradictions. "While the Bibles contradict the reality, why can't I?"
Yes. "God lies. Why can't I lie?"
"Contradicts are OK. Fake news is OK. The reality doesn't matter. Just insist whatever you want. . ."
That's totally against our practice of nearing truths by continually modifying the system of hypotheses.
Another harm is to expect that God will help. That causes people to neglect to take concrete measures to prevent something or to make something happen. For example, some people think that as they live honestly, they won't be harmed by natural disasters. Evidences show that such expectations aren't answered. People killed by landslides, floods, etc, aren't killed because their daily conducts had been bad. Their conducts weren't bad, at least not particularly worse than those of other people were. God doesn't help, and they had to build embankments. . . . If your excellent works of art aren't recognized by the world, I assure you, God won't make your works recognized. If you are being bullied, God won't help you.
Regardless of what particular religion people believe in, such expectations seem to be rather prevalent. I admit that such expectations may give people peaces of minds, but they can be causes of remissness.
Another harm is to justify the reality. "As the reality is what God is allowing, nothing should be wrong with it. A person has a congenital defect? It's God's deed: he deserves it. Some people were displaced by floods? I don't care. God must have punished them: they must had done bad things. I don't have to help them because God will help them if necessary."
If one assumes the existence of an all-powerful, impeccably righteous God, it's an irreproachable claim. And in fact, such a reasoning exempts one from feeling guilty from not helping people in difficulties.
Another harm is to have grudges against God. If one expects rewards or fair treatments from God, he or she will inevitably feel betrayed. Such anger is futile, and will just harm one's life.
Yes. As one conceives unreasonable expectations, he or she ends up having grudges. As there is no God who reliably enforces moral fairness in this world, expecting other than causality and statistical fairness is unreasonable. To be angry against what doesn't exist is certainly futile.
Another harm, which is the greatest harm according to my opinion, is to believe that one can know things without being based on information. "This is true because this is a divine revelation."
Ah, the existence of God who reveals truths directly into humans' minds is the pretext for one's insisting things without any ground.
The ground of the insistence that one's intuition is correct boils down to the belief that intuitions are divine revelations. Otherwise, to claim something without being based on information is absurd.
What Are Possibilities?
We already know that all-powerful, all-sincere morally fair God doesn't exist. Then what kinds of God can exist?
You should name them. You are the hypothesizer.
Well, I can think of several possibilities that conform to the reality.
First, all-powerful, morally unfair God might exist. That God has power to remedy unfairness in the world, but won't because the God is unfair.
So, is the God a decreer of some moral principles, but those moral principles aren't fair ones?
Yes. That means that the God is a tyrant, for I call power without fairness tyranny.
I can't deny that possibility. It's a dismal supposition, but we can't deny something because it's dismal.
Second, morally impeccably fair, but powerless God might exist.
So, the God would remedy unfairness if it could, but can't. That's a possibility because having fair mind doesn't necessarily mean having power.
That's same with humans. Someone who has fair opinions isn't heeded by people in many cases, and therefore has little influences on worldly events. We can't blame such a person because it's irrational to demand what he or she can't do from him or her.
More specifically, the God is powerless on matters of this world, but it might have power on the afterlife, which may be a best possible prospect, but being good doesn't raise any probability.
I know.
Third, powerful, but not all-powerful, or morally fair, but not impeccably fair God might exist.
Ah, there is such a possibility. The God is more powerful or more fair than humans are, but isn't perfect. It may not be able to know everything that is happening, may not be able to rectify every evil at the same time, or it may have to sleep.
The God may be asleep for thousands of years.
Fourth, no moral God may exist.
So, there is only God as an enforcer of statistical fairness. In fact, the statistical fairness may be the essence of God. I heard that a Earthian said that God doesn't play with dice, but accomplishing statistical fairness is quite difficult and what humans can't accomplish.
Ah, deterministic calculations are easy; humans can write programs to make machines do those deterministic calculations.
Whether we call the enforcer of statistical fairness or the system of physical laws God is just a matter of definition of the term, God. Personally, I prefer not calling it God because the term, God, suggests a moral existence to many people.
OK.
There are other classifications such as God as the creator of the universe, but we won't delve into it because it's a classification by what God once did, not by what God is. We are interested in what God is, not what God once did.
OK.
