The Greatest Gaslighting of All Time
There is perhaps no greater case of gaslighting on a grand scale than the three Abrahamic religions, which have all convinced millions of believers, over thousands of years, that God is the ultimate personification of good, and Satan is the ultimate personification of evil.
Despite wiping out every man, woman, child (and unborn child), and every living creature in the world (except Noah, his family, and select animals) because they were all “sinful”, believers still consider Him a good, just, and loving god.
Despite banishing Adam and Eve from paradise and punishing them and all their descendants for the “sin” of disobeying God and eating a forbidden fruit that opened their eyes to the knowledge of good and evil, we still consider Him a good, just, and loving god.
Despite murdering Job’s family, killing all his animals, and ruining his life in every way just to win a bet with Satan that Job would still be loyal to Him, believers still consider Him a good, just, and loving god.
Despite creating Hell, where people spend an eternity of hopeless, unimaginable pain and suffering if they do not worship and obey God, believers still consider Him a good, just, and loving god.
There are many, many more examples like these that clearly depict a creature who is, as Richard Dawkins famously wrote, “arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
And yet, believers still consider Him a good, just, and loving god.
On the other hand, what of Satan? What did he ever do to deserve being considered as the pure embodiment of evil? Convince Eve to eat an apple that would open her eyes and bestow knowledge of good and evil upon her? Rebel against a demonstrably evil God?
Satan only killed ten people in the entire Bible (the seven sons and three daughters of Job), which God was complicit in for betting Satan that Job would remain loyal despite this tragedy).
God, on the other hand, killed the entire world when he flooded it (breaking his own commandment and a moral precept understood by every person who ever lived, whether they
were aware of the Bible or not). In addition, he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, including every man, woman, and child (and unborn child) who lived in there. He commanded Moses to kill every man, woman, and child (and unborn child) of enemy tribes (except the virgin girls, who could be taken as sex slaves). God killed every first=born child in Egypt as revenge against the Pharaoh. And countless others throughout the Old and New Testaments.
But God is good and Satan is evil? How does that make any sense? And yet, hundreds of millions of believers somehow do make sense of it.
Throughout recorded history, mankind has produced megalomaniacal tyrants. Totalitarian fascist dictators who use the Bible as their playbook and God as their model. They demand blind obedience no matter what. They demonize anyone who does not obey them blindly. They crush the exercise of free speech and critical thinking and questioning as blasphemy. They lie and perpetuate those lies in the face of all evidence and logic to the contrary. They use force and violence to assert their will. They allow no other gods before them; you must worship them and only them. These are the techniques and tools both of religion and fascism.
And Satan? His only real crime was defying God. Questioning God. Rebelling against God. In a fascist state, Satan is the hero to any outside witness. But to the fascist members of that state who have totally submitted their will to that of their dear leader, he is the devil. Evil incarnate.
Once you eat the forbidden fruit and open your eyes to the knowledge of good and evil, it is clear who is good and who is evil. Satan is the courageous figure who stands up to the all-powerful dictator. He deserves our admiration and support.
-W.T. Rozar