In Defense of Evil part 3 of 3: Satan was the Good Guy in the bible. God was the bad guy.

Thank you Zarroette for your arguments. Agreement Me and my opponent agree on a lot of stuff. We agree that God committed Genocide. We agree that he at the least found rape of women preferable to rape of men as he rewarded Lot for offering up his daughters to be raped, over his guests. My opponent agrees with me that God wants control our thoughts and prevent us from having wisdom. The Garden of Eden shows this. We also agreed that Satan's main purpose was to free men's minds. To give them wisdom. My opponent believes God's deeds are part of his greater plans of goodness, and therefore makes these plans good because they are part of the plan. My opponent believes the wisdom Satan gave us is evil because it seperates us from God. Speculation This subject is of a very speculative nature. I've tried to keep my speculation to a minimum by sticking to biblical narrative. My opponent hasn't stuck with the narrative and has instead focused on different author's opinions within the Bible. These opinions that rest outside the narrative have caused her to conclude that God is omniscient and has a greater plan. We can only judge God on his actions, not on some elusive divine plan that we can't know. He's probably just using this "divine plan" to justify his evil deeds anyway. Any speculation that God is omniscient is unsupported by narrative. In fact as I've shown, the narrative shows some evidence he isn't omniscient. I'm sure God wants his followers to believe he is, to better control them though. Actions Speak Louder than Words We can't know God's divine plan or even if he has one (despite his claims). So, we must judge him based on his actions. My opponent argues, God's actions when viewed as isolated incidents and from our human perspectives are evil, but when looked at from an omniscient being and in light of this being's divine plan, his actions are good. The problem is, we can only look at his actions. Assuming a divine plan based on this being's claim of one, is useless. So I ask the reader to mentally create 2 columns in his/her head. One column labeled evil. The other column labeled good. Now look at the actions both me and my opponent agree on and put them in a column. The genocide, rewarding Lot for offering up his daughters to be raped, keeping man a stupid beast in the wild by depriving him of knowledge etc. . Now take Satan's actions, which all revolve around him freeing man's mind and giving him wisdom. What box does wisdom and a free mind go into? Good or evil? The Devil is Evil 1. Sinning isn't evil. There is nothing wrong with these actions God labels as sin. If I go to the store pick up a playboy and jerk off, I'm not hurting anyone and I feel good as a response. The evil comes when you label these primal urges as sins. When you view these things as taboos, you repress them and then they become compulsions. The last thing anyone should do is repress their carnal urges. Repressing things takes them from impulsive to compulsive. The second something becomes compulsive, you lose a lot of control over your actions. 2. I've shown God to be capable of deception. I gave 2 examples and my opponent only refuted the one about the burning bush. Saying God disguised himself to avoid hurting Moses. What about the other example? The example I gave showing God disguised himself as a drifter and then randomly attacked one of his own followers leaving that follower with a permanent limp. God doesn't just disguise himself to avoid harming people. He also disguises himself to harm people. 3. My opponent asserts many assumptions. She uses an example of God subjecting his son to torture as proof of his love for us. I ask what kind of sick being would subject their child to torture to prove their love for another person? If God is omniscient like my opponent claims then he easily could have shown mankind his love and spared them from a permanent demise through more humane means. I don't believe God does love his creation. That is not really the question at hand though. The question is; Is God evil? Based on this action (subjecting his son to torture), I think we can put another point in the evil column. My opponent also makes the claim that Satan doesn't know the consequences of his actions. This is more support for Satan being Good. If my opponent claims the actions of Satan while seeming good have negative consequences, but Satan can only be judged on the action it's self because he doesn't know the consequences. Satan knows he is providing man knowledge. His motivation as far as we can tell was to enlighten man. God Does Evil Things When Adam and Eve are from the tree of knowledge, all his descendants were given the knowledge of good and evil. That means we all have an inner voice telling us if something is evil or good. What does your inner voice tell you? Is destroying numerous cities, women and children within those cities and even the animals that reside in them evil? Is giving people knowledge to judge things for themselves good? My opponent admits that in some circumstances God finds rape as acceptable. What does your knowledge of good and evil tell you? Is rape ever morally permissible? Is rape of your daughter superior to rape of complete strangers? Is a being that rewards Lot for those actions Good or Evil? My opponent again argues that God is omniscient. Despite many examples to the contrary my opponent still makes this absurd claim. She calls the examples given "tests". There is no proof they are tests. If God needs to test people it would imply he doesn't know the results of the test before hand, therefore making him non-omniscient. God Hates Humans Despite any of God's claims to the contrary, he is hateful. He has shown contempt by making even our most primal urges a crime. Be attracted to another woman but never act on it and you've committed a crime, according to Jesus in his sermon on the mount speach. The punishment for that sin is death, just like the punishment for any other sin. "For the wages of sin are death". Even your urge for self preservation is hated by God. "If your enemy smites you on one cheek, then turn to him the other one". Now you can't even defend yourself from your enemy. God has hated mankind since the fall of Adam. He's shown this by flooding the Earth, committing Genocides, outlawing the primal urges he created, demanding we lay down for our enemies etc. . Let's Meet our Hero 1. I'm not psychoanalyzing God. God directly tells us in the story of the Tower of Babel that I mentioned. That he is afraid humans will be capable of anything should they be able to come together for this. God directly states that he scattered people because he didn't want them being capable of anything. Not too coincidently God is supposedly capable of anything. So God literally scattered men so they wouldn't be capable of what he is capable of. In the Garden of Eden man was punished for eating a fruit that caused him to be like God and know right from wrong. I want it noted that God stated one of the reasons he kicked man out of the garden of Eden was to prevent him from eating from the tree of life. These are clear indicators of God's motives. We are punished for gaining wisdom that rivals God's. We are punished for almost attaining the ability to do works that rivals gods, such as in the story of the Tower of Babel. God kicks us out of Eden for fear we will become immortal like him. It is clear God feels threatened by man. It is no wonder that he would go as far as he did to gain back control of our minds. 2/3. Love isn't about control. If God loved us he would give us autonomy, not reluctantly but freely. You know what love is? Going up against an unbeatable force to give the world knowledge. Satan was better off minding his own business. He couldn't do it though. His love for mankind was so strong that he had to risk spending an eternity in a lake of fire to free the minds of us mere mortals. Satan wanted us to remain free so he stood back and let God blaspheme him, rather then stooping to God's level and creating a holy book. Satan knew holy books and free minds don't go together. Summary, I ask that voters of all religious persuasions, put aside their knowledge of the Bible, their emotions, their indoctrinations into certain knowledge (both religious and non religious alike), and use a blank slate to judge everything presented in this debate.