Common Responses to the 30 Questions
Here are responses to a few of the replies that I expect to come up the most frequently in reaction to this list of questions.
“We mustn’t question the morality of God. His ways are beyond our understanding.”
We have no choice but to make judgments about God’s morality: If we don’t, then we’re forced to accept a line of reasoning that can justify literally any moral state of affairs, no matter how despicable. If God was depicted in the Bible raping and torturing infants for his enjoyment, one could still answer with “his ways are beyond our understanding.” Even if Satan, posing as God, commanded the most evil acts imaginable, obedience could still be justified in exactly the same way.
Even if God’s ways are beyond our understanding, all that can be reasonably expected of us is that we do the best we can with the limited knowledge and reasoning abilities we have—and based on what we have, the only acceptable response to the biblical God’s sanctioning of slavery, misogyny and genocide is unabashed condemnation. It would be patently ridiculous for God to blame us for questioning his morality, if he was the one who gave us the capacity to reason while at the same time offering no explanation of his atrocities.
“What standard can we use to question God’s morality?”
To answer this, we must first understand what the purpose of morality is in the first place. Since the basic desire of sentient creatures is generally to increase their well-being, morality should generally be aimed at achieving that goal as much as possible, for as many people as possible. That’s what most people mean when they talk about what’s “moral”—whether they realize it or not. And since practices like slavery and genocide drastically decrease people’s well-being, we can easily judge God’s actions to be immoral.
“Whatever the evidence against my religion may be, faith is ultimately what matters.”
Imagine that thousands of people are standing in a row stretching to your left and right for as far as you can see, each belonging to a different religion. Each one has been given a list of questions that point strongly to the conclusion that their religion is false. They shout the sentence above in unison, each of them with a deep inner feeling that they must be right. They are using exactly the same reasoning you are—and yet, not only are they wrong, but according to your beliefs they are all destined for eternal punishment.
Perhaps you feel you can apply faith to faith itself. You cry, “I have faith that my faith alone is justified!”—and the entire row of people cries out along with you. Could it be any more apparent that “I have faith” is useless as a response to evidence?
“Any evidence against my religion could just be a test from God.”
Again, the row of believers cry out as one. Think about how absurd and unjust this sounds when applied to any other religion: Maybe Islam is correct, but the Islamic God has planted false evidence against it in order to test your faith. If this deity sounds deceptive and evil, couldn’t the same be said if your own God performed such actions?
“We mustn’t question the morality of God. His ways are beyond our understanding.”
We have no choice but to make judgments about God’s morality: If we don’t, then we’re forced to accept a line of reasoning that can justify literally any moral state of affairs, no matter how despicable. If God was depicted in the Bible raping and torturing infants for his enjoyment, one could still answer with “his ways are beyond our understanding.” Even if Satan, posing as God, commanded the most evil acts imaginable, obedience could still be justified in exactly the same way.
Even if God’s ways are beyond our understanding, all that can be reasonably expected of us is that we do the best we can with the limited knowledge and reasoning abilities we have—and based on what we have, the only acceptable response to the biblical God’s sanctioning of slavery, misogyny and genocide is unabashed condemnation. It would be patently ridiculous for God to blame us for questioning his morality, if he was the one who gave us the capacity to reason while at the same time offering no explanation of his atrocities.
“What standard can we use to question God’s morality?”
To answer this, we must first understand what the purpose of morality is in the first place. Since the basic desire of sentient creatures is generally to increase their well-being, morality should generally be aimed at achieving that goal as much as possible, for as many people as possible. That’s what most people mean when they talk about what’s “moral”—whether they realize it or not. And since practices like slavery and genocide drastically decrease people’s well-being, we can easily judge God’s actions to be immoral.
“Whatever the evidence against my religion may be, faith is ultimately what matters.”
Imagine that thousands of people are standing in a row stretching to your left and right for as far as you can see, each belonging to a different religion. Each one has been given a list of questions that point strongly to the conclusion that their religion is false. They shout the sentence above in unison, each of them with a deep inner feeling that they must be right. They are using exactly the same reasoning you are—and yet, not only are they wrong, but according to your beliefs they are all destined for eternal punishment.
Perhaps you feel you can apply faith to faith itself. You cry, “I have faith that my faith alone is justified!”—and the entire row of people cries out along with you. Could it be any more apparent that “I have faith” is useless as a response to evidence?
“Any evidence against my religion could just be a test from God.”
Again, the row of believers cry out as one. Think about how absurd and unjust this sounds when applied to any other religion: Maybe Islam is correct, but the Islamic God has planted false evidence against it in order to test your faith. If this deity sounds deceptive and evil, couldn’t the same be said if your own God performed such actions?