Tip #12 Seriously Interact with Maltheism
Apr. 17th, 2015 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastMaltheism: The idea or belief that God is evil.
Maltheism will come up. You, personally, might not claim that your faith owns morality, but somebody will have done so. You, personally, might not claim that adherents of your faith are always, or even mostly, more moral a people than the rest of the world. Somebody will have done so. Chances are likely that you will, at least, make the claim that your faith contains good morality.
All of these are up for challenge. A maltheistic interpretation of your faith will be a part of that challenge. That includes your faith as you say it and your holy text.
Taking the story of Genesis, in regards to the Abrahamic traditions, God lied to Adam and Eve, showed arbitrary favoritism for Abel and against Cain, practiced unnecessary genocide, and feared mankind's collective might. Offended yet?
I've gone over a couple of the common responses to Maltheism already. In Tip #4, I used the example of this response to the Problem of Hell "God doesn't send anybody to Hell. People choose to go to Hell by rejecting a relationship with God." And, in Tip #5, I advised against defining "Christian" in such a way as to edit out moral embarrassments.
Those are the surface-level issues of those two responses. A deeper issue, however, is that neither interacts with the concept of Maltheism long enough even to produce a sufficient refutation.
As responses, they certainly don't refute the Maltheism presented so much as announce your refusal to interact with the concept. That refusal, itself, is a refusal to have an honest conversation. So, even the concepts that offend you must be treated seriously. Perhaps even especially the concepts that offend you, if only so that a serious refutation can be formed.
Maltheism will come up. You, personally, might not claim that your faith owns morality, but somebody will have done so. You, personally, might not claim that adherents of your faith are always, or even mostly, more moral a people than the rest of the world. Somebody will have done so. Chances are likely that you will, at least, make the claim that your faith contains good morality.
All of these are up for challenge. A maltheistic interpretation of your faith will be a part of that challenge. That includes your faith as you say it and your holy text.
Taking the story of Genesis, in regards to the Abrahamic traditions, God lied to Adam and Eve, showed arbitrary favoritism for Abel and against Cain, practiced unnecessary genocide, and feared mankind's collective might. Offended yet?
I've gone over a couple of the common responses to Maltheism already. In Tip #4, I used the example of this response to the Problem of Hell "God doesn't send anybody to Hell. People choose to go to Hell by rejecting a relationship with God." And, in Tip #5, I advised against defining "Christian" in such a way as to edit out moral embarrassments.
Those are the surface-level issues of those two responses. A deeper issue, however, is that neither interacts with the concept of Maltheism long enough even to produce a sufficient refutation.
As responses, they certainly don't refute the Maltheism presented so much as announce your refusal to interact with the concept. That refusal, itself, is a refusal to have an honest conversation. So, even the concepts that offend you must be treated seriously. Perhaps even especially the concepts that offend you, if only so that a serious refutation can be formed.
