Good & Evil

** I posted this on tumblr where I will also be posting. I will post all of my longer blogs both here and there, but my http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifreally short snippets or thoughts will remain on tumblr as not to clutter up this blog. So why not read both and follow me on both?**
Before you read any further, keep in mind that I was raised Christian, I have read the Bible, but I am no longer Christian and have not been for sometime. I will, however, for this article, treat God and Satan as if I did believe they were real, just to make it a little easier for some of you to follow. I am only using God and Satan as examples! I do not believe in the Christian path.

@eeeegads posted an entry earlier speaking of the violence in the Christian Bible and God (if you haven’t read it yet, you should head over to her page and give it a quick read. It is an amazing piece, researched, sourced, the whole she-bang). It really got me thinking about something that I have always had in the back of my mind. The concept of Good and Evil in many of today’s cultures is a black and white argument. Something or someone is either good or evil. It cannot be both. I feel that is flawed. While ultimately I believe that if there is good in this world there has to be evil. Yin-yang. The world has to keep a proper balance. A lot of people feel the same way, however, most religious belief systems equate this to mean that there is a force that is inherently good (i.e. God, Jesus Christ, Yahweh) and a force that is inherently evil (i.e. Satan, Lucifer). Even before I read @eeeegads paper, I knew this was completely off base. In the Bible, God was (as she said in her paper) very violent and unforgiving. Although Christians claim that he is loving and forgiving, I did not see much of that when I read the Bible. Christians do not question God nor do they question whether Satan is actually deserved of the “evilness” that is attributed to him. I see it like this, God is not completely good nor is Satan completely evil. God has certainly proven (if the Bible is to be believed) that he is capable of horrific acts therefore giving him the capacity for evil. If we were to believe that God holds the capacity for evil, then it would only be logical to assume that Satan would have to hold the capacity for good as well. Now, again if the Bible is to be believed, humans were created in God’s image. Take a look at human beings as a whole. Persons have the capacity for both good and evil. They can commit good acts and then turn around and commit evil acts and vice versa. No human being is inherently good nor inherently evil and if we were created in God’s image, then why should he be considered so? Christians are raised and taught that they are not supposed to question their religion, but follow it blindly. They are taught that God is good and Satan is evil. There are no concessions to this. It is black and white. There is no blurring of the lines. It is wrong and dangerous to think this way. If Satan were as evil as the Bible made him out to be, then why is it, as @eeeegads clearly pointed out (with her sources mind you), most of the acts of violence and horror are committed by God? God demands you follow him and worship him, and no one else. God committed horrendous acts on the people he supposedly created and loved because they dared to defy him or because he wanted to “test” his followers faith. Honestly, does that sound like someone who is inherently good?