Neo-Nietzschean

Well said thegdin, if He existed, He certainly would be an evil bastard.

Biff the unclean

Thank you for your casual insult. I’m a decorated combat veteran by the way. I’m quite familiar with the courage needed to get your hands bloody, and with that needed to shed your own blood.

So do you think that those poor people in New Orleans are your enemies? God is just doing a journeyman-like job by drowning them? Utilitarian is it? Just “a job well done?�?

So tell us, is it like Noah’s flood? The righteous get warned to get to safety and the evil are drowned? Of course in New Orleans all of those gay-drug using-party time-decadent-girls gone wild, drove to safety in their expensive foreign cars. The people who are left waiting for the plagues to start are poor-carless-black-Southern Baptists. Is ‘God the utilitarian’ cleansing our nation of Black Southern Baptists?

ManM

Explanation: Sometimes people are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. Do you really need examples of that? I'm simply applying that principle to God.

Bold mine. Yes, I am hoping for that. Don't you hope for a better future? All things considered, it sure makes a lot more sense than believing God is a random number generator.

Well, God obviously isn't acting according to a deontological system. That leaves utilitarianism. :huh: And why does someone need a holy book to talk about God? Plato had no scriptures when he spoke of God. When did a book become a requirement?

Then as a combat veteran, you should know better. You should know that there is more than two options in this little discussion. Crap happens, therefore God is evil or God doesn't exist? Oy...

And why would you expect me to know exactly what utilitarian outcome God might have been pursuing with Katrina? Contrary to the most of the folks quoted in the OP, I don't have a crystal ball that lets me know exactly what God's motives happen to be at any given time. I'm just pointing out your bad argument.

Biff the unclean

God’s “super powers�? prevent any other options from being possible. Are you claiming that God is “forced to choose between the lesser of two evils?�? If that’s the case then put me in contact with He who is doing the forcing and stop wasting my time with a lower ranked God.

Because you were the one who was calling all that death and destruction “utilitarian.�? That was such a heartless thing to even suggest, it held such contempt for humanity… that I assumed you must have a good reason to write it.
Now you seem to be admitting that it was nothing but hand waving.
You failed to do that. All you succeeded in doing was demonstrating a complete lack of concern for your fellow man. The folks in the OP are sure God has a good reason for the destruction and so are you. You, however, can’t even guess what that reason is but you are still sure it’s a good one. From a moral stand point that’s an even worse position to be in than the one held by the folks in the OP.

Buffman

Thank you. No example necessary.

Are you contending that "people" are gods? Perhaps I should have requested a definition (description) of your supernatural god. Or are you simply doing what humans have done since the first time one anthropromorphicized/ personified their creative image of a supernatural entity? Humans are very gifted at rationalizing their curiosity about the unknown/contradictions.

BTW, do you have a set definition for "evil?"