Dick Cheney, Jesus, and Torture

The Senate’s report on the CIA’s torture activities has recently been released. Morally, we recognize that torture is wrong and yet so many religious believers have no problem defending their imaginary deity when their religious holy books advocate for eternal torture.

According to the Bible, Jesus was a pretty swell guy who advocated for people to turn the other cheek and instructed people not to judge others. Oh, and he also told his followers that they had to hate their entire family, compared a suffering woman to a dog deserving scraps from the table, and strongly advocated for the eternal torture of anyone who didn’t worship him.

It is that last part that I find so interesting. At one point Jesus even advised that people cut off their hands and pluck out their eyes because he said it is better to lose a few body parts than to be tortured for all eternity. Many Christians claim this to be a metaphor, but what exactly is it a metaphor for? Plus, it doesn’t really seem to be a metaphor. It really seems to be the genuine opinion of the character.

The fact is that according to the Bible, Jesus was a strong advocate of torture – more so than perhaps even Dick Cheney. In fact, I might even be able to give Cheney a bigger pass on this issue because at least Cheney believes (mistakenly) that torturing people can get them to provide reliable intelligence needed to save lives. But the God of the Bible isn’t torturing people to gain knowledge. He allegedly is all-knowing. He does tortures people to punish them for not worshiping him. Could you imagine if Cheney did that?

What if some leader here on Earth said that they would torture anyone who refused to worship them? We would think this leader was horrible – the worst dictator on the planet. If someone doesn’t worship them that person would be tortured for the rest of their lives without parole or reprieve. God is even worse because it isn’t just the rest of their lives, it is all eternity – which I hear is a pretty long time.

So I have to ask, how can any moral person seriously worship a deity who created a system where no-believers will be tortured for all eternity? If you believe torture is morally wrong, how can you support eternal torture? If it is wrong for the CIA to torture someone for information, shouldn’t it be even more wrong for God to torture everyone who doesn’t worship him on insufficient evidence?

To be honest, even if I had sufficient evidence that the God of the Bible existed, I certainly wouldn’t worship him. I couldn’t worship any deity who allows people to be tortured for all eternity. God apparently has the power to stop it, but chooses not to. That is a huge difference between moral people and immoral deities. When I see someone suffering, I try to step in to help them, while Jesus just sits on his cloud or whatever and watches the show – possibly while eating popcorn. You can’t prove he doesn’t.

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