Reply To: Is theism evil?
Theism is way too broad for that kind of adjective. Asking if theism is evil is like asking if Americans are tidy…the answer is…some yes…some no…some sort of…some N/A…and so on. A theist believes in a God…nothing more. There are numerous types of theists and even within their various clans they can have wildly different ideologies.
Are ISIS style scum an example of theists with an evil ideology? Yes…according to the theory of evil that I dig the most. Are Catholic theists scum? I would say a very small percentage of them are…and those who are could really write the book on long-term-full-out-how-to-be-evil-and-get-away-with-it-for-a-long-time. There is nothing about only believing in a god that is evil.
As for evil…my preferred definition is by Paul Draper (despite his sceptical theism) as “Evil as sustained indifference to sustained suffering” which becomes more extreme the more one is responsible for the suffering of another subject (or the more one can do to end it). Defining (secular) evil is difficult and could easily fill up many forums…but just on this definition alone…we don’t have to search far to find some ideologies that encourage massive doses of sustained indifference to sustained suffering. As Hitchens said…just take the letter B and look at Belgrade, Belfast and Beirut. There are virtual supermarkets of evil religious ideologies there. And for those religious apologists who claim that such conflicts in those cities all really about a cultural war rather than a religious one…then move on to the letter K…you can find truly wretchedly evil ideologies in Kabul, Kirkuk and Karachi where cultural differences have next to nothing to do with it and where religious extremists say as clearly as possible “our religious ideology is behind everything we do”.
