What If Evil Is Universally Accepted As Good?

By James Donahue

A recent writing by Edward O’Toole dared to ask the question displayed in the headline of this story. In his article titled “Gnostic Musings for Halloween,” O’Toole also asks: “What if, through centuries of persecution, the mephitic has subdued the majority into a numbed, blind belief of which any questioning incurs retribution?”

O’Toole, obviously with tongue-in-cheek, then proceeded to put on the record all of the smiting and killing of humans by God as recorded in the Bible, and compare them to the evil workings of Satan. He reaches the conclusion that God is the corrupted one who is constantly judging and killing people and never keeping his promises, while the worst Satan can be blamed for is tempting Adam and Eve and Jesus and giving Job a few boils. Beyond that, there is no record that Satan ever killed anybody.

O’Toole concludes that the God of the scriptures “demands absolute worship – and slaughters in horrific ways those who refuse to give it. His only desire, his raison d’etre, is to be a god – to be THE God of his own realm.”

If we give O’Toole any serious thought, we must conclude that he makes a very powerful point. There is clearly something lopsided in the Hebrew Old Testament stories. Not only is the Creator God depicted as a cruel and fearful force that appears to lack any compassion or love for “sinners” and the non-Jewish tribes, but humanity by-in-large is depicted as born into sin and incapable of climbing out of this terrible condition without having to slaughter a lot of innocent animals for blood sacrifices.

Of course the New Testament story of Jesus, the ultimate blood sacrifice, puts all of the blood and gore of the Old Testament into perspective. Thus it is Jesus who teaches us about love by purposefully walking into a Roman trap and allowing the soldiers to torture and murder him. Yup, that’s true love all right.

Since its founding, the Christian religion has grown to be among the most bloody of the four great world religions. The Christian church has been behind the Crusades and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Islamic believers throughout the Middle East and East to Spain during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. It was the force behind the witch hunts throughout Europe and America, a motivation for malicious attacks on abortion clinics throughout the United States, and ethnic cleansing murders in various parts of the world.

While he doesn’t go that far, O’Toole lays out proofs that the god of the Christians and the Jews, if it exists, has been a demonic force that never had the best interests of the human race at heart. Another suggestion, believed by more and more esoteric thinkers, is that we were planted here by an alien race of visitors from the stars, and that this race may still be manipulating our every move.

That the world is presently dominated by four great religions, all of them teaching love but none of them living comfortably with one another, suggests that O’Toole may be on to something. That US Congressional leaders connected to the secret Christian activities going on at a K-Street rooming house are stirring so much dissent on Capitol Hill, and standing opposed to every program offering a helping hand to the poor and destitute in America, is a sure sign that something very evil is in charge.