Expert: Jeffrey Eldred - 1/21/2012

Question
Dear expert,

as an atheist i'd like to discuss a thing in Abrahamic religions.
The Bible and the Quran tell us that God, when punishing a city of evil-doers, also killed innoncents therein (babies, children) .
example: Noah's flood, Sodom and Ghomorrah, the Thamud,ect...
So much for God's goodness, no?

Some apologists claim God was good/merciful with those kids and babies: "their death permits them to automatically go to heaven, being preserved from the sins they would possibly have commited at adulthood."

So, by their logic, if I kill an orphan, I'm a good guy because he'll get a better life than the erthly one.
They answered me that only God has the right to do this, because He is the creator of life.


Could you tell me what you think of their answer? Is their special pleading justified?


thank you

Answer
Hello, this is a reductio ad absurdum argument[1] that I often think in debates about God. Because this website is both public and anonymous, I want to first add the obvious disclaimer that I don't condone murder, because I believe that there are secular reasons that murder is wrong. On the other hand, I feel like I should also mention that a very similar argument can be made to argue that the pro-life position doesn't explain the afterlife of the aborted fetus in a satisfying way, which strengthens the secular pro-choice position against a religious pro-life position.


In a previous AllExperts question, here[2], I argued that God isn't allowed to do anything morally reprehensible to humans just because he (if he exists) created them and that God's might is not the same thing as God's right. So if truly wrong to murder than it is wrong for God to murder. If it's not wrong for God to murder than it means that murder isn't really wrong but God just made it "illegal".


One comment I want to make is that God creates/permits three kinds of evil. The first kind of evil is the one you mention, in which God directly destroys or harms someone by miraculous invention. The second kind of evil is the type of evil found in nature, such as natural disasters, birth defects, and diseases. This second kind of evil is the frequent subject of the Problem of Evil[3][4], which argues that God is either non-existent or unworthy for allowing the world to be exposed to this kind of evil. Even if the apologists were to successfully explain away the first kind of evil by saying that God is merciful to babies that he kills directly then they still have to explain this second kind of evil (and maybe the third). The third kind of evil is the evil that people inflict on each other, but that God allows to happen (again see here[2]). In principle, the apologist could have a different explanation/solution to each of these kinds of evil, so even if God sends the children he murders to heaven it doesn't necessarily mean that children that a person murders would go automatically to heaven.


So I can imagine several different cases on how murder might affect the afterlife of the murder victim:
1. The person is more likely to go to Heaven (for our purposes, any good afterlife outcome).
2. The person is more likely to go to Hell (for our purposes, any bad afterlife outcome).
3. The person's afterlife outcome is not affected by the murder.
4. The person could be more or less likely to go to Heaven, depending on knowable information.
5. The person could be more or less likely to go to Heaven, although there is no way to tell.
6. The person's afterlife outcome is not judged as fairly.

If you could know its case 1 then I'd argue not only is it permissible to kill people, but one would have a moral responsibility to do so. Even if all the murder automatically condemned you to Hell and made  a "sinner" in the eyes of God, it would still be morally justified if it ended up putting more people in Heaven than in Hell (not to mention completely altruistic).

If its case 2, then God is being unfair to the murder victim in a way that is unjustified. Even though it would be the murderer's fault, there is no reason for God to let the victims an infinite price in the afterlife for someone else's sins.

If it's case 3, then the only infinite consequences that murder could have is that it could make the murderer more likely to go to Hell. If that's true I'd argue that it seems a bit unfair to have infinite punishment for a finite crime[5]. Furthermore there is no impetus to making murder permissible and the net effect of banning it seems to be sending more people to Hell. This still seems like the best answer for the apologist.

If it's case 4, then God would allow a murderer to choose between case 1, case 2, and case 5 because people could time their murder in order to send their victim to a particular afterlife (like act 3 scene 3 in Hamlet[6]). It would be problematic that one would have an ethical obligation to murder good people, like in case 1, to make sure they go to Heaven before they have a chance to start sinning again. It would also be problematic if murdering anyone caused someone to go to Hell when they otherwise wouldn't, because it seems unfair to the murder victim, as in case 2.

If it's case 5, then on average murder has no impact on the afterlife, like case 3, except to mix up who would go where. Furthermore mixing this random element in with God's plan seems like it could only screw up God's divine plan, like in case 6.

If it's case 6, then God is allowing his own divine plan to be interfered with by a murderer. This would lead to a sort of Problem of Evil, because it would mean that God is managing the world in a sub-optimal way and therefore he is not acting omnipotently or not acting omnibenevolently.


So now matter what, the apologist will find it quite difficult to come up with a reasonable theology on the ramifications of murder for the afterlife. You may also be interested in a related AllExperts question, found here[7].


Links:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum
[2] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/2011/3/strange-theodicy.htm
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil
[4] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/2011/2/Theodicy-endurance.htm
[5] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/2011/8/hell-fair-punishement.htm
[6] http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/Hamlet/10.html
[7] http://en.allexperts.com/q/Atheism-2724/2010/8/Soul-making-theodicy.htm