Should God Be Tried for Crimes Against Humanity?

Could God be tried in absentia for alleged Old Testament crimes and atrocities committed against humanity in say the International Court of Justice or more likely as not the International Criminal Court? It would be no less than He deserves given a track record that puts many of our historical despots to shame. Hitler (as an example) had no monopoly on genocide.

Here’s some Christian church propaganda: God loves each and every one of us. God cares for and about us. God is a just God. God is a merciful God. God is a loving God. God so loved the world that he gave…, etc. Blah, blah, blah. Spare me the hype – what a load of crap! God’s track record in these matters is the exact opposite.

Surely the Christian churches have to acknowledge God’s very existence. Surely they have to go along with acknowledging that if God says (via the Old Testament) He did some things (that we’d consider evil), or ordered others to do some things on His behalf (that we’d consider evil), or stood by and applauded certain evil actions by others, then the Church has to accept that those evil things happened as gospel. Surely the Christian churches would have to take a position that if humans have to take responsibility for their evil actions or activities or deeds, then that applies even more so to a deity. That the Christian churches (in general) don’t condemn God for His crimes against humanity speaks volumes. 

If God exists and is all powerful, then there are no such things as natural disasters. All disasters are Acts-of-God since God sanctions them. If you could have prevented a tragedy but willingly failed to act, then in the eyes of humanity you have a lot to answer for. And note this has nothing to do with God not acting because He doesn’t wish to interfere with your free will. There’s no free will involved when you’re caught up in an Act-of-God; which need not have happened. God appears to just sit back and enjoy the unfolding show. God has a lot to answer for.

Failure to act is bad enough, but the Old Testament is full of tales of God wilfully bringing about miseries equal to, often bettering those of the worst human tyrants in human history. And in cases where God didn’t directly inflict suffering on the masses (or individuals) first hand, the Bible is full of tales where God asked others to do His dirty work and where God condoned the evil actions of others.

Without going into endless case histories (this is an essay, not a book), the word-of-God, the Bible, gives the okay to beat children and slaves, right unto death if they disobey. Rape is okay by God, as is slavery. It’s God’s will to execute those committing all manner of ‘crimes’ from homosexuality to blasphemy, to working on the Sabbath, to practicing witchcraft and sorcery, to heresy, adultery, worshiping someone/something other than God, etc. History is filled with examples of religious figures and institutions committing the foulest manner of atrocities ‘in the name of God’ because that’s what the God of the Old Testament decried. Does the Inquisition ring any responsive chords to doubting Thomases? Well similar case studies can be found within the pages of your Old Testament.  

Any God who orders up animal sacrifices is no God I wish to have an association with. Societies charged with the responsibility of speaking out and preventing cruelty to animals should speak out on this issue, since animal sacrifices is apparently condoned, and sometimes still practiced by some of the world’s major religions even today!

God hates ancient Egypt. There was all these ten plagues inflicted on the great unwashed citizens of Egypt; Then God, via Moses, drowned Pharaoh’s army as well. 

Thou shall not kill is one of the Ten Commandments I believe. So you’d think that God would practice what He preaches. But isn’t, according to the Old Testament, God the greatest mass murder in the history of the world that puts tyrants the likes of Stalin to a status of a rank amateur? I mean there is that Biblical flood story and what about Sodom and Gomorrah? You can’t trust a God who basically says ‘do as I say, not as I do’.

With a bit of help from God, Joshua and his all-star band, blew down the city of Jericho, totally destroying it, and marching inside, took no prisoners. To add to the total destruction, the remains were burned and dire warnings were given to anyone attempting to rebuild the city. If God Himself didn’t do some of the huffing-and-puffing, He sure didn’t mind the total slaughter.

And who’s the deity that actually condemns you to an eternity of torture in Hell, Hades, Tartarus, the underworld, whatever you wish to call it? It’s your ever-loving God, that’s who. You don’t get a slap on the wrist, a fine, a ten year prison sentence, hard labour – no, God dishes out an eternity of you being tortured. If that’s a loving God, I’d hate to meet an unloving one! 

In conclusion, if any human being, tyrant, dictator, general, etc. committed 1/100^th of the atrocities that God has committed or sanctioned, well I can remind you about the post WWII Nuremburg trials, the fate of Mussolini, and what happen to Saddam Hussein and cronies in Iraq. As a general rule we don’t tend to worship, rather we tend to punish, those whose abuse of power runs counter to our general sense of good government. For some reason I’m quite unable to comprehend, God seems to be the exception to the rule. Perhaps it’s time for that to change.

Since God isn’t about to willingly volunteer to stand trial for His catalogue of crimes against humanity, well, He can always be tried in absentia. Now that would put the church’s knickers in a knot for sure!