CITIZENS FOR THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

In January 2002 I came across Citizens for the Ten Commandments on the Internet. I found it as I did a search for God Hates Sinners.

The site is a rant against Atheists by Christians.
 
It says that Atheists should not reject God because of the problem of suffering because they are not over God and cannot judge him. But if there is no answer to the problem of suffering that makes ethical sense, they can. If somebody told you not to question the king's tyranny you would consider that person to be evil and trying to prevent you seeing the evil. So, the Citizens are saying there is no such thing as morality. There is something just called morality which isn’t really and is just what God wants, it is just following his autocratic demands. Since man tells us what God wants it follows that it is really man that is trusted. How can we know that God is good or that the image we are given of him by religion is good if we cannot judge God? It is certain that if you say that God allowing evil is a mystery you are saying that the site is right. We can be thankful for the site for putting it so bluntly.
 
The site replies to the objection that we cannot know if God is good unless we judge him as follows. It says that we know that God is good and the image we have of God is good because he is true to himself and that makes him good. But that is circular reasoning: “God is good because he is what he wants to be and what he wants to be is good.” There is more to it than that. Being true to oneself doesn’t mean one is good. If God is good by nature, then how come he isn’t bad? It is easier to be bad than good or imperfect than perfect.
 
There is no practical difference between obeying a man you believe you have no right to judge than in obeying a man who gives orders allegedly from a God you cannot judge. One is as degrading and as bad as the other.
 
What they are really saying is that God is right to do what he does because he is powerful and can do what he wants. They are saying might is right. So power not love gives God the rights he has got. That is really sick and twisted and anti-love. But what else can a Christian say? What else can any believer in God say?
 
To be supreme, God has to be good for evil is a weakness. Believers say that God is goodness. He does not have goodness but he is it. His authority comes from himself for he is the supreme good. If good were independent of God his authority would not come from God for he would get his authority from seeing what good was and following it so good would have the real authority. It would follow then that we have the right to question God’s ways. We have the right to test him and his morals and to reject him if we think he is bad. But he claims to be King meaning he forbids this. The Devil was thrown out of Heaven for thinking he could do a better job than God so God will not tolerate rebellion.
 
For Christians if there were no God there would be no good. We know that is nonsense but the believer in God cannot admit that is nonsense. To deny the existence of God is to oppose goodness and to seek to destroy it if there is no good without God. Therefore to hate the Atheist and destroy him and consign him to everlasting torment is perfectly right and to love him would be to hate God and other people for it is giving him the strength to persist in denial of God. To worship God is to set yourself on working towards arrogance and obstinacy and snobbery as an ideal for you naturally have to become like the God you imagine to be the perfect being.
 
They claim it is blasphemous to suggest that human suffering disproves God. This shows exactly how religious dogma seeks to stifle rational inquiry for they do their best to make the law of the land make blasphemy a crime. Blasphemy laws are an assault against human rights. First of all God cannot be injured by what bad things are said about him for he is perfectly happy and good and all powerful. Secondly, because the law of the land should be about looking after human beings not some super-being that some people suppose exists. There is no way we can prove that God is more than just a religious invention. Thirdly, if you forbid blasphemy how can you justify letting a book exist or be published that politely questions God’s existence? Where do you draw the line?
 
They argue that all Atheism comes from Satan who was the first Atheist for he tricked himself into believing that there was no God who would punish him in order to do all the evil he wished. This view makes Atheists the main tools of the Devil and implies that before you incarcerate murderers you should incarcerate Atheists for they are more aligned to the forces of darkness and their influence is a major cause of murder. They make Christians doubt and fall into sin and into committing murder.
 
They argue that all Atheists are evil criminals though they do not go to jail for robbing banks for they have made laws to get away with their evil Atheism and bad influence. This is a clear indication that the Citizens hope to eradicate the possibility of anybody expressing Atheistic opinions and to make the law persecute them. They say that if the Christian met the Devil they would find him to be very pleasant and charming and argues that Atheists have this same false dangerous charm. They warn that Christians should not have Atheist friends because the Devil is using them to be a bad influence on you and they remind Christians that the Bible forbids association with unbelieving apostates or anybody who wants to see the Christian faith debunked and in ruins.
 
Ridiculously, the Bible is quoted to prove that Atheists know that God exists and they then say that Atheists know God exists for they use his name a lot. The implication is that if you know what is meant by God you will see from nature and his grace that he exists and if you deny him you are the vilest of the vile.
 
Then the Citizens insist that Atheists have no right to be Atheists for the right to believe in Atheism came from man and not God and God is always right and gives no such right. The citizen of any land has no right to believe that the government that rules him does not exist. That is saying the law has no authority and the law claims the authority and right to command you to believe the law exists and must be obeyed. We see then that the concept of God is opposed to the rights of Atheists and even believers who want religion to keep out of politics.
 
The Citizens say that God does not have to love you because we belong to him and not him to us. They say that if you make something you have the right to destroy it so God has the right to destroy us. They accuse Atheists of being tricked by false Christians who say that God loves all which leads Atheists to think there cannot be a God when people suffer. Their reply is that God does not love everybody and that is the answer for the problem of suffering. So if you suffer it is because God hates you.
 
Then with vitriol they say that God does not love everybody and that most people are going to hell for God hates them and that there is no free will and that God has ordained and caused the sins of the world in order to get damning them. He loves a few and he saves them. Romans 9:16-20 is quoted for it says that God hates some and that the hated cannot complain for God made them and the potter can do what he pleases with what he makes. The Bible says that man has no business judging what God does implying that though when I have to live my life and my life is my surest possession and the thing I am most sure I have I have no right to judge God if he treats me in a way that seems abusive to me. A good God would explain to me exactly why he lets evil befall me. The Citizens are right that the verses teach a God of spite and hate.

Why do we fear certain evildoers and not others or some a lot and others not a lot? Some people fear gays who are perceived as evildoers and do not fear thieves they know as much. When you are not a liar yourself or when you believe the best of everybody else you certainly don’t expect other people to be liars or cynics. You only fear in others then what you have already seen in yourself for their evil is more real to you when you have been as evil as they have been. The hatred of the Citizens for those who oppose their assumption that God exists shows they know deep down he is a myth and is just adopted for the sake of venting abuse at people they like being prejudiced against.

As hateful as the organisation, Citizens for the Ten Commandments, is, we can only praise it for not hiding what it really thinks like most Christians do.