Is God Egotistical?
Many atheists in this day and age raise the objection that God is egotistical because He tells people what to do, wants to be worshiped, and punishes those who do not comply. This objection is rather absurd. Surely even those who don't believe in God should understand the concept of a perfect and omnipotent being well enough to recognize that judging one by the same criteria as mere mortals is, ironically enough, one of the most egotistical things a person can do. Perhaps the traditional Christian interpretation of God, where He creates humans for the sole purpose of worshiping Him for eternity, is a bit egotistical. But in the LDS interpretation, which is supported by the Bible, God wants for us to progress to be like He is and inherit everything He has.
If I undertook to give you commandments and told you to worship me, would that be egotistical? Of course. But the more pertinent question is why exactly? Because I am no better than you. I, like you, am a frail mortal being who makes mistakes, sins, and will eventually die. Furthermore, I may do nice things for you and give you gifts in return, but these will be very limited in scope because my resources are limited in scope. This is where we get the idea of egotistical behavior, and this idea clearly does not and cannot apply to a God who is superior to us in every possible respect, loves us more than we can comprehend, and has blessings in store for us beyond our wildest dreams. Our obedience and worship is nothing more, and in fact quite a bit less, than He is entitled to.
King Benjamin explained it well in Mosiah 2:20-24: "I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another –
"I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another – I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
"And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
"And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
"And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?"
Furthermore, God's commandments are not arbitrary. He doesn't give them out just for the thrill of bossing us around. They are for our own happiness, predicated on eternal laws, to guide us safely back home to Him. Sometimes the reasons are obvious; other times they aren't, but even if we don't know the reasons, we can pray and seek His confirmation that they are right.
If I undertook to give you commandments and told you to worship me, would that be egotistical? Of course. But the more pertinent question is why exactly? Because I am no better than you. I, like you, am a frail mortal being who makes mistakes, sins, and will eventually die. Furthermore, I may do nice things for you and give you gifts in return, but these will be very limited in scope because my resources are limited in scope. This is where we get the idea of egotistical behavior, and this idea clearly does not and cannot apply to a God who is superior to us in every possible respect, loves us more than we can comprehend, and has blessings in store for us beyond our wildest dreams. Our obedience and worship is nothing more, and in fact quite a bit less, than He is entitled to.
King Benjamin explained it well in Mosiah 2:20-24: "I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another –
"I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another – I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
"And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
"And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
"And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?"
Furthermore, God's commandments are not arbitrary. He doesn't give them out just for the thrill of bossing us around. They are for our own happiness, predicated on eternal laws, to guide us safely back home to Him. Sometimes the reasons are obvious; other times they aren't, but even if we don't know the reasons, we can pray and seek His confirmation that they are right.
As I understand it, for the most part, God doesn't actively punish sinners*, but simply allows them to reap the natural consequences of breaking eternal laws. One of these eternal laws is that no unclean thing can dwell in His presence, so anyone who refuses to be cleansed will be unable to get that far. Their progress will be halted. This is the definition of damnation, and this is why they must be consigned to a lower kingdom of glory or, in rare cases for the most rebellious, to outer darkness (the closest LDS equivalent to the traditional Christian "hell"). Even the telestial kingdom, the lowest one, is far more glorious than this earth, and Joseph Smith is reputed to have said that if we could see it we would kill ourselves to get there. God wants to bless us in the hereafter and gives us every opportunity to accept those blessings. When sinners are punished, it is by their own choice, and I suspect any misery they experience owes less to where they end up than to the knowledge that they could have gone somewhere better.
This part of the objection is not new either. Alma said to his wayward son Corianton around 73 BC, "And now, my son, I perceive there is somewhat more which doth worry your mind, which ye cannot understand – which is concerning the justice of God in the punishment of the sinner; for ye do try to suppose that it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery. Now behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee.” Rather than attempt to summarize or excerpt his teachings here, I will just recommend anyone curious to read the entirety of Alma 42.
If you were a parent who spoiled your children rotten but expected them to take out the trash occasionally before they could attend a party you were throwing, and you forgave them each time they forgot if they were sorry, would that make you egotistical? No. And neither is God.
*There are exceptions in the scriptures, of course. God wiped out the wicked society of Noah's day as an act of mercy toward the people who were being born into it and never getting a chance to learn righteousness. The law of Moses with its harsh penalties for crimes and sins was aimed more at prevention than punishment, and as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees many times, the spirit of the law was far more important than the letter. The Israelites were commanded to wipe out wicked civilizations to inherit their land – here the wicked were punished to benefit the righteous – but note that the command of annihilation reflected standard Middle Eastern war text hyperbole that wasn't meant to be taken literally, and the biblical text indicates that there were survivors. For more information see "Is God a Moral Monster?" by Dr. Paul Copan. And note that of course all of these punishments were temporal in nature. God will not damn any of these people without giving them the chance to repent at some point in the grand scheme of things.
This part of the objection is not new either. Alma said to his wayward son Corianton around 73 BC, "And now, my son, I perceive there is somewhat more which doth worry your mind, which ye cannot understand – which is concerning the justice of God in the punishment of the sinner; for ye do try to suppose that it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery. Now behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee.” Rather than attempt to summarize or excerpt his teachings here, I will just recommend anyone curious to read the entirety of Alma 42.
If you were a parent who spoiled your children rotten but expected them to take out the trash occasionally before they could attend a party you were throwing, and you forgave them each time they forgot if they were sorry, would that make you egotistical? No. And neither is God.
*There are exceptions in the scriptures, of course. God wiped out the wicked society of Noah's day as an act of mercy toward the people who were being born into it and never getting a chance to learn righteousness. The law of Moses with its harsh penalties for crimes and sins was aimed more at prevention than punishment, and as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees many times, the spirit of the law was far more important than the letter. The Israelites were commanded to wipe out wicked civilizations to inherit their land – here the wicked were punished to benefit the righteous – but note that the command of annihilation reflected standard Middle Eastern war text hyperbole that wasn't meant to be taken literally, and the biblical text indicates that there were survivors. For more information see "Is God a Moral Monster?" by Dr. Paul Copan. And note that of course all of these punishments were temporal in nature. God will not damn any of these people without giving them the chance to repent at some point in the grand scheme of things.
