Is it POSSIBLE for God to behave immorally? Has God ever behaved immorally?

Question

Would God be considered beyond reproach if he behaved immorally? If not, would God punish himself for behaving immorally or would he let Satan do it?

By "God", I man the Judeo-Christian deity, Yahweh.

And up there when I said "man" I meant "mean". Darn it all.

Answer 1

I think he has some issues with controlling his temper. Gen 9:11-16 would seem to indicate he felt the need to enter into a contract to prevent himself from wiping out the earth with a flood again...as if he couldn't quite trust himself not to.

"11And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

14And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

15And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."

Answer 2

I'd say that obviously god can't behave immorally if he doesn't exist.

But if god is as described by most religions, then he's done some things that any sane person would find appalling. Of course, the believers don't want to hear that.

I asked a question very similar to this once. My favorite answer was completely logical, but completely rejected by the faithful:

Answer from Alan:
"If there are Absolute Rules of Morality then they are absolute for everybody at everytime no matter what. Otherwise the are relativistic morality.

So, yes, by any rational thinking that I can imagine, god must be subject to his own rules.

This sees to be a big problem if you read the bible, huh ?"

Answer 3

Yes, it is possible for God to behave immorally, because he is radically free.

No, God has never behaved immorally, because he is completely holy. As the Psalmist says (77:13), "Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?"

God would not be holy if he behaved immorally, and he could hardly instruct mankind to "'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy." In this the true God is different from all the gods invented by men. Dennis Prager notes:

In the Near East, the Babylonian god Ishtar seduced a man, Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero. In Egyptian religion, the god Osiris had sexual relations with his sister, the goddess Isis, and she conceived the god Horus. In Canaan, El, the chief god, had sex with Asherah. In Hindu belief, the god Krishna was sexually active, having had many wives and pursuing Radha; the god Samba, son of Krishna, seduced mortal women and men. In Greek beliefs, Zeus married Hera, chased women, abducted the beautiful young male, Ganymede, and masturbated at other times; Poseidon married Amphitrite, pursued Demeter, and raped Tantalus. In Rome, the gods sexually pursued both men and women.

Finally, God would not punish himself because he would not behave immorally.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 4

I personally don't believe in the existence of any God, but from another perspective it would be impossible for Yahweh to behave immorally... Well... since morality or lack thereof is merely a concept created by humans, if God's actions were to be considered immoral from our perspectives, I think his actions would be considered beyond reproach since he is more than human/ non human. Maybe God is outside the scope of morality, since it is a concept created by us...

Answer 5

'God' proves throughout the bible (aka the Goat Herders' Guide to the Galaxy) that he has no morals and I've always been surprised the book is held up as some sort of moral compass.

The Decalogue Moses brought 'down from the mountain', from up in and near the sky where 'god' resides, contains no laws that the most primitive of societies wouldn't have had without the help of any gods - all tribes had to have some order to keep the peace and they were all based on: Don't touch me, my woman or my stuff or I'll kill you.

Epicurus (310 BC): If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

Epicurus: Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?

Answer 6

That's like asking if the US Supreme Court has ever acted unlawfully.

Morality does not apply to Divine Oneness.
Whatever you perceive that God has done that was questionable, such as having Joshua kill every man, woman, child, animal and teddy bear in Jericho, or Moses causing every first son to die in Egypt will always carry the disclaimer that you are not God therefore you don't understand his actual purposes.
On the other hand, Buddha said that what we conceive of as God is imaginary, and that men did these things like Joshua did.
Buddha did not say there was no God, just that people's idea of God was incorrect.
In history any given group of people always think that God is on their side. Could God be on every side?
I think it is possible but I also think that we conscious beings are all responsible for our own actions.

Answer 7

First, no. It's not possible. Second, IF, and only IF he DID behave immorally, then yes....he would be beyond reproach. Everything preached in his name will have become a lie. MASS, and I mean MASS chaos would be his punishment along with guilt, and Satan would just sit back and put his hooves on the desk. Lol.

Answer 8

It depends whether puny humans can judge the actions of god or the gods. The Gods are presumed Good, but the high gods, including YHVH, eventually came to detest their creation, mankind, and sought to destroy them by commiting genocide, by sending a Flood to destroy them all, or was mankind just collateral damage in the gods' war or judgement of the Nephilim, Titans, or Giants?

There was a 'judgement' of sorts about 75,000 years ago that almost led to the extinction of mankind worldwide, but it wasn't a flood - it was an eruption of a super-volcano.

The "judgement" of the early Mediterranian civilizations, mainly the Minoan sea kings, occurred about the same time that Moses and the Hebrews were crossing the sea of reeds, but it wasn't a flood - it was a volcano! Mebbe, YHVH is a poetic name for natural forces that managed to kill off the "right" people?

Enough power makes deeds [as] pure as the wind driven snow...

Answer 9

It wouldn't make sense for God to behave immorally. God always makes sense.
Peace

Answer 10

We may not always know what is right and what is wrong but we do know that "right and wrong", i.e. morality, has no real meaning unless there is a God. If there is no God, then morality degenerates into doing what we feel like doing and who can say that your feelings are better than my feelings? It would be like saying that wine is good and beer is evil. It is the free will of humans that causes the suffering and evil and, because God created humans, He is ultimately responsible. But would it have been "better" if God had never created humans and given them free will? Would you allow society to make you into a puppet, e.g. frontal lobotomy, if that meant you never had to feel bad again?