Dualism tries to blame the evil in the universe on some God other
than the all-good God. It offers two Gods. Some theorists argue that
there are two powers good and evil. The two are in a struggle. This
admittedly allows for perhaps many gods on one side and may one or
many on the other. Good and evil can be equal even if there is one
being managing one side and many managing the other.
The idea that there are two sides, one good and the other malign is too neat. Who designed it so that they would be so balanced and equal that they would have to meet each other half way all the time? Did the Gods do it or something else? If we have free will, how is it possible for there to be a universe half of sin and half of virtue?
It is hopeless as a theory. There are, however, other forms of dualism. They have nothing to add to the discussion.
The second century Christian heretic, Marcion, taught that there were two Gods. One was pure love and kindness while the other one was pure and rigid justice. The God of love was revealed though Jesus who was a phantom and opposes the strict Old Testament God of justice who gave out punishment instead of love. The God of justice is not evil but just strict.
As an explanation for evil and suffering this does not work. It says that the people whose lives are full of pain and suffering deserve it. He is going to mark you as a sinner for having sympathy for them.
The fact that there is no free will proves that neither of these Gods exist. For instance, both Gods would do nothing but good to us when we don’t deserve to suffer. These Gods have to compromise too. Both just have different understandings of good and neither would want innocent babies to suffer. Babies suffer so they don’t exist.
The Gods should be the most intelligent beings. But if they were really smart they would talk to one another to see who is right. If the God who is wrong cannot see that he is wrong then he is evil not stupid or he is evil not just rigidly just. We do not know which God is the one who is good when they do not know themselves so it is sheer bigoted taking of sides to grant allegiance to one of them and not the other. The result: we have to be loving to some monsters and deliver strict justice to others for all we can do is try to please both Gods. They cannot blame us for acting so. The result is chaos for people cannot be expected to agree on when strict justice should be done. The theory will only torture the mind of the person who accepts it.
Marcion said that the God of love was not known to the just God. But that does not get the God of justice off the hook. He should still know which is best, love or fairness. And the God of love is evil when he won’t try to change the other God.
He knows now for we have just pointed that out to him.
If we have free will there is another absurdity. Christianity and other philosophies say that sin is infinitely evil for it opposes infinite divine love and that everybody is a sinner. They even go as far as to say that if there is no such God of endless love, we sin as if there were so we are still meaning to do something terrible beyond belief. Our intentions are immensely evil even the damage we do is not. If wrongdoing is that bad then everybody should suffer all the time. But our good deserves blessings all the time. So here they cancel each other out. Suppose they did not. Reason says that we cannot take infinite torture all in one go. Or infinite good either. So punishment and rewards have to be spread out over time. The gods would have to make it half and half, a compromise.
The objection that neither God is infinite for two opposing
infinites cancel each other out is irrelevant. Each God can keep us
alive for eternity even if neither is infinite.
When Just God inflicts severe punishment it proves that he is not
interested in letting us pay in the form of tiny smarts of pain
every million years for all eternity. He considers it best to hurt
us all the time forever. But it is not best. It is an injustice to
choose the worst kind of justice for all deserve what is best. The
criminal deserves the best punishment. Marcion’s notion of a just
but not evil God is a fallacy.
We have seen that if we deserve endless suffering for sin we also
deserve endless good for doing good. The Gods would have to take
turns for when good is set to come and when evil is set. This does
not happen for it looks messy rather than planned. Nobody has their
moments where they experience justice to the hilt or goodness
either. We would have suffering one time and happiness the next
forever and ever. Or perhaps a form of predestination is true. Just
God takes half the persons and the Loving God takes the other half.
Either way there is nothing to encourage us to be good. This breaks the rule that if you are going to have a faith you need one that gets you to flourish.
When we suppose that Just God is rewarding us for our sins by not punishing us you would think that then he would act to punish us. You would surmise that he cannot delay for any mysterious purpose for he is not interested in making us better people but in treating us according to our works. Marcion’s Just God is ruining his own good name. A theology that says we attract his attention by thinking we are not punished is twisted.
Justice and revenge are seen as different. The latter wants to harm you out of hate. Perhaps it is a God of goodness and a God who does wrong against those who do wrong - revenge? The latter could harm a baby for revenge. He would not allow us to disapprove of his actions for he says revenge is right but we cannot approve of the other God’s opposing view at the same time. We will be punished for taking the Good God’s side. This is far from encouraging.
The Gods are not trying to make us good for they could do more to win us over to goodness. They could make us know what right and wrong are, which many do not. Neither the two is a real moral exemplar.
One dodgy God would do, two are unnecessary.
Some Satanic groups argue that there are two Gods, Satan and Yahweh. Satan, the God of evil, they say, will triumph over his adversary some day. Thus they argue that it is wisest to be on the Bad God’s side.
But why will Satan win the battle?
If it is because he is stronger then he should have won long ago. He has not won which is easily enough seen from looking around us.
If it is because he is smarter and will finally outwit the other God then we have another piece of nonsense. He could have managed to do that ages ago.
It is silly to say that each God magically gets his power from the support of the people who are for him and that Satan will rule some day because most will serve him. One of them must have the majority now. The doctrine presupposes the superstition of free will because no God would agree to a set-up in which his defeat is sealed which he would know if determinism were true.
Would the Gods really arrange to make a world and then decree that the God who has the most support will overcome the other God? It would be a dangerous risk for either God to take. They could go on as they are as equals. And bad God would have the power to go against the agreement. So, they would have to forget about taking over the cosmos.
It is a blunder to hold that the God of Goodness will be the conqueror. Yet this was the doctrine of the Zoroastrians of long ago, the largest religion in the world at the time of Christ until it was supplanted by his even sillier one. While Jesus said there was one God, he as good as declared Satan God too for Satan gets souls for all eternity and captures them in evil.
And there are still people foolish enough to accept cosmological dualism and the theory logically implies that it doesn’t matter if you fight evil or not for it is never going to be any better anyway.