History Main / GodIsEvil

* Rene Descartes' conceptual [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon Evil Genius]] counts, given that Descartes questioned whether he was responsible for creating the world and all its strange drudgery as an illusory plane of existence with the sole purpose of deluding people like him...

* ReneDescartes conceptual [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon Evil Genius]] counts, given that Descartes questioned whether he was responsible for creating the world and all its strange drudgery as an illusory plane of existence with the sole purpose of deluding people like him...

--->'''Walter Savage Landor:''' Men in all age and nations have displayed more zeal in pulling the Gods down towards their own level than raising themselves up to the level of God.

-->Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these 10 things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! . . . But He loves you! He loves you! He loves you and he needs money.

--->'''Wiki/RationalWiki''': Maltheism is the idea that God...is like a kid who keeps removing pool ladders in VideoGame/TheSims.

--->'''[[Film/PitchBlack Riddick]]''': I absolutely believe in God...And I absolutely hate the [[PrecisionFStrike fucker]].

** Gork and Mork, who are slightly less bad. Slightly. Since they are Gods of Orks, it by default means [[AlwaysChaoticEvil strong homicidal tendencies]. However, in fact they don't actually do much, save for protecting the souls of Orks in the Warp and occasionally butting heads with Chaos Gods. So from the Ork point of view, even by human standards they look almost benevolent. They're more active in ''Fantasy'', and not nearly as nice there.

** Gork, Mork, and the Emperor of Mankind, who are slightly less bad. Slightly. To be fair, Gork and Mork are mostly better because they don't actually ''do'' anything except be an object of worship by Orks and fight each other in the 40K setting . They're more active in ''Fantasy'', and not nearly as nice there. The Emperor was a good guy while he was alive, the intolerance and all that were the actions of his followers. If he were to come back in all his glory, odds are he would flip out at how far his Imperium has strayed from what he set out for.

** The Eldar used to have a nice, normal, stable pantheon with many nice gods. Guess which ones survived the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Fall]]? [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy Khaine the Bloody-Handed]] and [[ManipulativeBastard Cegorach the God of Dirty Tricks]].]]

** What about the God-Emperor of Man? OK, he wasn't as bad as several of the above examples, but he did have quite a few nasty atrocities under his belt, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans all in the name of reuniting the fragmented human empire and creating utopia]].

* ''{{Berserk}}'': [[spoiler:In a semi-de[[{{Canon}} Canonized]] chapter, which was removed for reasons of revealing too much, God was revealed to be behind everything that happens in Berserk's WorldHalfEmpty, as he was created due to humanity's desire for there to be an ultimate reason to blame for human suffering; which resulted in the creation of the Idea of Evil, [[TheHeartless a grimdark version of Plato's Theory of Forms]], whose purpose in life was ''to literally be responsible for everybody suffering so much.'' He's ''very good at it'', having conspired to drive Griffith into his ascension as the God Hand Femto, which leads to the series theme of [[ScrewDestiny Fighting Fate]]. It can be seen as an inversion; in this case, evil is God]].

[[caption-width-right:321:"'''I created you and I will be your END!'''"]]

* In ''{{Drakengard}}'', TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed because God Is Evil. [[spoiler: The gods that the hierarchs in the CrystalDragonJesus religion pray to for salvation are in fact the [[BigBad ones trying to destroy the world]]. When they show up towards the game's [[TrippyFinaleSyndrome finale]], they appear as giant, man-eating babies]]. Yeah. As far as who created the world, the debate is out whether the gods did or the dragons did.

** Creator/WilliamBlake was a bit of an odd one. Whilst he was devoutly religious, he hated the authority and moral dictates church. His {{mythopoeia}}ic character Urizen strongly resembles the traditional Demiurge (Blake was heavily influenced by {Gnosticism}), and is often used to represent the oppressive God of the Church. It's no surprise Creator/PhilipPullman cites Blake as one of his biggest influences.

* The backstory of ''{{Naruto}}'' tells how the Sage of the Six Paths defeated the evil Ten Tails. The Sage is considered a god in the world of Naruto, and his two sons bear a striking similarity to the Biblical Cain and Abel. Guess what? It turns out that the Ten Tails is actually God. Kurama, a being created from the Ten Tails chakra by the Sage (whom Kurama calls Grandpa), has confirmed that the Ten Tails is the creator of all things. It also has no emotions, is a force of nature, and its rebirth will bring about the end of the world.

* The ''GoldenSun'' series subverts this. Yes, the Wise One can be a very harsh taskmaster and is not against setting people trials that would shatter lesser minds. However, it has a ''very'' good reason for being something of a KnightTemplar: namely the fact that it's already seen what kind of CrapsackWorld Alchemy can create. As such, it wants to make ''damn sure'' that it's used for good and that nobody screws the world over again with it. Now, the actual Ancients on the other hand - who possessed [[spoiler:''even greater power'', given that they created the Wise One]] are ''far'' more morally ambiguous given that they were the ones who ruined the world in the first place.

Compare and contrast UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}[[note]]In short, Gnostics believed that the God worshiped by Jews and by the other early Christian sects was evil...but that he also wasn't really God, just a lesser celestial being with delusions of godhood.[[/note]], EverybodyHatesHades, GodOfEvil, GodIsInept and GodIsFlawed. The flip side is SatanIsGood. See Also: GodAndSatanAreBothJerks, DevilButNoGod, NeglectfulPrecursors, JerkassGods for when the deities are not really evil but just neglectful, Abusive Precursors. Definitely the polar opposite of GodIsGood.

Compare and contrast UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}[[note]]In short, Gnostics believed that the God worshiped by Jews and by the other early Christian sects was evil...but that he also wasn't really God, just a lesser celestial being with delusions of godhood.[[/note]], EverybodyHatesHades, GodOfEvil, GodIsInept and GodIsFlawed. The flip side is SatanIsGood. See Also: GodAndSatanAreBothJerks, DevilButNoGod, NeglectfulPrecursors, JerkassGods for when the deities are not really evil but just neglectful. Definitely the polar opposite of GodIsGood.

* "The Sect of the Idiot" actually opens with a quote regarding Azathoth (see above).[[hottip:*:From the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Necronomicon]], no less!]]

** The BigBad of the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' is a self-proclaimed aspect of the leader of the Aedra Akatosh[[hottip:*: Although there's plenty of in-game literature that suggests otherwise]], whose goal is nothing less than to devour the world.

* Paul Kidd's Greyhawk trilogy ends with '''Queen Of The Demonweb Pits''', in which two characters convince the rest that all the gods are, at best, really morally dubious. It is obvious that gods like Lolth [[spoiler: (whom they spend most of the book working on killing)]] are evil, supposedly good gods like Thoth are proven to be right bastards as well, since Thoth enslaves the souls of his worshipers to operate his temple, library, and farms, intentionally mind-wiping them and keeping them ignorant so they don't think if rebelling.

* In ''DragonQuestIX'', it turns out The Almighty is kind of a royal prick who tried to destroy humanity just 'cuz. Thankfully his daughter's pretty cool.

* Depeche Mode did not want to start any blasphemous rumours, but they think that God has a sick sense of humour (and when they die, they expect to find him... laughing).

* ''The Dragonland Chronicles'' storyline by power metal band Music/Dragonland details how "The Gods" pit the Armies of the Light (Humans, Elves and Dwarves) against the Hordes of the Night (Orcs, Goblins and Trolls) in a semi-apocalyptic battle once every century for entertainment; if the Light Side wins, the Hordes of the Night are driven back to whatever unholy place they crawled out of and peace endures until the next Battle of the Ivory Plains. If the Dark Side wins, Dragonland is plunged into a century of darkness and pestilence. One century after the triumph of the Dark Side, a hero emerges to defeat the Hordes of the Night decisively, ascends to the Heavens to slay The Gods who have been driven mad with power, and proceeds to become "one with the universe", achieving apotheosis and becoming the new, benevolent God of known existence.

* ''The Dragonland Chronicles'' storyline by power metal band Dragonland details how "The Gods" pit the Armies of the Light (Humans, Elves and Dwarves) against the Hordes of the Night (Orcs, Goblins and Trolls) in a semi-apocalyptic battle once every century for entertainment; if the Light Side wins, the Hordes of the Night are driven back to whatever unholy place they crawled out of and peace endures until the next Battle of the Ivory Plains. If the Dark Side wins, Dragonland is plunged into a century of darkness and pestilence. One century after the triumph of the Dark Side, a hero emerges to defeat the Hordes of the Night decisively, ascends to the Heavens to slay The Gods who have been driven mad with power, and proceeds to become "one with the universe", achieving apotheosis and becoming the new, benevolent God of known existence.

* The BlackComedy ''ASeriousMan'' implies that God may be malicious and/or utterly incomprehensible.

-->The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: [[{{Yandere}} jealous and proud of it]]; [[EvilIsPetty a petty]], [[DisproportionateRetribution unjust, unforgiving]] ControlFreak; [[ANaziByAnyOtherName a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser]]; [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain a misogynistic, homophobic, racist,]] [[WouldHurtAChild infanticidal,]] [[KillEmAll genocidal,]] [[PaterFamilicide fili]][[OffingTheOffspring cidal]], [[EvilIsVisceral pestilential,]] [[ItsAllAboutMe megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic,]] [[EvilIsPetty capriciously malevolent bully.]]
* Some modern Jews believe that God is, while not evil per se, at least not wholly good, with the reasoning that a benevolent God would never have allowed [[WorldWarII the Holocaust]] to happen. The film ''GodOnTrial'' portrays a group of Jews at Auschwitz debating this very subject. The trial is not about whether or not God is evil, but whether he is guilty of a breach of contract with regards to his covenant with the Jewish people.

Narratives about a God that is both omnipotent and malevolent, and how we puny humans can cope with its abominable existence, can result in a CosmicHorrorStory, which is based on the complete helplessness and {{despair|EventHorizon}} of us PunyEarthlings under the powers of an alien reality-warping madness-inducing entity. But while the EldritchAbominations and strange gods of your average CosmicHorrorStory will at least leave you alone if you don't seek them out, a malevolent supreme god can be an absolute nightmare, [[BigBrotherIsWatching scrutinizing our every thought]] and [[CosmicPlaything toying with us against our will]], with us having [[YouCantFightFate little to no hope in doing anything about it]].

* Mostly averted by ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': the few times God has appeared in show, he's been portrayed as a decent guy. [[KingOfAllCosmos A hippo-monkey-cat who's a practicing Buddhist for some reason]], but a nice guy. ''Mostly'' averted because of his long-time practice of only letting Mormons into Heaven... which meant everyone else went to Hell. Including Buddhists. [[FridgeLogic Even though God himself is a Buddhist]]. South Park is ''weird''.

** Creator/WilliamBlake was a bit of an odd one. Whilst he was devoutly religious, he hated the authority and moral dictates church. His {{mythopoeia}}ic character Urizen strongly resembles the traditional Demiurge (Blake was heavily influenced by {Gnosticism}), and is often used to represent the oppressive God of the Church. It's no surprise PhilipPullman cites Blake as one of his biggest influences.