Cruelty Quote by A.C. Grayling
““If there is a deity of the kind imagined by votaries of the big mail-order religions such as Christianity and Islam, and if this deity is the creator of all things, then it is responsible for cancer, meningitis, millions of spontaneous abortions everyday, mass killings of people in floods and earthquakes-and too great mountain of other natural evils to list besides. It would also,as the putative designer of human nature, ultimately be responsible or the ubiquitous and unbeatable human propensities for hatred, malice, greed, and all other sources of the cruelty and murder people inflict on each other hourly.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Problem of Evil” in The Moral Landscape, 2010
If an omnipotent creator exists, the prevalence of suffering and human cruelty challenges the notion of a benevolent deity.
In simple terms: The existence of evil questions a kind god.
Key Takeaway
Consider moral responsibility beyond divine explanations.
Themes
theology
philosophy
ethics
evil
human nature
Mood
thoughtful
skeptical
Type
philosophical
critical
When to use this quote
- debates on religion
- ethical discussions
- personal reflection
Key Concepts
free will
problem of evil
theodicy
moral responsibility
Questions to Reflect On
- What role does human agency play in suffering?
- Can moral progress occur without belief in a deity?
A Different Perspective
Attributing all suffering to a deity oversimplifies complex causes.
![“[God is] a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser , a misogynistic, homophobic racist, an infanticidal, genocidal, phillicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” quote by Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6e8/richard-dawkins-115_god_god-is-a-vindictive-bloodthirsty-ethnic_3156020.jpg)
![“Perhaps worse still is what liberal societies might do to themselves in the face of this new and different threat [of terrorism]. They begin, by small but dangerous increments, to cease to be as liberal as they once were. They begin to restrict their own hard-won rights and freedoms as a…” quote by A.C. Grayling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/42e/a-c-grayling-9398_commit_perhaps-worse-still-is-what-liberal-soci_374837.jpg)
![“The notion that evil is non-rational is a more significant claim for Eagleton than at first appears, because he is (in this book [ On Evil ] as in others of his recent 'late period' prolific burst) anxious to rewrite theology: God (whom he elsewhere tells us is nonexistent, but this is no barrier…” quote by A.C. Grayling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6a5/a-c-grayling-9398_atheism_the-notion-that-evil-is-non-rational-is_599668.jpg)
