TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels. All of the panels take place in a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
PANEL 1
A human man, with a beard and a flannel shirt, is standing on a cloud, looking up at God, who is on another, higher cloud. (And is also much larger physically than the human guy). God is drawn in the traditional way: He has a thick white beard and is wearing white robes, and there’s a halo behind His head.
God is grinning and spreading His hands wide in a welcoming manner.
GOD: Hi there, I’m God! Good news! Because I’m so infinitely loving, good and merciful, you get to go to Heaven!
MAN: Okay!
PANEL 2
A close up of God, who as Nadine draws Him has very pretty eyes. He is smiling and pressing his palms together and looking in the direction of the off-panel human.
GOD: But if you don’t love me, I’ll throw you into a lake of burning sulfur where you’ll be tormented day and night forever!
PANEL 3
God smiles down beatifically at the human, who has raised a finger to make a point.
MAN: But… That’s horrible! And it doesn’t make sense! A good god wouldn’t torture people forever!
PANEL 4
A close up of God, with a wailing expression, as He presses the back of His hand to His forehead. He is dissolving into ash, and has already disappeared from the upper chest down.
GOD: Gasp! By pointing out a paradox you’ve defeated me! Now I must turn into ash and die like in that Marvel movie!
PANEL 5
Nothing is left of God but a pyramid-shaped pile of black ash (the ash pile has a halo behind it). In the foreground, the human has mildly surprised body language, and is rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.
MAN: Um…
PANEL 6
God, a merry expression on his face, has reappeared whole on His cloud. He’s crouching down and pointing at the human. Lightning shoots out of God’s finger, engulfing the human and instantly turning the human into a black, charred, and surprised looking skeleton.
GOD: I’m kidding! Have fun suffering in the abyss forever, loser! Hah hah!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
Chicken fat is an obsolete cartoonists’ expression for unimportant but entertaining details the cartoonist slips into the cartoon.
In this cartoon, in panel one, on the lower left, we can see a little dog sniffing at the cloud it’s standing on. The dog is wearing white robs and has a halo and white feathery wings.
We can’t see the cloud the dog is standing on again until panel five. In this panel, the dog is gone, but there’s a yellow puddle on the cloud where the dog was.
Even when the term is used in a Christian context (which isn't often) Omnibenevolence isn't used to mean all-loving except by the sloppiest Bible readers.
God is good, and is indeed the definition, source, and standard of all goodness.
Good isn't "nice." It isn't permissive. "Good" teachers don't let the worst students run the class. It's a poor analogy, but it makes the point.
Surely we don't want Jeffrey Epstein or Jeffrey Dahmer or Adolf Hitler or Donald Trump to go to heaven (although it could happen if God intervened). But WE don't want to be under the microscope! Don't draw the line somewhere above ME!
Bottom line, when we don't agree with God and his judgments, it's our understanding and not his judgments that are at fault.
"Good" is just a word defined by those who use it, like all words. Christians can say that only God is good, and I can disagree with them.
I don't think anyone should be tortured for eternity, no matter what they do. Punishment is only useful to society to dissuade people from breaking social contracts. No one gains anything by causing unnecessary pain, no matter how much we may think someone "deserves" it. If there is no way for us to hurt anyone in the afterlife, there is no need for punishment. Therefore, if God were to punish someone anyway, it would be out of cruelty rather than love or goodness.
If God's judgement were fair and our understanding was flawed, then it is God's obligation to explain in simple terms why it is flawed. Until this happens, I am unable to believe that God is anything other than fictional or cruel.
When you essentially say "What is good?," you sound like Pilate, and it is perfectly within your ability to question "good" and argue against it, philosophize, or even commit your life to it's destruction.
I think you recognize good and evil. Not perfectly, but well enough to be without excuse. Certainly we both agree that it doesn't matter what we "think," but what is actually true. We live by reality, not what we wish was reality. I know I do.