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[Letters]

Why are we to believe that God/Jesus is good and not evil?

If you think about it, if God/Jesus was evil then he would tell us the exact same messages that he already tells us now. So what is there to show that he is indeed good, as opposed to just doing seemingly good acts (even that is debatable, the Old Testament God seems horrendous to me) in order to eventually trick us in the end? Is there some inherent reason to believe that is the case?

And you can’t say “faith” because there’s no reason to assume that you’re putting faith in a good god as opposed to a bad one. Satan would also tell you to have faith in him.

[jimwalton]

Let's try this approach, by way of analogy.

If a man says, "I always lie," is he lying?

Well, if he is telling the truth that he always lies, then we have identified at least one occasion where he is telling the truth, and therefore his statement is nulled.

If he is lying when he makes his statement, then he is admitting that he doesn't always lie, and therefore his statement is nulled.

Therefore his situation ("I always lie") is impossible.

So, is God lying by telling us He is good? Is this the ultimate deceit? In the same sense as the above analogy, it's an impossible stance to maintain.
If we have any discernment of good and evil, which most of us do, then we know what goodness truly is and looks like and what evil is and looks like. We can make a test based on definition, observation, and consistency. Eventually a person's evil will show. If it never does, and the person is genuinely good, then the person is not evil.

We can look at God's acts as revealed to us in the Bible to determine if God is genuinely good or evil. We can evaluate God on definition, observation, and consistency.

[Letters]

But we cannot evaluate God’s acts as revealed in the Bible, because a deceitful god could simply fake the Bible.

[jimwalton]

Let’s play through the possible scenarios.

First: God is allegedly evil, but He is good all the time—allegedly to trick us. But if everything He does is good, and He is good all the time, then He is not evil at all. He is perfectly good.

Second: God is allegedly evil, and He is evil all the time. This is no trick at all. God is just evil, and discernably so. We are not fooled in the least. And, if this is the case, He is not God.

Third: God is allegedly evil, but He is good some of the time to trick us. The problem with this scenario is that we wouldn’t know this unless we could tell, in which case we aren’t being tricked at all. If we can’t tell, then we are truly ignorant of right and wrong, and such concepts are meaningless to us, so it doesn’t matter that God is evil but pretending to be good.

In every scenario, the claim that we are being fooled by a trickster God is nonsense.

[Letters]

First scenario: How is he “good” all the time? What is stopping him from simply saying that he has done good acts?

Third scenario: if god was actually evil, he could easily twist our perceptions to think that evil acts are actually good.

[jimwalton]

The first scenario: If God only EVER does good things, and is always good, then in no sense can He ever legitimately be described as evil, nor can deceit ("simply saying he has done good acts") be part of His character or actions. If He is good all the time, that rules out "simply saying he has done good acts."

The third scenario: Yes, but since you are admitting that we have the capacity to perceive or determine good from evil, then eventually God would be found out. If He is not good all the time (#1) and not evil all the time (#2), the only way we would know that is if we have radar to discern the difference, meaning that eventually His deceit and evil would show and we would recognize it. Whereas some may get hoodwinked, the truth would come out and He'd be recognized as a deceiver rather than God. In other words, only the most gullible or naive would continue to believe God was all good when it was obvious to most what the truth was. It's this way with most things: Eventually theories like flat Earth or geocentrism are accepted by only an obdurate few.

[Letters]

Ah I understand your first point, fair.

As for the second point, if god is capable of changing how we think, why do you think that we’ll ever find out that we are wrong?

[jimwalton]

The problem with this position of yours is that you are negating your own theory. The fact that you have this question reveals that you do indeed have a sense of right and wrong and that you think you have enough evidence to question whether or not God is good. Those all by themselves show that (1) God is not manipulating our thoughts, and (2) you think there's true potential to determine this matter.

So the question for you is: If God is manipulating our thoughts as you wonder, then you would never know it. But since you are having this question, you are showing that God is not manipulating our thoughts to the extent that we will never find out that we are wrong. It can't be both ways.

[Letters]

You don’t think I can ask questions and be manipulated at the same time? What if I’m just falling out of line right now, but he’ll change my mind in the near future? Maybe he’ll keep me in a perpetual state of questioning?

[jimwalton]

Of course you can be asking questions and be manipulated at the same time. But what I'm implying is that if God is manipulating you as you wonder—that He is really evil—then He's doing a lousy job of it because you've already figured Him out with not that much effort. And if He's that easy to figure out, He's just not able to do what you are accusing Him of doing. He's too stupid to do it right or do it well. So you've disproved your own point, because God is not able to trick you. You've got His number.