What's So Bad About Killing Children 2
2010

Imagine the following hypothetical scenario. Warning: the following thought experiment is graphic and disturbing, and is intended to be morally challenging. It is intended to make you use your brain.

I am in a dimly-lit, dirty motel room, sitting in a chair by the door. The curtains are closed.

A little girl is in the room.   Here's a picture for you to help visualize her. Take a good, hard look.

There is a man in the room too, and he is about to rape, torture and horribly murder this sweet, innocent child. He is a pedophile who has been convicted of raping children (both boys and girls), but has been released on parole. Sadly, he kidnapped the little girl at the bus stop on her way to school.

I am watching as he slaps the little girl, pulls out her hair, rips her clothes off. He doesn't pay any attention to me. He can't even see me. I have a gun in my lap, but I don't use it. I just sit there and watch. I don't even say a word.

The little girl is fighting and crying, screaming hysterically. He beats her, strips her, and then commits vile, criminal acts of sexual depravity on her. I just fold my hands and watch, like its a show on TV. The poor little girl. Her poor mother, and father...they are wondering where she is right now.

He chokes her until she is nearly unconscious-- but not quite. He covers her mouth with his hand, and then with his other hand he pulls out a long, razor-sharp knife, and passes it over her small body. I don't even think about interrupting him, because at that moment his 'right of free will' is more important to me than the little girl's right not to be tortured, raped and killed.

And then he starts stabbing her. I think it's horrible, of course, but I won't do anything to stop him. I am ten feet away, and I even get splattered with the little girl's blood. I could have easily pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. But I refuse to interrupt him. After he has put an end to her short life, he gets up off the bed, walks to the bathroom and tosses the knife into the sink. It makes a loud clatter. Her precious blood drips down the drain.

He walks to the door, opens it, and calmly slips out into the darkness of night. The police will never find him. He'll move to a different area and do the same thing again, many times. I know this, but I just watch him disappear into the blackness. Then I get up, turn off the light, and walk out of the motel, and never say anything to anybody. I just leave the body to be discovered by the cleaning staff.

Unfortunately, horrible crimes like this happen every day. All you have to do is search the internet and you will see just how often. It is truly disturbing. My sympathies go out to all the families who have suffered tragedies like this. No child should ever suffer.

• Christians claim that there exists a being called god, and that he is "all-good".
• They also claim that he is everywhere, sees everything, and is all-powerful.
• If god is everywhere, then he is there watching these crimes happen, just like in my story. He hears the screams. He sees the pain. He just watches it happen and lets the children die.
• Would you say that he is "good"? Or would you say that he is an accomplice?
• Under the same circumstances, what would the devil do?

One of two things has to happen here.

One: The believer, in order to continue believing, has to re-define what "good" means, in a way that includes such immoral behavior. Because of the moral gymnastics required, the believer tries to avoid thinking of things like this. Believers actually have to adopt something called "moral relativism", in which what is defined as moral and immoral changes as the circumstances change. They think it's okay if god acts this way, but it's horrific if I do. They are so indoctrinated that they suppress their own sense of right and wrong in order to protect their belief in their invisible protector. It is intellectual slavery.

Two: A person can come to the conclusion that such a god cannot exist, because logically god could not be all-good and all-powerful at the same time and allow such horrible crimes to occur. The reason why such crimes happen is that there is no invisible guardian in the sky to protect us. This understanding allows for moral integrity-- what is immoral in one situation is immoral in all situations.