Maltheism  

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Maltheism is the belief that God exists as a cruel, arrogant, abusive, and untruthful being who is not worthy of worship. The problem of evil does not prove to a maltheist that God does not exist, but rather proves that God is a liar.

Maltheists describe the opposite point of view to theophilia, a term which refers to all those belief systems claiming that God is good. The term makes a distinction between "theists" and "theophiles", to distance maltheists from the presumptive conclusion that anyone who believes in God must believe that he is good and worthy of human devotion. Theists are simply those who believe that God exists, and maltheists of course qualify by this definition as theists. Theophiles are theists who believe that God is good, who (to take the term literally) love God. (Strictly speaking, those who agree with maltheists that God is not good—or who do not care whether or not God's actions qualify as good—but choose to love it anyway, perhaps out of misplaced devotion, or out of fear, or to curry favor, also qualify as theophiles.) The point is that not all "theists" love God, and the term "theophile" explicitly distinguishes those who love God from those who do not.

Many maltheists believe that God is dependent on the worship and adoration of human beings for its existence, and hope that if it is deprived of humanity's worship, it will wither up and die, leaving humanity better off. Maltheism seeks to encourage people of all theophilic religions to see God as it truly is, to stop worshipping it in any form, in order to achieve true human freedom. If God is indeed evil, as the maltheists say, and if its goal is not the benefit of mankind but rather its own glory (something theophiles actually agree with), worshipping an evil God is a treasonous act against the human race, since it feeds the force that enslaves people in general, even if it might cause the worshippers to gain some short-term benefit for themselves. Note, however, that maltheists do not advocate forcing theophiles to give up their beliefs, they only wish for theophiles to cease their efforts to force others to believe as they do.

Maltheism is often compared with Satanism, because it advocates rebellion against God, and with Gnosticism, which holds that the God we perceive really is evil but is not actually the "real" God. Although maltheism shares many aspects with both, each of these belief systems is quite distinct and different.

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Maltheism" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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