If there were a god, and the god demands your soul, then it was never your soul to begin with.
You basically had a license to use a soul while you were alive.
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
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Theological enshittification.
"You will own nothing and worship me for it" -YHWH
If a god demands your soul for background operations, they're a daemon.
Deus ex machina.
I know religion isn't exactly the most popular topic on Lemmy, but I wanted to offer a Christian perspective on this.
"God demands your soul for eternity, so he must be a demon."
This argument fundamentally misunderstands biblical theology and relies on Hollywood tropes rather than the text.
First, God doesn't need to "demand" or bargain for your soul because He already owns it. As the Creator, Ezekiel 18:4 flat out says, "Behold, all souls are mine." You can't demand or bargain for property you already hold the deed to.
Secondly, God's ownership doesn't magically end if a person rejects Him. Pop culture paints a picture where God gets the souls of the saved, and Satan claims the souls of the damned. That’s Dante’s Inferno, not the Bible. Satan isn't the ruler of Hell collecting souls; he will be a prisoner punished alongside them.
Even for those who reject God and are cast into the fire, God remains entirely sovereign over them. Matthew 10:28 makes this clear: "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
TL;DR: God isn't a demon trying to snatch your soul. He is the rightful owner giving you a choice to spend eternity with Him as an adopted heir, or separated from Him in the fire, but He maintains absolute authority over your soul either way.
Depends on your religion...
Gnostics would disagree with most of what's written here and would largely side with OP.
I'm not extremely familiar with gnosticism, but I don't believe they think God is a demon. I think a lot of what they believe is based on duality right?
They literally believe God is an evil God and that's why suffering exists in the world. It's also why people who increase others suffering are rewarded in this world.
Just this god of this failed material realm that we're in.
They believe this reality was a mistake and the god of it is an imposter who's either gormless or actively cruel, depending on which sect.
There is a higher realm above this one though with the true big daddy good guy god in it, and that's who Jesus was on about in the new testament.
Jesus is more like a prophet to gnostics as he's the first one to pick up on and preach about the higher realm god.
(I've been weirdly into learning about gnosticism lately, it's fascinating stuff.)
So a license.
More like a slave. Licensees have the option to freely opt out, slaves face punishment if they try.
It really is a shame on Lemmy that there's generally a tone of dismissal when it comes to religion, even though it's one of many things that I believe is to each their own. I'm glad you wrote this out, it's succinctly put.
I feel to each their own for all of the religions who feel the same to people who aren't members of their religion. The ones that say people outside their group are evil or deserving of enslavement or torture, spread through violence and colonialism, or try to legislate their religious, faith-based beliefs in government should be dismissed.
it reads like fantasy
there's better fantasy novels
You see, God loves you! It's just, if you're Hindi or atheist or something, you must burn forever and ever and ever and ever... 90% of humanity must suffer for all eternity.
That's what love is, don't you know. Being tortured forever in Hell for all time, with God watching you, laughing! (according to Bible, He watches those suffering in Hell with amusement).
TL;DR: God might not be a demon, but He is certainly demonic.
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"god owns your soul" : therefore we have no true freedom and god is a gaslighting monster, and not worthy of my time.
"God does not own your soul" : Therefore I am free and god wants what is not his, and not worthy of my time
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I know religion isn't popular here because Sky Daddy isn't real, but I wanted to talk some shit anyway about the stupidity that is the Christian religion.
Humans existed before Christianity and the "made up bible" references this fact by admitting there are other gods. How can the Christian God own all souls when they are not the only god. This is an outlandish claim which is clearly bullshit propaganda even by bible standards.
Second, even if you believed the "made up bible" the word hell is not a correct translation. The context of these words were lost long ago and the modern translations of the Bible such as NRSV are even more worthless because they are literally just making up the translation based upon partisan opinions.
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You're describing a parent that thinks they own their children's souls and bodies, and thinks they can do whatever he wants to them, up to and including torturing them with fire.
That sort of thing ought to make any decent person sick to their stomach, but christians will tell you its love. It should be no wonder that there are so many pedophile priests and christian fascists that want to tell you what you can do with your own body.
I know religion isn’t exactly the most popular topic on Lemmy
Then you should go back to the hole you crawled out of.
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Does he though? You have to jump through quite some hoops for him to accept your soul at all.
Jehova created a religion so souls would stay free from sin and head towards the light at death. He's an ethereal angler fish and needs to feed. Sin is less nourishing.
He just wants to keep all the good ones. The bad and rotten ones can go to his fallen disciple.
You have reached step one towards gnosticism lol. I dont believe it but learning about Yaldabaoth is like cool fanfiction for an agnostic/atheist
if anyone is so inclined, check out the song Original Sinsuality by Tori Amos, my introduction to these other gods
What if they only want it for a billion years? Asking for a scientologist friend.
Jehovah? YHWH more like it. Some bum ass storm god from farmers becomes the Christian solo god despite having a whole ass pantheon of other gods.
Explain. Everything I know of Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai is that they're the Demiurge in their mythos, not a storm god.
I also know that Allah had a pantheon, but never heard of the same for Yahweh
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh found this about Yahweh. Suggests starting as a weather/war god before absorbing the rest of the pantheon into themselves. El was the top of that pantheon
Not sure if this answers your questions but I read a book several years ago that argued something similar.
I have a hard time believing in god, souls, eternity, and demons, so it's a moot point.
This homie gets it. Stupid Yaldabaoth causing all this BS.
Wow I love this
Fun little coincidence, it's a screen grab from this video I was watching about Gnosticism earlier today.
isn't it more your allowed in.
Allowed implies that you have a choice in the matter. The choice was made for you, though. You follow a particular doctrine as closely as possible. If the big man approves, you go up. Otherwise, down. There is no choosing allowed, except in your dilemma between instinct and faith. You may choose to police your reactions via the authority of your faith. That’s still not a choice on where you go after death, though. It’s a leap of faith toward a hypothetical predetermined outcome.
One could never be the perfect follower and also choose to go down. That was never part of the arrangement.
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