Brief Answer:

Show me a dictator who has the level of authority to create all things, and yet, cares enough about his people to come alongside in life and sacrifice the way Jesus did. And who then verified his authority even beyond life, and invites you to come along and care for others enough to sacrifice for them.

Show me dictators and situations like this, then this idea is more than empty words used for emotional effect.

Detailed Answer:

In a debate, Christopher Hitchens remarked, “…once you assume a creator and a plan, it makes us objects, in a cruel experiment… and over us, to supervise this, is installed a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea…”[i]

It is striking how many assumptions are compressed into such a brief statement—especially from a mind as incisive as Hitchens’. The god he describes, and the world that would follow from such a being, do indeed sound bleak, dehumanizing, and morally repellent. I would reject that god as well. But that is precisely the point: neither the scenario nor the deity Hitchens describes is supported by the evidence.

The biblical God—and the reality we actually inhabit—differs profoundly from this caricature, and is supported by a body of evidence absent from Hitchens’ imagined alternative.

• We do not need to “assume a creator and a plan” as the evidence makes this the most reasonable explanation of the evidence. See The Big Beginning, The Bigger Cause, The Biggest Purpose, and other related articles.
• Why assume we are only “objects”? Creators do not typically enter into relationships with objects—much less suffer for them, sacrifice for them, or die for them. The biblical narrative is not one of distant manufacture, but of intimate involvement and costly love.
• There is real cruelty in the world. But cruelty alone does not imply experimentation. To leap from suffering to the conclusion that its purpose is sadistic trial says more about the critic than the evidence.
• The biblical God would be incapable of being “installed,” his authority is not borrowed.
• Why label Him a dictator at all? Is God’s governance remotely comparable to that of a North Korean tyrant—or is this simply exaggerated rhetoric deployed for shock value?

Does God dictate aspects of life on a comparable level to the North Korean dictator? Did North Korean dictators create all the universe and sit in the proper position of authority to know and enforce what is objectively best for us overall? When did any dictator in history demonstrate such properties, or the care for his subjects to suffer and die as Jesus demonstrated?

To describe God as a dictator is not a critique of the biblical God; it is a misunderstanding of Him.

Hitchens and I agree more than it might appear: a cruel, authoritarian deity worthy of comparison to a totalitarian regime would deserve rejection. I would not believe in such a god either. The biblical God on the other hand comes with unparalleled evidential support of a personal demonstration of his love and our value to him.

You can see humanity’s desire to be our own god, to make the world in our image. The evidence does not support that desire, which makes many bristle at the idea of serving under anyone else’s authority. Especially when considering the horror of what absolute authority looks like in the hands of a human dictator. However, many of us have experienced serving under the absolute knowledge and authority of someone who had some good in them or their purpose.

For example, Winston Churchill was far the best person in the world, yet you can read accounts of those who served under him during World War II, and you discover some service under an authority can be the most wonderful and profound times of purpose, value, and living. Now replace Winston with an Almighty Creator, who cares about your well-being to the point of suffering and dying as Jesus did for you. And further, invites you into his family with all the privileges that entails, and allows you to make the choice to accept his ways or not. Then, simply allows the natural consequences to follow from your choice, which he warned you about in advance. And even further, has the authority to carry out his promises to you and eventually remove the pain and evil we all fear under human rule.

Those following the dictates of the biblical God come to find that his ways actually are supported by reality, on a level no other belief system or person in history remotely approach. Myself and countless others can attest to following the way of the God of the Bible, and coming to recognize the validity of his ways and taking them on as our own.

It was never a set of rules to control, it was always guidance from the One in a position to know and ensure the best way of living for us, and always our choice to accept, or reject and try a different way. Not a dictatorship, a chosen partner, who has been proven wiser than any other source that has ever existed.

[i] Hitchens, Christopher. Munk Debate: “Is Religion a Force for Good in the World?” (with Tony Blair), Toronto, October 28, 2010 — spoken remarks, available from debate archives.