The concept has been used frequently in
popular culture and is a part of several religious traditions in the world. Tricksters found in ethnic religions often have a dystheistic nature. One example is
Eshu, a trickster in
Yoruba religion who deliberately fostered violence between groups of people for his amusement. Another example is
Loki in
old Norse religion, though
Odin has these qualities as well.
Zoroastrianism involves belief in an ongoing struggle between a creator god of goodness,
Ahura Mazda, and a destroying god of hatred,
Angra Mainyu, neither of which is
omnipotent, which is a form of
dualistic cosmology. The ancient Greek god
Ares, depending on time and region, was associated with all the horrors of war. Dystheists may themselves be theists or
atheists, and in the case of either, concerning the nature of the Abrahamic god, will assert that God is not good, and is possibly, although not necessarily,
malevolent, particularly but not exclusively to those who do not wish to follow any of the
Abrahamic religions. For example, in his
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741), the
revivalist Christian preacher
Jonathan Edwards describes a God full of vengeful rage and contempt. However, Edwards' theology presumes a God whose vengeance and contempt are directed toward evil and its manifestation in
fallen humanity. To Edwards, a deity that ignores moral corruption or shows indifference to evil would be closer to the deity espoused by dystheism, that is, evil, because justice is an extension of love and moral goodness. One particular view of dystheism, an atheistic approach, is summarized by the prominent
revolutionary philosopher Mikhail Bakunin, who wrote in
God and the State that "if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him". Bakunin argued that, as a "jealous lover of human liberty, and deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity", the "idea of God" constitutes metaphysical
oppression of the idea of human choice. This argument is an inversion of
Voltaire's phrase "If God did not exist, it would be necessary for man to invent Him". Political theorist and activist
Thomas Paine similarly wrote in
The Age of Reason, "Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God." He added, "It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel." Unlike Bakunin, however, Paine's condemnation of the purported nature of the divine from his time did not extend to outright atheism and disbelief in all spirituality: Paine stated that he accepted the
deistic notion of an almighty mover behind all things. ==Usage in popular culture==