The picture you paint also relies a few assumptions. Firstly that the devil (or a devil like entity) is more powerful than the God to a point where the Devil can distort logic but the God can only pass on messages. And if the God is passing on stories of his existence, isn’t that also distorting logic, physics and everything else that is measurable? Secondly, that the Devil can not only distort logic but also reality. The maths argument is only relevant if you attribute labels to quantities. If I have two apples, and I add two apples, there are four apples. I can see, taste, touch and smell them. Whether or not the Devil makes me believe that four objects should be labeled “three” is irrelevant. And no doubt, this would have been debunked long ago.

If you look at our world, you’ll see that it’s evil to the bone, and that it’s the very laws of nature that make it evil. So, quite obviously, we’re in some sort of Hell. And we love it.

Psychology tells us that our brains cheat us all the time, making us believe we lived in quite a different world than the physical one science describes. Now imagine, two and two was three, but there was some sort of demiurge that wanted you to believe it’s four. He would twist your brain to make this seem normal. He would fake the results any time you actually do add up two and two. He would manipulate logic, mathematics and physics to fit his illusion. With other words, he would create a whole universe for you, where lies are truth and truth is lies.

In such a universe, people believing the bigger, deeper outside truth would look like a bunch of idiots. And they would be losers. Isn’t Jesus’ turn the other cheek philosophy essentially suicidal?

Now imagine there is a being outside that can’t help us directly, but can send us information how to get out. This would prove to be a difficult task. He would have to make us accept information that sounds stupid, illogical and harmful, and he would have to make sure this “rubbish” survives somehow. He would have to play by our rules, using techniques that work in our world. He would have to create dumb, unjust, belligerent religions, he would have to support intolerance and wars, because we, creatures of Hell, wouldn’t buy his teachings otherwise. The relevant information would be the one kings, priests and most believers preach but don’t live by, the one that only freaks and losers take seriously.

Of course, kings, priests and most believers wouldn’t get out, go to heaven or wherever it is. They would be nothing but useful idiots, making sure that the information is passed on and spread around. If you want to be an angel (again?) you have to behave like an angel, and this is only possible for a few crazies and outsiders in each society.

As I said, I don’t believe in any of this. And I don’t care what makes you feed the hungry, religion or your own moral principles. Hunger feels like hunger, so it has to be ended, and it doesn’t matter much if you do so because you are a God’s whore, paid with a ticket to paradise, or because you are an atheistic megalomaniac who thinks he is able to understand enough of the world. I think as long as you fight hunger, you’ve got the right information. If there is a God or not, is irrelevant.