The faithful are often comforted by the thought of a divine being watching over them. What exactly are the consequences if this is true?
Privacy
The consequences for privacy are more Orwellian can anyone could ever imagine. People are rightly concerned with online privacy and the like, but nothing can ever compare to the invasion of privacy that would result in their every thought and deed from birth being watched and recorded. Everyone has secrets. Is it really comforting to imagine we actually do not? Who really lives their lives truly believing nothing they ever do is truly a secret?
Prayer
If everything is watched and recorded anyway, why does religion have prayer? Prayer seems to be a pretty pointless exercise for an all-knowing being to demand. Why would some prayers be answered and other not? Does a benevolent god really let people die just because they or their loved ones are not praying when it knows their every thought anyway?
The Good Samaritan
By watching everything and not intervening, it would appear god is anything but the Good Samaritan taught in the Bible. What is the evidence those in need are ever helped by a god? Assuming prayer is necessary for some reason, studies have shown even it does not statistically do anything to help people recover from illness. If a god is doing anything in this most important issue for people, it is so minor that it cannot be statistically measured! However, logic tells us that if this god is really helping people the evidence should be overwhelming.
Atrocities
This is the most logically problematic aspect of being constantly watched over by a merciful being for many. Human history is just so full of people suffering the most horrible fates. From starvation, brutal rapes and murders, sadistic torture (sometimes at the hands of religious figures), pogroms, brutal societies, war and the like, any look at human history quickly brings up countless atrocities more horrible than can be imagined. Was a caring and merciful god really watching over it all?
Those defending their god will counter by saying life is a test of free will. God, in effect, has his hands tied. However, this only raises new questions. Does not a god know everything anyway? Why would it need to test people?
Besides, many of these atrocities happen to the most innocent and helpless children. What about their free will? Why not at least make a baby rapist and killer have a heart attack before he can continue on his horrendous crime?
Furthermore, any being with infinite power could surely create a world better than the one there is now. From earthquakes and the most horrible birth defects to fragile human minds that lose their grip on reality, the world simply could be designed a lot better. Evolution and blind chance look more powerful than any benevolent god it what can be seen in the world.
Most of us would regard a person who watches a horrible crime he could easily stop while doing nothing almost as sick and guilty as the perpetrator of the crime. Yet, a being with infinite power can do this on a massive scale on a continuous basis and can still be loving, caring and merciful?
If humanity really is living under conditions more Orwellian than most could ever imagine, then the being doing it cannot be the kind of being it is described as. There is something missing in the teachings of this topic.
