Why did God create evil?

[gareb]

---

FYI He did create a perfect world. does "eden" ring a bell? It is through man's fall that destroyed that perfect world. Yeah I'm taking this from the Bible and since you do not believe in it nor believe in God.. I think this doesn't make sense to you.

i beg to differ. there is a chink in the armor of perfection. the possibility of spawning evil in the world. the tree of knowledge and adam and eve's choice. god himself provided the key for us to unleash the contents of pandora's box. god created the undoing of man at the very moment he created us. he knew this, but went on.

eden was not really perfect since evil still exists there. the serpent. temptation. the possibility of the Fall. it is as imperfect as the world, though different in many aspects. perfection. my friend, is an absolute concept that has not been fully shown anywhere without skepticism and doubt of the manifest's perfection.

i fully understand what the bible teaches. i know this for a fact because i read it, not adhering to the religiosity that it conveys, but to study it as a reflection of humanity's means of adapting to a holistically hostile world. i may not agree with some of its basic teachings ( such as the existence of the divine ), but it is also the same as me not agreeing to certain tenets and dogmas that certain groups of people adrhere whole-heartedly in the past. nazism, for example. there is no comparison, of course, expect for the fact that both are creeds, sets of morality (or immorality as u may suggest of the latter).

IMO being omniscient doesn't mean you can do EVERYTHING. even God cannot make Himself turn into pure human coz that would make Him no longer God. by being omniscient He can only know what will happen if you do this or you do that.

on the contrary, what being omnipotent means is that one can do anything he/she/it wishes. being omniscient means that he can see everything ( past, present, future and knows absolutely everything ) this is quite similar to being omnipresent or being present everywhere.

being omnipotent, god can do whatever it is that he pleases. discretion and choice are the only limits that hidner him. but being an absolute being, he actually knows everything and can do anything. big question is "why all the evil?"

as taught by christianity, god manifested into the world in a form of a human being. jesus. that in itself is a contradiction to the limits us humans set on the gods ( them unable to become human or assume human form ).

What you are talking about is controlling man.. and God can't do that because he gave us freewill.

the concept of free will in itself is blotched. in the hands of an absolute being, it is basically useless. he knows that by giving the "gift of freewill" he allowedevil into the world. he knows this because he can forsee what the future holds. he even forsaw his giving the gift if freewill even before he did. and gave the freewill he did.

we see from above that it does not necessarily matter if freewill was given or not. the fact remains that an omniscient and omnipotent being knows the consequences of giving such gift and acts accordingly. it seems now that the fault of evil is relegated to humanity bearing the gift of freewill, instead of the omnisicent, omnipotent and superior being who gave the gift in the first place; a being who knows the consequences and could have done something, yet evidently did not.

in greek mythology there is a power arguably greater than the gods of olympus. and that is the three sisters of Fate. as it seems, if the power of Fate is real, then the god that we know seems to be under its sway.

[Neural_AI1]

EVIL is created by people...people influences or makes people do a lot of things....people makes people sad, people makes people happy, people makes people kill, people makes people say bad words, people makes people take drugs, people makes people think dirty thoughts, people makes people an educated person...its up to u to decide which path u choose. :8O:

[dreamgirl]

of course i would choose which i think is the right and best thing for me. I am in control of my life, i make my own path and i don't want any barriers hanging around my road so when i walk down i don't stumble and fall

[The Vampire Lestat]

First of all, let me point out that:

God DOES exist.

Humans in themselves, with their meager knowledge cannot, cannot cause all the paradox that plagues the universe. Have you ever wondered how perfectly the human body was constructed, how everything seems to be interconnected, how one thing cannot be with the other. This is a work of art. A non-living entity, one without a soul, cannot even begin to comprehend art. Art emanates from the whirlpool of thoughts and emotions one acquires in the subconscious. If there was no God, there will be no soul. And if there is no soul, how can we be any more than mindless robots composed of decaying flesh and cold, unfeeling blood. How can we exist at all if there is no Almighty being to have created us?

This also applies to the existence of Evil. God did not create evil, but this Evil awoke merely from the existence of the Good. Lucifer was an angel, was he not? And, you have to admit, there must have been a time when he was purely Good. Out of amibtion and hatred, Evil sprung from this Good, and marred his spirituality to become Evil. As I've heard it said before, "Light cannot be without shadows." God allows these shadows to exist only because He gave us the FREE WILL to choose. If there was only Good, then what would be the point in giving us this will?

And as for chickens. They live only to satisfy Man's needs. They do not possess the knowledge or even the hunger for knowledge that is imminent in humans. They do not possess the kind of spirituality that defines being human. All they possess is the will to survive. But that is only a conrtovery rooted from the paradox that inhibits this world.

[gareb]

The Vampire Lestat:

a rather anthrocentric view of human nature. and of course, the first assumption has to be tested ( if it is testable ), before we can begin to dissect your arguments.

refer to my previous posts for more details.

[Brahman]

As I said before on page 13 of this thread, this topic cannot be satisfied unless both parties arguing believed in God .

if we both believe in God and the bible, we surely can get to the point and not only speaking of our predicament, which is coming from nowhere. Peace

[oblaxz]

ohohohoy... way to go gareb!

[gareb]

Brahman:

it is not necessary really. though the title of the thread in itself assumes that one has to believe in the existence of the divine, the point of the thead, i believe, is why evil exists and what is its nature and origin. the statement that god is supposed to be the origin of evil is in itself an assumption that one can agree or disagree with.

oblaxz:

wla man taon koy gihimo oitz... ngano ba? :mrgreen:

[Brahman]

Gareb:

Lets create another thread then and call it "Why evil exists and what is its nature and origin" as you said. This thread on my understanding focuses on God, as needless to say, only bible can correctly describe its whole existence. So if you don't believe in the bible, as I said, it would create a roller coaster discussion and even if we reached 1K pages, this issue still hanging.

What I'm trying to emphasize to the viewing public, (although I knew I'm not in a position to say this) since its proven that God really created evil as written in Isaiah, may we expand this and try to analyze why Isaiah saying this to us. Is it literal in nature or another symbolic terms which we usually found in the bible. In this regard, may we come up a conclusion later on. Thats why the author of this thread asking a question like this (Why did God create evil).He wanted us to express our views and discuss it and come up a conclusion. Peace

[The Vampire Lestat]

But there IS no conclusion. Or perhaps there is, but it is useless to assume that any of us, wise or not, can come up to it. With our meager knowledge and with someone always having a different opinion and with the true nature of such knowledge out of our hands, the only real progress that any of us can do in this discussion is to... discuss. The very same thougts will recurr throughout this section, and there will be no end to it. Then again, that is only to my opinion.

But I will still hold on to my beliefs. God is as real to me as this computer that I'm staring at as well as the keyboard with which I am now typing this post. And Evil -- whether God created it or not -- is just as equally substantial. As of God having created evil (which is, the original topic) I will stick to presume that the Bible is accurate. Though I also think that maybe Evil is only God's alter-ego. Perhaps that would be an easier explanation as to how powerful this evil is.

However, since there is no real way to prove the authenticity of my theory, I will just leave you with the possibility that it is -- indeed -- authentic. But you could always tell me, "What if it's not?" I'll understand.