How come there is evil in the world?

Question

Either God wants to abolish evil, but can not;
Or he can, but does not want to;
Or he can not, and does not want to.

If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent.
If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked.

If he neither can, nor wants to,
He is both powerless and wicked.

But if God can abolish evil, and wants to,
Then how come there is evil into the world?


— Epicurus
Greek philosopher
341-270 BCE

Answer 1

LOL! Evil is not in the world, it is within ourselves just as good is within ourselves. Even Jesus said "Defilement comes from within."

You and Epicurus would do better to ask yourselves "Why is evil in me?" If you find the courage to face your own shadows, the darkness within yourself and deal with the issues that cause them, in a healthy way, then you won't feel so prone to worry over such trivial things: As Gandhi said "Be the change you want to see in the world."

"Good" and "Evil" are drawn from the same source as Creation and Destruction; they are part of the forces of nature and are necessary for the continuance of life; free will.

You have probably heard that the apple is the fruit of knowledge that is spoken of in the Bible; this lore is actually drawn from Mysticism. The apple has long since been a symbol of the structure of the universe: If you cut an apple cross ways you will find two stars; one with the point up (Creation and light) One with the star down (Destruction and darkness). These are the laws of nature that create our aptitude for good and evil, but it is not in either creation or destruction, but in how we choose to deal with these things; how we chose to deal with life. And this is why evil is in the world, for it is to each of us to choose, and this is why God doesnt seek to eradicate it from existence, for it is part of free will.

As the Wiccans say "What ever you do comes back three fold," so the Christians confirm "You shall reap what you sow."

Answer 2

Actually, a perfect world would be very boring. How do you define a good day without bad ones in between? What's so special about Christmas if it was Christmas every day?

Still, I think God should have gone with fewer mosquitoes, fault-lines and volcanoes. The world cannot and should not be perfect, but it could be better...

I have no idea what God's idea is. Perhaps he thinks watching us kill eachother is somehow funny. I personally wouldn't have put the uranium in the continental crust so we could build nukes, or tweaked the laws of physics when I was writing them or something. And wtf did we do to deserve smallpox and all the other diseases? A simple "Stop being sinful!" written in the stars would have gotten his point across nonlethally.

My theory is that he's like Bill Gates. He's got the monopoly, and just doesn't try that hard because he doesn't have to. Who's everyone going to go to? Satan? He's even worse than God, and Macs don't run most videogames. Mwahahahaha!

Answer 3

Evil is in this worldwide as a results of fact we abuse our own freedom. God provided us freedom, yet He did no longer provide this to us for our own, selfish applications. Why then did He provide freedom interior the 1st place? that is as a results of fact He needs us to income a thank you to regulate it. God is giving, and He did no longer opt for to create a worldwide that mimics a central authority under dictatorship. With freedom, He additionally gave us intelligence. Intelligence and reason are seen the final characteristics of guy, different than for Compassion. we be able to be attentive to if what we are doing is robust, and we've the liberty to make your mind up on if what we could desire to do is evil or reliable. it fairly is fairly helpful to verify greater approximately this subject count. only look for St. Augustine's perception in this.

Answer 4

Dear Xavier M,

The Bible God's Word teaches that the first time Jesus came to the earth -- it was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. When sin entered the world- evil entered. Sin was not created by God- but by man's disobedience. The second time Jesus comes to the earth- it will be to judge evil. When we read about things like Armageddon and the Anti-Christ this is all part of Jesus punishing evil in the world.

2 Peter 3:9 tells us - The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is longsuffering towards us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

When we read this passage one question we have to ask is why is God longsuffering? Why would a perfect, all-powerful God suffer?

He suffers because He sees His beloved creation in rebellion against Him and so many of the evil things that we see in this world. It isn't hard for anyone to identify that the world is full of evil. And it is painful for God to see it. But to end it He would have to come back and bring judgement and He is waiting to give more people an opportunity to repent and know Him.

God has the ability to keep us from evil but He also values our freedom.

And so the implication of your argument is false because God can abolish evil, does want to abolish evil, but wants to see some people who have their hearts bent on evil repent. And so it pains him to watch evil. Evil is in the world because man has chosen to follow His own ways instead of God's ways.

And it breaks God's heart- but He still values our freedom enough to give us the choice to reject or accept His Love through His Son Jesus Christ.

Hope that helps.

Kindly,

Nickster

Answer 5

Evil is non-existent.
We pour water on our books, that is evil; we pour it on a young plant, it is good.
We leave a kid in the sun for long hours, that is evil; we have him bathing in the morning sun for about 15 minutes, that is good.
So evil is only some wrongdoings of man; if he learns to do things in accordance with the divine wisdom, evil will disappear.
The One True God constantly sends His Divine Messengers with Their Holy Books to teach us how to do things rightly. We ignore them, we kill them, and keep on acting by the dictate of our limited knowlege and even with blind desires, then we keep on asking why evil exists!
Why don't we just ponder for a while about our behavior?

Answer 6

ehe has the ABILITY to do so, and would like to abolish evil....but he won't do it--if he were to do so, he would take away free will...and the simulations that perfect the equation of life and our system.

To do this would be a greater follie than having evil itself. Therefore, he lets humans play it out. He hopes WE will one day create the world he envisioned. For after all, he created US in his image. Its only natural to assume one day we will help out creator, hand in hand, in his own creation. We have just not matured enough to make this world happen. But one day, it will. We may require to genetically engineer ourselves and have other mechanical augmentation to acheive this....it is up to us, to create this world, IN OUR IMAGE....for it is the perfect conception that we strive for (jsut the fact yo uare thinking of such a world, means we desire it to be thus)...

Thus, it will be such a world--but it is not in God's hands, he did his job (created us), now its our part.

Do not blame the problems of the world on God.

Answer 7

maybe he can and wants too but if he does that just yet it will mean destroying a lot of people who could be saved maybe it is an act of mercy and kindness so that we may have the chance to be put right with him instead of being destroyed. God counts sin as evil and to god there is no such thing as big and small sin, as some that are worse than others. if he was to get rid of sin this second many who could be saved would be destroyed. just a thought.

Answer 8

First of all, evil is not of God, it is of the devil. Second of all, read Revelations and you'll know what is going to happen when Jesus comes back. Third of all, stop reading Greek philosophers.

Answer 9

I can't tell you why God this or that. There are opposing forces at work though.......... it's completely natural. Just like the battery that runs my iPod. There's a positive and a negative.
It's what makes us work..... gives us meaning and a sense of purpose.

Answer 10

I read a poet that said "hurt is love in disguise beckoning us to itself".

I take that to mean that people that hurt us are there to give us the oppurtunity to grow. Life is for growth and it seems we need pain as motivation to grow (growth being synonymous with movement towards "unity and diversity")
I just assumed that evil is mans selfish desires as opposed to unity and that selfishness of one causes pain in others.