If the God is omnipresent (everywhere), how does evil exist?

Question

I've always enjoyed debating this question as a philosophy/ theology student, and am interested in hearing your answers.

Answer 1

I believe evil exists because of the way it is described in the bible. After Satan lost his war to take the throne from God it says he was "Cast down" some people interpret this to mean he was cast down to Earth, which is really hell, others take this to mean he was cast down to Hell, which is below Heaven. Whichever way it is interpreted the Bible is pretty clear on the fact that the Devil rules the Earth and the God rules the Heavens. God allows bad things to happen to good people because, as the saying goes "The sweet wouldn't be as sweet without the sour." From this I mean that sometimes, when we are going through hard times, it is no doubt that God could lift us up from our troubles and carry us to green pastures, but how would that do anything to teach us how to cope with life in man's society? It wouldn't. Instead, God looks at some situations and says "You know what, I can use that later." So the evil thing that is happening to us continues and eventually comes to an end (one way or another). Then, later in life, a similar situation comes up and, because of our previous experience; we know how to handle it.

Take the inverse of this and assume that we are never made to deal with evil ourselves; we would never learn how to cope with hard times, trials or tribulations. We can see the same principle in many aspects of our society. By giving people everything the need, without requiring them to earn it or work for it, you are not really helping them. Many psychological studies show that Human nature is to do as little as possible. If we could all be rich without working, very few of us would choose to work. I think there is a lot more truth to the saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" than we realize.

Evil exists out of necessity. Without the dark would we know what light was? Without sorrow would we know joy? Without hate would we know love? The answers are very much "No"

Answer 2

hey hey listen.....every coin has two sides isnt it? ok for good there is bad , for sweetness there is an equally strong sourness. similarly for God and his goodliness his opposite force (which also is omnipresent )Satan and his Evil is there.
its this balance between two opposite and ambivalent force , which maintains the equilibrium.......................wouldnt the world be too insipid if it is just full of naive ,too good to be true kinda ppl? yes.....so these two extremes and their mixing (varies from person to person..so some r more good and a lil bad, while others r more bad n a lil good etc) spices up this world.
just as we all know....tht in white color , the combination of all the other colors exist.....(if u have learnt in physics y the sky appears blue and the leaf appears green etc),in this world both evil n godliness exist side by side.
n if u r a theology student u must be knowing how the bright lucifer became the dark angel......the whole pandemonium issues and all....so the root for evilz evoultion was pride and ego, it was satans pride which made him rebel against god......pride is the sin.but remember this world had been created by God for Man.....and HE also gave Man a Free Will. so the choice is within man , he can choose to be free of all evil and viceversa.
and when dealing with the evilness which we may find in this world......pride arrogancy anger greed lust ................any feeling which is good to a certain extent , but which may overtake our reason and actions if it developed to uncontrolled levels.....r the cause for the present day evils,
to illustrate my point: sense of nationality and love for onez nation is good to an extent, but when it rises beyong the neede levels, it becomes something like a frenzy.....likewise we find ppl who r religious fanatics...dont we? so when we look back into history and see, wht the crusades.....the kiling of jews and very many events...were for?the answer is simple......the uncontrollled riseof certain feelings /emotions

Answer 3

The old problem with this question reside on humans ignorance and irresponsibility, like the devil made me do it. If a person do some thing that is seen as evil by others, why do we have to bring God into this equation? What about free will? Good and evil is a problem of human interpretations and human making, just like the rest of things we do to make ours life ease going or miserable. God is really indifferet to what ever we make in this life. He just provides the materials we work wtih. Of course, there's onother law just below the free will one, you rip what you sow. It is not God job to free any body from any thing, that is your merit to gain the symbolic heaven's keys.

Answer 4

Simple.

As Xtians look at it, God was the first "being" that created everything. Therefore he created evil also. Hence, God must also be evil.

As people who aren't floating in theology look at it, Good and Evil are social constructs that have been created to label actions which are either benevolent in nature, or a hinderance, to the course of mankind.

Answer 5

Simply put, evil and God aren't mutually exclusive. Omnipresent isn't exclusive to God either. That is to say it's not correct to think only one or the other can exist. That's like saying since you are in the room, means no one else can be in it. Or that because green is on this page, that blue can't be on it.

Answer 6

I have held the belief that evil does not exist. I have been attacked for thinking this but it is hard to say that evil is real. A so called evil act may lead to good. What if an evil child killer murdered Adolf Hitler when he was a kid? That evil act would have prevented millions of people dying as the result of Hitler's evil act. Do you see what I am getting at here? I do not think we should allow people to do things that are immediately harmful for society but I think we should be careful about calling things evil.

Answer 7

Unless your studies confine you to accepting the official dogma only, try reading "Rational Spirituality" available on the Dhaxem website. Conveyed only in February 2006 directly from the Source, it is already a major force amongst the Truth seeking Christ followers.

"Rational Spirituality" will fully answer your question.

Answer 8

I reject the premise that god is omnipresent. End of debate.

~or~

Perhaps god is all things, including good and evil. It is a vengeful god, no? I never considered vengeance a good trait, rather one that is aligned with evil.

Answer 9

For good to exist there must be evil, otherwise there would be neither. Everything is balanced Ying and Yang. For someone to have good luck, there must be someone having bad luck. That is how the universe works.

Answer 10

if everything would be all good all the time, you wouldn't know the good when you saw it. how can people rise above the pull of darkness and achieve greatness if darkness doesn't exist? God gives us a choice how we live our lives, its up to us to live it with honesty, integrity, and all that jazz. at least, this is what i always thought.