James, you were very close.
St Augustine was a rationalist philosopher, so basically he believed that if you could prove a thing existed through a good argument, it really didn't matter if you can see it or not. He says that God is all powerful all seeing and all around, but argues that evil is not an entity in itself. He thinks that evil is simply the lack of goodness, just as dark is the absence of light.
However, it can also be argued that God gave us free will so that we could choose our own actions. Surely if he made us do good all the time, this would take away our free will. So you have to ask yourself what is most important, having no evil in the world, or having thr freedom to do what you, want when you want?
Another theory is that as human beings with free will, we have the potential to do good in our lives. People who do not do good simply haven't reached their full potential.
2007-03-16 04:49:49
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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Everybodyz alwyz looking 4 some excuse 2 argue about d existence of God. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good and merciful. with the persistence of evil now, in the old dayz, He'd have wiped us all d face of the earth. He giveth n He taketh away n His time is d best. Leave it to Him.
2007-03-15 22:09:06
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answer #2
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answered by osi m 2
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Gog, placed here on this insignificant little planet, gave us life and walked away. "It's all up to you". 'I have given you the mechanical/technical aspects of life. now you can take it from there and make it work. If not then there won't be anything left. No more wars, no more murders. no more fighting for the almighty dollar, no more earth' Evil or goodness is up to us and it doesn't seem that we will win that one because man is inherently evil.
this has nothing to do with a Devil (we are the Devil within us) and since we are born with this evil streak in us we are doomed/ Religion will never remove it in all people/ Just read many of these answers and judge for yourself. When man is replaced by another species of animal we will undoubtedly see changes made to his brain whereas he can now extend his hand in love. No more wars. No more hatred.
Or there won't be a superior replacement for man and he will become as extinct as the Dinosaur.
2007-03-15 22:22:57
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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Unless what we call "Evil" actually has a larger purpose than we can see.
Consider that as a parent, you should not protect your children from every misadventure in life, because it doesn't prepare tham to handle the dificulties of life. Sometimes you have to let them fall so they learn how to pick themselves up.
Perhaps the purpose of life is all about fostering human growth potential. You can never embrace the "Good" unless you are free also to embrace the "Evil." Therefore, evil must exist, or people will never grow.
You develop muscles by overcoming and lifting heavy painful weights. You develop morally by overcoming and lifting great evils. It's all about growth. No weights, no muscles. No evil, no growth.
2007-03-15 22:09:34
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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You're forgetting freewill. God allows us to be who we choose to be. Good or evil. If he forced our hand, made us do good then we wouldn't be people we'd be puppets & we might as well not even exist. The whole point of this life is a test. We are put here to make the most of it. Some of us will choose to love & to create & others will choose to hate & destroy. God lets it all unfold because that's the deal with this world. He sorts us out in the afterlife. Evil people will go to Hell. Simple as that. This life is pretty short. Less than 100 years usually. The afterlife is eternal. So don't fret about bad people getting away with anything. They'll get theirs.
2007-03-15 22:10:30
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answer #5
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answered by amp 6
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i imagine that your reasoning comes for the period of as sound. yet Pascal's wager sounds fairly strong on paper, too. both anticipate fairly some issues about a god (benevolence, omniscience) that ought to't be shown to start with. those ideas are more advantageous powerful: there is not any clinical information for the life of a deity or any suitable non secular view. faith killed more advantageous people in the international than something else. people have a genetic propensity for spirituality and information the international, consequently explaining the early advent of religions and deities to interpret life.
2016-11-25 23:28:35
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answer #6
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answered by colyar 4
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Actually, that is ONE definition of God; it was very popular with ancient philosophers, and has come to be the accepted definition of God in Christianity and Islam...but it is not the only possible definition, and may not even be correct.
While not a straw-man argument, it is the next best thing; the terms proposed are so limited and contradictory that no real discussion is possible.
Since the theory is non-falsifiable it is not science, and barely philosophy.
2007-03-15 22:31:43
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answer #7
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answered by P. M 5
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This short story may answer your question:
------------------------------------------------------
A man went to a barbershop to have his
hair
cut and his beard trimmed.
As the barber began to work, they began to have a good
conversation.
They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the
barber said:
"I don't believe that God exists."
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go
out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned children?
If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.
I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these
things."
The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond
because he didn't want to start an argument.
The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.
Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the
street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed
beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.
The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again
and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not
exist."
"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber.
"I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"
"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because
if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair
and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."
"Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people
do not come to me."
"Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES
exist! That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look
to Him for help. That's! why there's so much pain and suffering in the
world."
2007-03-15 22:21:26
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answer #8
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answered by The Knowledge Server 1
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Yeah sure, if god was indeed, "perfectly good". The problem is that all the evidence to date indicates that if there is a god, he is not "perfectly good", but he is a nasty bit of work.
The first evidence of that would be when he set up Adam & Eve with a test that they could not possibly pass and then using their failure as an excuse to punish their descendents forever. But then, he knew ahead of time they'd fail, didn't he?
2007-03-15 22:14:17
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answer #9
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answered by canucklehead1951 4
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but truely if you look at the biblical side of things and join them with the philisofical then you can reach an understanding of the there ar two main views that of St agustine (a follower of aristotle) and Tomas Aquinas (a pupil pf Plato). but surely evil is the absence of good similar to dark is the absence of good. but if you take things from another point of view is good not merely the absence of evil?
2007-03-16 03:33:39
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answer #10
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answered by James P 1
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