Why can't a benevolent God eliminate evil on Earth?

Question

Not to mention He is all-powerful and omnipotent

As I expected! Theists commonly respond by invoking free will to justify evil.

But this leaves unresolved the related argument from nonbelief, also known as the argument from divine hiddenness, which states that if an omnipotent God existed and wanted to be believed in by all, it would prove its existence to all because it would invariably be able to do so. Since there are unbelievers, either there is no omnipotent God or God does not want to be believed in.

Answer 1

Your going to hate this answer. God would have to kill EVERYONE. Every person has the potential to commit Evil deeds. Religion and science back this up. Hell, David sent one of his generals to his death for lust. Samson's Wife sent him to the Phillisens from the pride of her blood. Also how can you tell what is good without evil to compair it to? Also god made everything with two sides. Left and right, up and down, and forward and back.Sigmund Freud, Father of Psycho-dynamics stated that A human is made with three selves. The id, ego, and superego

. 1. The id is your primitive drive, It want only to satisfy its basic needs. Food, drink, shelter, and reproduction.

2. Superego. Think of the SE as your Jimmy Cricket . It is the part that is programed by society to tell you right from wrong. It is influenced by family, friends, culture, and your religion.

3. Your Ego is the personality of the person. It is the administrator and works to find ways to find the needs of the id and is acceptable to the SE.

Every person male and female has the same three part of your soul. If the SE is not programed right, then the person is more likely to express his id.

And girls don't forget Who ate the forbidden fruit FIRST. Also Tell the woman that sent the poisonous cookies to the Supreme Court, Never send a note saying," I'M GOING TO KILL YOU." with the cookies.

Answer 2

Who says He can't? It's easy to say that from our limited perspective and ignorance. You have to remember one important thing: His ways are not our ways. He's all powerful and all knowing and He does have a plan to eliminate evil from His creation. He first made it clear in the Garden of Eden that evil would be one day eliminated. He said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The serpent, possessed by Satan, the father of evil, is being told that one of us would defeat him. It took the better part of thousands of years but the day came when Jesus died on the cross. That act was the death knell of evil in this world. Since His resurrection and ascension, we wait for Jesus to put the final nail in evil's coffin. I believe that day is coming soon. Israel is back, technology and knowledge has increased, and the world is inching closer to that day when Jesus returns and evil will seem like just a bad memory that is soon forgotten. Have hope, God has a plan and it never stopped moving forward. For now we wait. On a side note read the book of Revelation for what the future has in store for us.

Answer 3

Well logically everything has an opposite in order to exist, relative to the opposite (I.e. Iight could not exist without darkness and visa-versa), so if there is 'good', there needs to be 'evil'.

I personally think that good and evil do not exist as they are 100% subjective- they are completely opinion driven, and each person has a different opinion of good/evil dependant on eachothers different life experiences. Being objective- nothing can be labelled as good or evil inherantly, I cannot think of any physical examples of something which is good or evil.

People aren't born good or evil and people do not do good/evil things. People do everything based on their own reasoning- the way they were brought up to do things, it can have positive or negative consequences, and sometimes the person isn't even aware of which consequences will be caused.

This is why it is down to the human mind to eliminate 'evil', as if evil exists, it is part of ones mind, so ones mind must be changed in order to iradicate it. But in order to do this (as what I began with about opposites) you will need to identify both 'good' and 'evil' as delusions, and see past both to remove evil- by being vigilant of ones thoughts, actions and speech.

Answer 4

God could eliminate evil on the earth, but chooses not to do so for our benefit. Allowing evil on the earth with controlled intervention from Him gives many people the opportunity to see the difference between good and evil and really understand. Or put another way, it's one thing to be told over and over again that you shouldn't touch fire with your hand, but you understand much better if you do it or you see someone else do it.

Answer 5

Proverbs 2:21 For the upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it.

22)As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth, and as for the treacherous, they will be torn away from it.

Just wait...

Answer 6

Statistically speaking -About 98 percent of the crimes committed on earth, were by men. If God were to eliminate the evil on earth, virtually all the men would be wiped out.
And you rail at Gods Grace and patience for the dumb saps?
The day will come when God will have patience no longer, it is drawing nigh. "Sin" is the code word they use for crime.

Answer 7

Revelation says God will bound satan 1000 yrs & after the 1000 yrs, he will be lose a little season to test all those born in the milliennium & then God will cast satan & hell & the wicked dead into the lake of fire.

Answer 8

God could if he wanted to. However, that would frustrate his own plan to allow us to live by choice and have the ability to choose good over evil, sweet over the bitter, good over the bad, etc. Without choice, we could not learn experiences needed for our eternal growth, developement, and progress here on this earth. This growth is necessary for our progress in the worlds to come.
Likewise, if you made all of the choices for your children, or protected them totally from all of the bad in the world, they could never become idependent, or able to make choices them selves, and never be fully learned and complete.
God allows us to live and grow by our own experience.

Answer 9

You have a fair question. The only thing that I can say, is that I have faith. BUT, maybe you should know that the book of Revelations talks about the "mystery" of God being accomplished. So, now we wonder , what is the mystery??

Answer 10

He will...it is prophesied in the book of Isaiah and the book of revelations. Of coarse, there are those who believe that this means the destruction of humanity because humans are the ones who started sinning in the first place.