About the "god created evil" question?

Question

You cannot say that god created a choice between good and evil, but didn't create evil. That's just silly.
In the Garden of Eden myth, who created the tree of knowledge of good and evil? God did.
I know there are a million contradictions in christianity, as in all religions, but this one really bugs me because people try so hard to pretend it's not there.

Answer 1

The tree story is an allegory, not a literal tree. Evil is the opposite of good. Why is that hard to understand? God is ultimate goodness, and anything that goes against His nature is evil.

Edit: I stand corrected. According to Issiah 45:7 as someone said below. God did create evil.

Answer 2

God never created evil! We have a thing called free choice, and when Adam and Eve were in The Garden Of Eden and ate of the fruit they made a choice to sin. Before this there was no sin. Free choice is still with us today. Satan is the evil one who likes to deceive us and not God!

Answer 3

Man chose, heres why: God put a tree in the Garden and said "Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. Thou mayest not eat, for in the day thou eatest their of, thou shalt surely die.

Now look at what the Serpent said:

GE 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

GE 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

GE 3:4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

GE 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The woman was given a choice--she was aware of the consequences and knew the results were death. By her own testamony she knew How can you say that is not an option to choose

Evil already existed--evil did not start in the garden with adam and eve--God gave them a choice--they chose

Answer 4

Samurai, I did not want to answer your question because I don't want you to think I am preaching God to you. But you need to understand that there are some religions out there that are neither contradicting nor pushy.

God did not create good or evil; it is our perception of something that makes it evil or good. Look at this: a car accident results in the driver's early death. This provides business for the undertaker as well as the car manufacturer. So there is good and there is evil, but only depending on who is interpreting.

Answer 5

I am one of the few Christians who admit that God had to have created evil or chaos. When you understand the mythological language of the creation account. Such as the "sea" monster that God created that in the Mesopotamian culture represented chaos or evil. Yet God also named this creature, which gave him rule or authority over it as well.

Also the "darkness" is also representative of "evil" or "chaos." Also Isa. 45:7, seems to state it quite clearly.

However, I do not see a contradiction when you have that proper understanding. The Bible NEVER contradicts itself theologically.

Answer 6

The scripture says that God created evil.

Answer 7

If you already made up your mind and know the answer then, why did you ask? (Not being sarcastic). But if you want my two cents, God did create the tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. Keep in mind the word "knowledge." God created the tree because He wanted Adam & Eve to eat it's fruits according to "The Hypostasis of the Archons," a Gnostic text that is contraditory to the Bible. God wanted Adam & Eve to attain knowledge from the tree so that they would understand or "know the difference" between good and evil. God didn't want Adam & Eve to be ignorant and commit a sinful act out of "not knowing it was a sin." The origin of evil came from the "Archons" which means Satan and his demon followers. God knew that because of Satan, sin was in existence and it was a plague upon the Earth. God wanted to protect Adam & Eve from committing a sin out of ignorance (which later on would be forgiven by the blood of Christ) but more importantly, God wanted Adam & Eve to know when evil was being done or when evil was about to be done to them by the Archons. When Adam & Eve gained "knowledge" of good and evil (right from wrong) they became more attentive in protecting themselves from evil and wrongfulness and did not want to be victimized by the Archons. Adam & Eve weren't kicked out of the Garden of Eden, they fled from it. The Garden of Eden was an "Earthly Paradise" or "False Paradise" created to mislead, entrap, and destroy Adam & Eve. By eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, Adam & Eve became wise and gained the knowledge of the "Heavenly Paradise," or "Knowledge of God and His Heavenly Kingdom."

When it comes to the subject of Adam & Eve, I tend to disregard what the Bible says and I go more along with what is said about them in "The Hypostasis of the Archons" which is supported by bits and pieces of the Disciple John's Scripture, "The Apocryphon of John." To me, these scriptures just make sense as opposed to the Bible that just doesn't make any sense at all (to me anyway).

My advice, look everywhere for information on Adam & Eve and find one that makes "sense" and stick with that. That's what I did.

Answer 8

Wow. Lucie actually edited her answer to admit she had that wrong. Wonder if she's giving it any thought?
Anyway, I was going to say, the ancient Egyptians believed in duality. Osiris was their 'good guy' god and his brother Set, was the 'bad guy'. (Well, two of the main ones of many)Set was the god of chaos and confusion. I think that describes YHWH perfectly. He leaves a book, full of contradictions to confuse us and leaves us with the concept of a singular deity, which contradicts nature. Even the oldest pagan religion had pantheons. Nobody had a singular deity until Abraham concocted one to trick the Pharaoh into giving him stuff. And, the confusion led to bickering and that's led to war...or you could say chaos.
:-)

Answer 9

Well they might go and say that evil is just the lack of good, so something like if action A is good and I choose not to perform it, then I was evil. Yet biting from that apple was *not* not doing something, it was well doing something...

I had also a couple of Tree of Knowledge problems, see for instance http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AteIX86ZgbAgZrMrCYqvmiXBFQx.?qid=20070310135602AAIqwL4

Answer 10

It saddens me that so many people are confused and ignorant on such a simple matter.

God created the universe with rules. Physical rules control the physical aspects of the universe, such as gravity, etc.

In the same way, God uses instinct to control the animal realm.

But when it comes to mankind, God made Man in his own image. We are miniature, finite duplicate copies of an Infinite God.

Part of that image is the freedom to make our own choices.

But, and I quote, "What is free can not be forced, and what is forced can not truly be called free." (sorry, I don't remember who first said it.)

As a result, the Laws God gave Mankind were different from the Laws he gave to nature.

Rather than statements of the way things are, God gave US statements of the way things OUGHT to be.

Rather than rules OF action, He gave us rules FOR action.

THEREFORE - and it's a very important therefore - if we are truely free, we must have the right and power to choose either God's way, or not. If God didn't give us that option, then we wouldn't be free, and the whole thing would be a scam.

God gave Adam EVERY thing. No bars, no limits.

Except one. God told him to abstain from the one tree. The question - would Adam trust God and say no?

Satan lied to Eve. He told her that the tree would make her like God. But God already made her in His own image. The way to TRULY be like God would be to choose the way HE would choose - to choose what is right and good.

God is NOT the author of evil. But without the opportunity to do wrong, the power to choose to do right is meaningless. It's a joke, and we become nothing but robots like a rock that MUST fall, a fish that MUST return to it's place of birth to spawn again.

In fact, "Freedom is not the right to do what you want, but the power to do what is right."

If you choose "sin" (ie disobedience to God's Laws), then you are a slave to sin. And a slave has no freedom. Jesus said, "Whom the Son sets free (ie free from sin and satan's control) is free indeed."

Now, you STILL have the power to choose contrary to God's basic law of Love (that is, to live unselfishly), but "Don't you know that you are a slave to the power that you choose to obey?" If you would rather be a slave to satan, you have that right. Myself, I prefer to be a voluntary "love slave" to the God who will bring me to heaven one day, where "There are joys evermore", and "Pleasures at God's right hand."

God created us, and knows our needs. He will not let those needs go unsatisfied if we serve Him freely now.

But if you CHOOSE, of your own, to disobey God's Laws (which were put there FOR OUR GOOD ALWAYS), then you must also be willing to face the consequence of that rebellion and high treason against His rightful authority in the universe.

One last thought - since (according to the Bible) "all good things come from God", then if we say no to God all our lives, He will honor that request, for the sake of making sure we truly DO have the freedom of choice. That means that after we die, He will NEVER again bother you. You will be away from His influence forever. But - and be warned well in advance - when God removes all His influence from you, that includes the "all good things" that come from Him. What does that entail? Let's see now.

Hmmm. Love is good, THAT comes from God, so there will be no Love.

Joy, peace, friends, these are all good, so they won't be there either.

HOPE! Now THAT'S a biggie. Hope is VERY good, and since that comes from God, and you want nothing of God, there will be no hope.

No relief from pain, since painlessness is a good thing.

What else? You figure it out. The list is endless. If it's good, it won't be there, period.

By the way, evil is not the opposite of good. It's the ABSENSE of good, just as cold is not the opposite of heat, but it's absence.

As you lower the temperature of an area, you are actually removing the heat. Now, if you remove ALL heat, you can not add any more cold to it. Absolute zero is the absense of all heat, and you can not increase the cold.

In the same way, evil is the absense of good, and God IS good, so as you pull away from God, and ultimately be isolated for all eternity (by an act of YOUR OWN CHOOSING, by the way), once all of God is gone, and all goodness is gone from your life, what will you have left?