Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but 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 God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?
How do chistians explain Epicurus's paradox?
2007-04-23 22:15:36 · 16 answers · asked by nicevolve 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sonfai 81 - you don't make any sense. No way, not that free will rubbish....then the same thing would happen in your heaven wouldn't it ....or will you be robots there?
2007-04-23 22:28:27 · update #1
Zen...did your god CREATE evil then? That is what your proposition indicates.
2007-04-23 22:30:53 · update #2
sxanthop? quoting some ridiculous passages from your archaic book, isn't going to win this one, your assertion over ruling issues seems rather obselete. As for more suffering now, really? Prove that! My children have more chance of having a healthier,longer life now than EVER before, you are incorrect on your assertions.
2007-04-23 22:36:00 · update #3
Cutting and pasting Jehovah Witness propaganda is NO way to answer a philosophical question on religion!
Cliche after cliche, we don't NEED to understand, just have faith, the end is near etc. Honestly do you hear yourselves? You are speaking the same things for thousands of years, the end is near. Why does your god not value reason and intelligence over blind belief?
You could always try to answer the question ALL BY YOURSELF.
2007-04-23 22:44:28 · update #4
Please stop saying it is getting worse. What do you say about the 500 million who died of smallpox? Christians said that was the end of the world then. Damn science/logic for solving that one too.
2007-04-24 00:30:23 · update #5
Actually, if you believe in god, as a creator, and that he created all things, then he must have created evil in order for evil to exist. If god is omniscient, and Omnipotent, knowing all that will be, even before the very first act of creation. Then would it not stand to reason that if god created the angel Lucifer, knowing that Lucifer would fall from grace and become Satan. Then isn't Lucifer just fulfilling the destiny that was laid out for him by god? Is he really evil? Or is god the evil one for creating Lucifer for the express purpose of leading man astray?
For the people below who are going on and on about free will:
There cannot be free will in a universe that was created by a god that is all knowing and all powerful. If this god is omniscient and omnipotent then he knew everything that would happen from the beginning to the end, before the very first act of creation. He knew that I would write that before I was born. So do I have free will. If I was not to write it would that make god wrong? Do I have any choice other than to continue writing this? You religious people cannot have it both ways. You cannot have free will and a perfect all knowing creator at the same time. Either god is not perfect and not all knowing, or we do not have free will.
Zen: God did create lucifer to be evil. He is all knowing and must have known that lucifer would fall from grace. If he didn't then god isn't all knowing and all powerfull. If he did, then he did it on purpose.
2007-04-23 22:25:05 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
The Gift of Free Will
When God created the first human, he produced more than just a body with a brain. Further, God did not create Adam and Eve to be mindless robots. He implanted in them the faculty of free will. And that was a fine gift, for "God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) Yes, "perfect is his activity." (Deuteronomy 32:4) All of us appreciate this gift of free will because we do not want all our thoughts and actions dictated to us without ever having a choice in anything.
However, was the fine gift of free will to be used without limits? In directions given to early Christians, God's Word answers: "Be as free people, and yet holding your freedom, not as a blind for badness, but as slaves of God." (1 Peter 2:16) For the common good, there must be boundaries. Hence, free will was to be regulated by the rule of law. Otherwise, anarchy would result.
The Main Issue—Sovereignty
When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they challenged his sovereignty, that is, his right to rule. Jehovah could have destroyed them and started over with another couple, but that would not have settled the issue of whose rulership is right and best for people. Granted time to develop their societies according to their own ideas, humans would demonstrate beyond any doubt whether rulership independent from God could ever be successful.
What do thousands of years of human history tell us? For all those centuries, people have tried many kinds of social, economic, political, and religious systems. However, wickedness and suffering have continued. In fact, 'wicked men have advanced from bad to worse,' especially in our time.—2 Timothy 3:13.
The 20th century saw a peak of scientific and industrial achievements. But it also saw the worst suffering in the entire history of the human race. And no matter what medical advances are made, the law of God still holds true: Humans separated from God—the source of life—get sick, grow old, and die. How clearly it has been proved that humans cannot 'direct their own steps'!
2007-04-23 22:29:43 · answer #2 · answered by sxanthop 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
All evil in the world has come about because of human sin. If God is to abolish all evil, he has to abolish human free will. If he does that, he reduces us to mindless robots. Take away the freedom to hate, and you take away the freedom to love. It is impossible to have free will and no possibility of moral evil. Where some use their freedom to love, others use it to hate. Indeed, that is why hell is God's greatest compliment to human free will. By it, he says 'I've given you a lifetime to accept me but you've used your free will to reject me. Therefore, I will give you what you always wanted'.
To answer the objection, Jesus proved that it's possible to have free will and be perfect. He is our template who we are becoming more and more like every day and one day, God's work in us will reach completion. So no, heaven will be full of little Jesus replicas and evil will exist no more.
2007-04-23 22:22:38 · answer #3 · answered by sonfai81 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He will in his time, evil is of man and worldly things.
This is why God gives us free will until the day of his return.
The thing is satin walks the earth right now also and there will be some that chooses his ways. The good thing is that someday he will be chained again. That will happen in Gods time until then the way you chose is yours.
Hope to see you in Gods great kingdom someday.
2007-04-23 22:32:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe God has a good reason for allowing evil (at least for the present time). Since love is a choice that cannot be forced, it requires that humans have free will. However, humans can misuse that free will for evil- if they couldn't, then their will wouldn't really be free.
2007-04-23 22:30:50 · answer #5 · answered by Deof Movestofca 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First thing we need to understand is what is God.
Then we will have to understand what is good and what is evil.
What God wants to do is not our business. Our concern is to know God. Just cursing a personality whom we can not even comprehend is only like beating about the bush.
2007-04-23 22:34:36 · answer #6 · answered by Vijay D 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God Will abolish evil. It's kinda the point. Who will follow him in hard times? Who will follow him while being tested? He doesn't want sheep. He wants people who reach out to him.
JoMo
2007-04-23 22:26:31 · answer #7 · answered by JoMo Rising 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why should the Jewish God abolish evil---according to the Bible--he created it in the first place!!!
Isaiah 45 7- I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace,
and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
2007-04-23 22:23:34 · answer #8 · answered by huffyb 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Yet.
You forgot the word yet.
The arrogance of some philosophy is that said event hasn't occurred in proposer's alotted time-frame, based on proposer's criteria.
Proposer is short sighted, and blinded by one's own ego...
2007-04-23 22:28:21 · answer #9 · answered by hez b 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shakespeare said 'there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so'. Humans created evil so humans have to abolish it themselves.
2007-04-23 23:38:22 · answer #10 · answered by Holistic Mystic 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋