What is evil?

Question

We non-believers in Christianity often point out the horrific acts performed by the Christian God in the Bible. For example, his ordering of people to kill women and children and to rape virgins, for Abraham to sacrifice his son (even though he later changed his mind), and many other accounts of his blood thirst. In a question recently asked by another non-believer, many Christians responded to the question that “God is not evil” and “There is only one God.” My question is: If there is only one god and he is not evil, then who is he? The god depicted in the bible is clearly evil. Is there a God that is different than the one depicted in the bible? If you contend that the god depicted in the bible is not evil, then what is evil? Killing, rape, and condemnation of those with different beliefs are all things that I was always taught were defining of evil. If those are not evil, than what is evil?

Answer 1

it's the other side of humanity.. like Siamese twins, human and evil cannot be separated. although you could turn away from it, you couldn't just let it go..that is why NOBODY is perfect i think...

Answer 2

WOW! BIG Question! SO here is a big answer, but still quite short...

Q1) If there is only one god and he is not evil, then who is he?
A1) There is no god. God is a man maid myth. However, Christians and other monotheists believe that there god is the only true god and all others are false.

Q2) Is there a God that is different than the one depicted in the bible?
A2) There are no gods, never has been, never will be. However, if you are a Christian AND If you take the bible 100% literally, then yes, there are other gods, but they are not the true god, the creator of all things.

Q3) If you contend that the god depicted in the bible is not evil, then what is evil?
A3) Evil is a subjective idea that is based on religious, cultural and political agendas. What is considered evil to me may be seen as good, beneficial or even holy to others. Case in point, I find 'blind faith' to be a repugnant weakens and one of the ultimate evils of humanity. Most Christians find blind faith a blessed trait. Go figure. So, what is evil, evil is what you make of it. Try to remember, that for the most part, what we call evil today was most likely not considered evil in times passed. IT has been said that one would be hard pressed to find any act that was not acceptable in some society as some point in time.

Today, three of the biggest domestic issues facing the U.S. are Illegal Aliens, Abortion and Homosexuality. In years, decades and centuries past, there have been a number of varying was of handling these issues. In some countries, people without permission to be in a country were thrown into labor camps where they worked for the rest of their lives. Some were made slaves, other were simply execute on the spot. This was deemed appropriate and good for the country, not evil. Although abortion, as a medical procedure is a relatively new phenomena, history is wrought with stories of woman killing unwanted children immediately after birth. In some cultures, if a woman or family couldn’t raise a child, the child was sent down the river and given to the gods. This wasn't considered evil. A for homosexuality, today some Christians find it offensive and evil and would like to make it illegal. Not that long ago, it was punishable by death in many places. Yet, the ancient Greeks, among many other civilizations, had no problem with homosexual relationships.

So, what is evil? Evil is whatever you don’t like. Benedict de Spinoza said of good and evil, "Such things as please us, we denominate good, those things which displease up, evil." Lets face it, up until a few years ago, the notion that the U.S. would stoop to such 'evil acts' as torture or holding prisoner without due process, would have been considered ridiculous and only seen as fiction. After all, the bad guys do that stuff, the Vietcong, the Soviets, the Chinese, not the us, not the United States. Yet, we do, and we did and we will do more and far worse. So, is the United states evil? Most Americans would say no. Most citizens of Middle eastern countries would probably say yes.

I hope this helps.
(And just think, this was the short answer.)

Answer 3

Wow... your analization of the Bible is a little twisted...

1. God killed the men, women and children of Egypt who were not going to live for him anyway, and who were practicing unholy things. God made them and he knows when it is their time to go or not.

2. He did not rape Mary. He sent His Spirit to overshadow Mary to concieve Jesus. Notice, when a person is raped... they are no longer a virgin, as opposed to Mary who was still a virgin after the birth of Jesus.

3. He told Abraham to sacrifice his son as a test so he could see if he loved his son more than he loved God. He passed the test and sent a ram (or something like that) to sacrifice instead.

Now that we cleared that up, do you see that God is not evil. The meaning of evil is unholy. And, obviously, God is not unholy. If you are feeling condemmed about your beliefs, it's probably God telling you to go find the truth. I suggest a United Pentecostal Church that preaches things ONLY FROM THE BIBLE, NOT BY FEELINGS OR BELIEFS. Hope this helps!

-childofGod :)

Answer 4

Evil is subjective.
For example.

There are two villages living side by side. One raises cattle and one grows crops. Every day the herders drive their cattle past the fields to drink at the river and back again. Times get hard and food is scarce. The agriculturalists begin to worry that the cattle going past their cornfields might be cutting in on their food. So they put up a fence to keep them out. The herders now can't get to the water easily so they they dam up the river and divert it so that they can water their cattle. Now the agriculturalists crops really begin to fail. They are starving. They go to the herders for help but they already used up alot of resources diverting the river and don't have much to spare. The agriculturalists sneak in at night and steal some calves, but they don't know how to manage livestock and soon are starving again. So they sneak in later and start dismantling the dam. The herders are onto them and wait in ambush. The surviving agriculturalists are outraged and respond with deadly violence, to which the herders respond in kind and eventually they destroy each other.

So which group is evil and which one is good?
That depends entirely, I suppose, on the God they are taking orders from.

Answer 5

Aside from your interpretation of the Bible you provided, I think that the best definition of evil is, if you knew that something would be hateful to you if it were done to you, yet for some advantage to yourself, you did that to an innocent person because that person was another person and not yourself.

That is the polar opposite of *love,* which is concern for the goodness and happiness of the other person - precisely *as* other - and not for the sake of some gain for yourself.

The Church and Scripture specifically state that those who practice the first (unrepentantly of course) are condemned to eternal punishement, whereas those who love (in the right sense as defined above) are rewarded with eternal happiness in heaven - God's grace, as merited by Jesus Christ, are necessary to love as God commands.


But as for your view of the Bible, much of the evil in the Old Testament is not what God did or intended (many people make this assumption about the Old Testament), but is simply the record of man and his behaviour without God's grace - the whole record of the Old Testament is that of the activity of God drawing order out of chaos (which was caused by Adam's sin of disobedience to God), in preperation for Jesus Christ, who will eventually restore all things to complete perfection - God did sometimes order exterminations of peoples, but that is only because they became so irredemablly evil, that that was the only way to deal with them, such as cutting out a cancer to save the whole organism - God only does this if there is no hope for redemption for a given individual or community - if a person or group can be saved at all, God will by all means spare the person or group in an attempt to do so - but according to the prohetic texts, God is preparing this type of pruning again because large sectors of society have become irredemiblly and mostrously evil - we see this in the books of Revelation and Daniel, as well, which are particularly pertainant to the times in which we live.



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Answer 6

Great question. Sorry I cannot answer this as I believe the bible's version of a deity is definitely evil. However, back then, the biggest baddest scariest gods converted the masses best. Even after the PR remake of a "loving" religion, this god will still punish people for 10 million to the 10 millionth power years for choosing another religion. (BTW 10 million to the power of 10 million isn't one percent of eternity. A bit excessive, eh?)

Answer 7

rape??? where did you read this verse?? i am truly curious.. please site your source..

What you read in the bible about God ordering to Kill nations and wipe them out.. you only see what was done, not how bad it was over there.. like say Sodom and Gomorah, if you read when Lot lived there and how the people came over and tried to rape his guests.. He destroyed them.. why, because that's the way it was back then, The people knew God's law and deliberately broke it.. when you have all the facts then you can speculate, but why overlook the rest of the bible, where God gave His only son for everyone..before Christ the penalty of sin was death as it is now if you don't accept him.. and the abraham story is just a parallel as to How a Human can give His son for God, it's a lesson to us of how we are made in God's image, we are capable of doing great things too through Him..

Answer 8

You have to understand their way of thinking. Anything their god does is perfectly justified because he's god. It's as simple and stupid as that.

They'll criticize the deities of other beliefs for being murderous monsters, but they won't even skip a beat when telling you about the horrors their god took part in and how grand his glory is because of it.

Their god is like the half-retarded child that they have that they think is the smartest and most talented no matter what and everyone else's children are crap. You know what i'm talking about.... those pushy mom's who force their kids into performing because they think their child is the most talented kid ever but the only way the kid sounds good is if you hold their head under 3 feet of water?! That's the way they are with their god..... Their god can do no wrong... even when doing TONS of wrong, and everyone else's gods are crap to them even though they may be better.

Answer 9

Evil refers to morally or ethically objectionable thought, speech, or action; behavior or thought which is hateful, cruel, violent, or devoid of conscience. Evil is sometimes defined as the opposite of good, or anything that opposes the force of life.

Even Christians can go bad. It has nothing to do with a non-belief in god but rather how strong you are as a person. Many "evil' people are are truly mentally ill and should not be judged in the same way as the rest of us.

Answer 10

(Human Being Selfish) is evil.. Do any Human thinks about Poor People..Orphans,Widows,hopeless old peoples? Do Any Human thinks About others who needs most? Do any Humans Cares about Livings creatures, Animals like street Dogs & cats That need a support of Foods? Do any Human Help Each other No maters Who you are Even Not related to? minority Of Humans Do that! If God forsake the most of them for their sellfishness..just to wake them up from their Mistake & is these is how You feel About God?

Answer 11

This is my opinion only....not necessarily a word from my God.

Evil is anything that brings harm to or interferes with our personal relationship with God. By that definition, the writings of which you speak are evil as they cause people such as yourself to doubt His existance or presence in our lives.