Explain this to me and be logical.?

Question

Evil exists in the world. It’s undeniable. And if God is all good, all knowing and all powerful, why does evil and suffering exist? Because this means God has the power rid the world of evil and suffering, knows how to rid the world of evil and suffering and wants to rid the world of evil and suffering, but doesn’t. I conclude God doesn’t exist. Disagree with me and make an argument. Best argument gets 10 points.

Rules:

#1 You cannot refer to the bible. The bible says God exists and God gives the bible authority because the bible says God exists... It’s a Cartesian circle. You cannot refer to the bible.

#2 You cannot say people have freewill which creates evil and suffering in the world because freewill is a gift from God to humans. Any evil and suffering is a result of God’s gift and God would have known the consequences. Not to mention, evil and suffering still exists in the world without the presence of humans. For example, in nature, big animals eat small defenseless animals. Species die out naturally.

#3 You cannot say people use freewill to lead themselves to the closest state of perfection through their choices and decisions in life because that would mean gratuitous suffering in the world could not exist. But that would be to say that every bit of evil and suffering in the world that exists for the purpose of human soul-making which would mean evil and suffering did not exist before humans. This is a contradiction against nature itself.

I am sorry to say this argument is not mine. It's a compilation of arguments from various philosophers.

I’ve enjoyed many of the arguments against it. Some of the arguments I put thumbs down to almost made valid points but fell short somewhere and some were nonsensical. I’m looking for a clever argument to support God’s existence. I think it’s possible.

There are many good answers, I am having trouble deciding.

Answer 1

Well, it's like Super Mario Brothers 1.

If you learn how to beat the game and can do so every time you play, you quickly lose interest. I'd imagine that God likes some competition to keep the game lively.

I guess a secondary argument might be to say that "good" and "evil" are relative terms and have different meaning for each individual. It's kind of like when Kant defeated the Divine Command Theory by saying that since people can say God is good, God can't be the one to define good.

Philosophers are fun.

Answer 2

If there is an omnipotent creator God (and this is quite a supposition - something purely a matter of faith) then He knowingly created everything, including evil. If He did not wish there to be evil, there would not be evil. No conclusive explanation of the origin and survival of evil can be made, because the existence of God is pure supposition. Either you are right, and God does not exist; or He does exist, but he approves of evil; or He does exist, and has a wisdom so far beyond ours that we cannot comprehend his purposes. Any of these could be the truth, or perhaps there is some other.

What you say cannot be proven wrong.

Answer 3

Look at it this way then if none of those things can be used. If so much "Evil" exist and God has the power and authority to rid "evil" then who decides what's evil and what is good? Who created the concept of what is "Morally" "Good" and "Evil"? You see mankind has addressed issues like this since the beginning of time as stated by philosophers everywhere. So if man is evil and creates evil, how can man declare anything to be pure and good if his intentions are evil? Likewise how would he know what things fall under good and evil? You see only a Being higher than us, righteous in all things can instill in us the ability to decipher "Good" and "Evil". Therefore, a Higher Being or a God must exist so that is a possible occurence. To remove ALL evil from the earth is to rid all the hearts of mankind.

Answer 4

Your assumption is that IF God is all good, and knowing and all powerful then he Would if He could remove evil and suffering because He doesn't want anyone to suffer. Since it is just His prerrogative to remove things He doesn't like, He must remove evil and suffering.

Here's the rub. God didn't cause evil and suffering. Evil and suffering are a consequence of man's sin. It is NOT God that wanted that to happen.
Before Adam sinned, God warned him that there would be DIRE circumstances if he sinned. But Adam didn't care. He broke the covenant with God, condemned the entire world by his action and let evil and suffering into the world. So God is not responsible for the evil, nor MUST He fix it. However, God has fixed it...but the fixing has conditions. God sent Christ to repair the broken relationship between man and God. In doing so, Christ made "a way" for man to be saved from the condemned world that Adam caused. If a person accepts the payment Christ made for the cause of evil and suffering in this world, that person can be "saved" from condemnation. The end of evil and suffering will happen when Christ returns and a new heaven and new earth are formed. When people die, they will be judged as to whether or not they accepted the free gift of salvation or refused it out of pride. Their choice determines their fate. Here, bad things happen as a result of man's choice not God's lack of love. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Answer 5

There is no clever answer to prove that God exist. There are of course many arguements for or against the probability of God's existence. Of course it's difficult to sort them out. As a last resort, use the principle of Occam's Razor. Which is more probable of these two possibilities (these are exhaustive and admits of no other possibilities):

1) In the beginning was a self-creating God the caused all things to be created (via the Big Bang, if you please).

2) In the beginning was a mass of matter/energy that exploded into unimaginable number of unimaginably small particles. Over unimaginably long period of time, these particles, inanimate and without any intelligence whatsover, coalesced into stars, solar systems, galaxies, life forms through purely a series of random particle collisions.
These random particle collisions ultimately produced humans with enough intelligence to determine the composition of distant stars and mull over life's mysteries in Yahoo's R&S.

However, your question seems to be not whether or not God exists but why he permits evil in this world. This is another issue. Ask this question and allow me to get 2 more points.

Answer 6

Because for good to exist in any form there must be a counter part and the counter part to good is evil. In other words if god where to remove all the evil in the world then god could not exist and then god would not be good and thus cease to be god.

I would also argue that just because a being is all good that does not mean that he wants to rid the universe of evil. Being good does not mean destroying evil being good just means being good. Just because you have the power to do something for a quick benefit to humanity it does not mean that the end result over an infinite period of time will be the better thing for humanity.

Answer 7

Wow, interesting question.

I'm not sure I can answer it with the restrictions you have placed. (My argument always starts with free will)

I think that the nature aspect you stated is the best answer to your question. In nature, big animals kill little animals. With humans being a PART of nature, it stands to reason that we would kill smaller animals as well. (Which is why I don't actually count that as evil.) Animals fight over water and hunting grounds. So do humans. Animals fight and kill over mates. So do humans. Animals fight and kill over their children. So do humans.

So my point is this:
Evil exists because life exists.

Our form of evil may be a bit more complex then that of animals, and a lot less "necessary", but it all boils down to about the same thing. We fight to live. These fights often result in what we call "evil". Wars are really just giant fights for food, land, etc...

So, evil exists because life exists.

Now, make with the thumbs down! =)

Answer 8

Rules to answer a question? I didn't realize that there were guidelines to opinions.

Either way, without referring to the bible or "blaming" free will i'll give you the most logical answer to explain the existence of evil.

Basically, people are driven by alot of psychological factors, on an unconscious level. If you are familiar with freudian psychology you'll understand that the most intense and powerful, energy comes from the id, which is the pleasure seeking level of the mind. People are constantly trying to satisfy these desires that the id wants to fulfill but the super ego is like the "governing" level of the mind that plays the major role in conscious behavior in terms of self-control. The ego is what filters out from the unconscious interplay of thoughts between the id and super ego and satisfies one or the other, never both.

Anyways, since God (this is under the premise that He does exist) provided all these pleasures, so it's only natural people will be drawn to them as much as possible with the most intensity. He also gave us feelings (both good and undesirable ones) which, personally i can't imagine living without.

He gave us the freedom to choose how we want to live our lives, which isn't necessarily free will, we're just given choices in life and we choose them, not God. Free will is more related to whether or not our behavior is determined or "predictable" it's a big philosophical argument. Irregardless, we are the ones offered the choices in life and we gotta choose between good or bad. If God chose for us we'd be puppets, completely void of any conscious thought of our own, and most likely with no emotion.

So, gifts come at a price. Evil exists because good can't exist without it.

So since God created all these good things for us, there obviosly has to be a bad side to them all as well which is created by humans, because we chose to do it, not God.

Therefore, all evil is the product of humans, and since God is not a human He can therefore not be blamed for it.

Answer 9

Think on your own life and all the good things you have received. Write them down. When you have then you are looking at what God has done for you. God is love. There are always opposites. Good v evil, white and black. light and dark. As there is a God so there is a devil. Suffering exists and despite what people think the greatest lessons that are worth anything in life are because of suffering. I have learnt who my true friends were, I've learnt to emphathise and cry with those that cry. This is the duality of life. God is entwined in our lives whether we agree or disagree.

You are wrestling with questions about the existence of God or not for yourself, it won't really matter what others say, but I challenge you to seek for yourself whether there is a God or not. 'Seek and you shall find', knock and the door will be opened unto you. He who seeks will find and he who knocks the door will open unto you.

Answer 10

Okay, hopefully I have this right. Your hypothesis is :

Evil exists - If there was an omnipotent god he could remove the evil. Because there is evil it proves there is not an omnipotent god.

Following the rules here it goes -

Although god could remove all evil , he chooses not to. God has stated through prophets, and madmen that he wants willing converts not slaves. (Please read mad men as "street preacher"). God being omnipotent understands that if he removed evil there would be no way to determine if his worshipers were slaves or not.

Thus evil must exist to allow men to perpatrate evil and not serve god.

Although thats the best i can do, it hedges far to close to both quoting the bible, and the free will issue.

What i was trying to do is show that only god has free will, and in exercising it gives the illusion of free will to man.

An interesting exercise.