So if God didn't create evil, why does God allow evil to exist?

[ding]

So if God didn't create evil, why does God allow evil to exist?

No one really knows...

Maybe because he is seeking certain outcomes under certain conditions.

Or maybe the certain outcomes he is seeking can only be achieved through certain conditions.

Or maybe good has no meaning if one is forced to be good.

Or maybe he couldn't figure out how to make a one sided coin.

Or maybe he is testing us to see who is smart enough to recognize that the good far outweighs the bad.

Or maybe he wants us to love him for who he is and not what he can do for us.

But whatever the reason, one thing is certain, we lack complete knowledge and he doesn't. So rather than expect him to do magical things so that bad things don't happen to good people, maybe we should ask ourself what it was we were supposed to learn from our tragedies.

 

[Missourian]

Did you know your air conditioner, refrigerator and freezer don't create cold...instead they remove heat. Cold is the absence of heat. Heat is created. Cold requires no effort, no fuel, no energy expended. Cold is the natural state. Cold isn't created...it is simply the absence of a source of heat.

I remember a movie I watched years ago...Lucifer is speaking...describing hell. Hell, he said, is being removed from the sight of God. God being the source of all that is good, and evil being the removal of good...evil only requires good to do nothing. Evil is the natural state.

 

[ding]

Did you know your air conditioner, refrigerator and freezer don't create cold...instead they remove heat. Cold is the absence of heat. Heat is created. Cold requires no effort, no fuel, no energy expended. Cold is the natural state. Cold isn't created...it is simply the absence of a source of heat.

I remember a movie I watched years ago...Lucifer is speaking...describing hell. Hell, he said, is being removed from the sight of God. God being the source of all that is good, and evil being the removal of good...evil only requires good to do nothing. Evil is the natural state.

No, you are looking at that wrong. Heat flows from hot to cold. Just because the universe is cooling does not mean the native state is cold. The universe started from hot and is cooling.

No one who understands thermodynamics will agree with you on this. You said it yourself, cold is the absence of heat. Heat is not the absence of cold.

 

[Likkmee]

So if God didn't create evil, why does God allow evil to exist?

He doesn't allow it to exist. He tossed it away as rubbish.....angels that failed QC off the assembly line, per say.. WE allow it to exist.
Without acknowledgement and repentance and attempting to avoid it( impossible in the flesh---other than One) we too become rubbish and sent to the universes dump.
Just to show how shitty this place really is he sent his failed angels HERE.The run it, own it, rule it and destroy it-----because they HATE this fucking place.
Pricks like Trump and Charlie Sheen and all the movie stars /more than any human could want and look how fucked up they are.
That'll give you a glimpse of how awesome the Heaven must be----and the one that will come anew.

 

[Blackrook]

If you want to know where evil comes from, look in a mirror. It comes from within in us, and every time we disobey the Commandments, evil grows more powerful.

 

[Natural Citizen]

No one who understands thermodynamics will agree with you on this. You said it yourself, cold is the absence of heat. Heat is not the absence of cold.

You're assuming that all fluid mechanics are Newtonian.

Why? Why are you doing that?

 

[Taz]

If you want to know where evil comes from, look in a mirror. It comes from within in us, and every time we disobey the Commandments, evil grows more powerful.

So if we're made in god's image, He must have evil in Him as well.

 

[Taz]

So if God didn't create evil, why does God allow evil to exist?

He doesn't allow it to exist. He tossed it away as rubbish.....angels that failed QC off the assembly line, per say.. WE allow it to exist.
Without acknowledgement and repentance and attempting to avoid it( impossible in the flesh---other than One) we too become rubbish and sent to the universes dump.
Just to show how shitty this place really is he sent his failed angels HERE.The run it, own it, rule it and destroy it-----because they HATE this fucking place.
Pricks like Trump and Charlie Sheen and all the movie stars /more than any human could want and look how fucked up they are.
That'll give you a glimpse of how awesome the Heaven must be----and the one that will come anew.

Didn't god make everything in this universe? Then why did god make evil in the first place?

 

[Hawkins]

So if God didn't create evil, why does God allow evil to exist?

No one really knows...

Earth is for evil to be displayed openly and eradicated once and for all. Evil represents a choice by freewill. Evil is inevitable as long as freewill in its full is allowed to exist. Let it show up then being destroyed once and for all is the way to eliminate it. That's the purpose of planet earth, such that a clean eternal Heaven is secured free of evil.

 

[there4eyeM]

'Good' and 'evil' don't exist "out there" in the universe somewhere. They are concepts, human descriptions for mysterious and misunderstood observances, perceptions.
As we have not yet learned to acknowledge what we know to be true about our 'conscious' mind, we continue to meander like the dinosaurs with horns and other evolutionary mistakes that could not possibly survive. In our case, it is brains that are big enough to get themselves into irretrievable trouble and not enough to avoid it. Look at how exaggerated the human skull is! It is structurally grotesque in proportion. All that brain and so little to show for it.
Certainly, our race is capable of producing Einsteins and Mozarts, but they are so few and far between! Most of our kind are barely able to navigate life compared to a truly brilliant human.
Society suffers under the yoke of standards that are meant to channel and control the 'mass'.

 

[Meriweather]

Didn't god make everything in this universe? Then why did god make evil in the first place?

Are you asking why God made the evil within you?

 

[Taz]

Didn't god make everything in this universe? Then why did god make evil in the first place?

Are you asking why God made the evil within you?

Why He made evil PERIOD!!!!!!

 

[Meriweather]

Why He made evil PERIOD!!!!!!

Doesn't work that way. Are you asking about the evil within you, and whether you feel any evil within you is all God's fault?

 

[harmonica]

1. there is no god
..A. god is not in charge/not in control
define evil

 

[Meriweather]

1. there is no god
..A. god is not in charge/not in control
define evil

St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas defined evil as the absence of good. Do you see anything in control, or are we a sea in chaos?

 

[harmonica]

1. there is no god
..A. god is not in charge/not in control
define evil

St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas defined evil as the absence of good. Do you see anything in control, or are we a sea in chaos?

define good/etc
humans do what they do because that is what humans do !!!
....is murder evil?--murder/robbery/etc has a lot to do with socioeconomic/cultural/familial/physiological/etc-- problems--not ''evil''
...now, no one go freakin overboard about racism-
-but just for example blacks commit murder at over 4 times the rate of whites
--males commit over 85% of murders
--obviously--these numbers show that fee will is not total---
if you are saying ''evil'' is a human condition--fine---then god made humans evil
...he made humans to murder/rape/rob/etc

 

[onefour1]

With free will and the laws and commandments of God, opposition exists by nature. If God did not establish goodness, then the opposite would not exist. Free will gives man the ability to choose the opposite of good or evil. But without establishing good, man would not be able to progress and without free will, man would not be able to grow and become more like God which is where true happiness and love are found. God allows free will so that we can have autonomy in our lives and feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement in doing good. Without it we would be nothing but puppets and live a life without purpose and meaning. As a being of free will, God has shown us how best to exercise our free will to gain the most joy and happiness in our existence. He has given us laws of goodness to follow. Without doing so, there would be no GOOD. But there would also be no evil. In order to have goodness, evil, its opposite will exist. By giving man free will to choose, man has the ability to not choose evil but to choose good continually. He has been given the power to overcome evil and to win the race. Thus the principle of evil exists by virtue of the fact that goodness exists. But if not acted upon, evil would only remain a principle of opposition to goodness. It is only when mankind choose to go against goodness that the principle of evil becomes a reality.

 

[harmonica]

is soldiers killing surrendering enemy evil?
bombers bombing civilians?
an ex-husband murdering the ex-wife?
humans were made to get pissed/angry/violent

 

[there4eyeM]

Apparently, those arguing the religious point need to go look again at what Adam and Eve ate in the garden. Look carefully, and keep in mind the psychological aspects, the verbal meanings, the concept of dualism and human thought.

 

[ding]

Apparently, those arguing the religious point need to go look again at what Adam and Eve ate in the garden. Look carefully, and keep in mind the psychological aspects, the verbal meanings, the concept of dualism and human thought.

The Bible has several literary types; allegorical, historical, law, poetic, prophetic, epistle and proverbial. I'm sure others may add or subtract to this list, but this is a pretty good start. When trying to understand the meaning of passages it is helpful to understand which literary type one is reading and also to place or read the passage in the proper historical light.

Let's start with the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the fall from grace. Genesis is allegorical. It starts with the allegorical account of Creation. After every step God would say "and it was good." So basically everything God created was good. Which makes sense because things like evil, darkness and cold or not extant. They don't exist on their own. They exist as the absence of something else. Cold is the absence of heat. Darkness is the absence of light. And evil is the absence of good.

Man knows right from wrong, but when he violates it, rather than abandoning the concept of right and wrong, he rationalizes that he didn't violate it. After Adam and Eve had sinned and realized they were naked, they hid when they heard God coming. They hid because they knew that they had done wrong. Then when God asked point blank if they had done it, they rationalized that it wasn't their fault. Adam, did you eat the apple? The woman you made gave it to me. Eve did you eat the apple? The serpent deceived me.

Man is the only animal capable of knowledge of good and evil. No other creature has this concept. Sure animals can have empathy, but not like man. Animals function on impulse and instinct. Man functions on these too, but in man's case he has the unique ability to override his impulses and instinct for the sake of good. That is free will. It's a choice. Everything is choice.

I don't believe that Genesis is implying that had Adam and Eve never committed the original sin, we would live in paradise forever. I believe Genesis is saying that man has the capacity to do good and evil. So then the question begs why did God create such a world. I believe that that is an artifact of life. In other words, I don't believe God had a choice. It is part and parcel of the extant nature of good. I know people will howl that I said God had no choice but the reality is there are things God can't do. For instance, God can't oppose Himself; He can't go against His own nature.

So there are two very interesting things which come out of free will. One is that evil has the effect of making good better. It's like salt and sugar. Salt makes sugar taste sweeter. We are told elsewhere that He uses all things for the good of those who love Him. Among other things the Jews discovered is that there is meaning in suffering. 07 Judaism

The other interesting thing is that good has no meaning unless there is evil. In other words, it is not virtuous if you are forced to be virtuous.

In closing, man prefers good over evil. We don't do evil for evil's sake. We do evil for the sake of our own good and when we do, we rationalize that we didn't do evil. But from these acts, goodness will arise and we will be stronger for it. It is a self compensating feature whose sole purpose is to propel consciousness to the next rung in the anthropological ladder.