American
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Jan 18, 2012
Posts: 66
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 Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:18 pm Post subject: Why didn't God create a word with no evil? |
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| Why didn't God create a world with no natural or human-caused evil. Why wouldn't an infinitely good and powerful God create beings that never committed evil? God must not be all powerful and all loving. |
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scubasteve
Phoenix
Joined: Dec 18, 2009
Age: 28
Posts: 993
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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I imagine, probably the same reason we don't write stories with no bad guy.
I may not be the best person to answer though, because I tend to agree with your conclusions. |
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Joker
Sinn Fein
Joined: Mar 20, 2011
Age: 24
Posts: 7593
Location: North Carolina The Tar Heel State :)
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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| It is because of Free Will allowing those to choose what they will do and believe he never forces anyone to believe in him. You choose to follow God or not it is really that black and white type of thinking that I agree with. |
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bizboy1
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 24, 2012
Posts: 945
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Free will. |
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one-A-N
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 03, 2010
Posts: 702
Location: Sydney
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:21 am Post subject: |
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Um, how do you know he didn't?
Seriously. God could make many worlds. Perhaps one of them is without any evil. How would we know?
Maybe God has created ALL possible worthwhile worlds. This world we live in, then, would be one type of worthwhile world, but maybe there are other worlds that are very different to this world.
Anyway, an analogy: A good author can write more than one novel. And a good author can write a novel with evil characters, without the author themselves being evil for imagining such things (was Tolkien evil for imagining a world with Sauron in it?). God, the creative author of this world, is not evil despite the evil in this world. The evil in this world will not have the last say. It will be overcome. Just as great heroism cannot be displayed in a world of perfect safety, great love cannot be displayed without seeing what its opposite is - love is at its most loving, is shown to be most loving, when it loves the unlovely. How can we see the love of God, unless it is pitted against the greatest unloving things - unless we also see the unloving, and see it overcome by love?
Can God create a world with evil in it, and redeem it so that - when we see the total picture - we will agree: "Yes, it really was worthwhile creating this world"?
If a world could be created in which God overcame great evil and showed just how much love and wisdom and strength he has, should God go ahead and create it? |
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John_Browning
ON A LIST SOMEWHERE
Joined: Mar 23, 2009
Posts: 4456
Location: The shooting range
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:24 am Post subject: Re: Why didn't God create a word with no evil? |
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| American wrote: | | Why didn't God create a world with no natural or human-caused evil. Why wouldn't an infinitely good and powerful God create beings that never committed evil? God must not be all powerful and all loving. |
He did create the world with no evil. He gave man free will and not only did we waste no time screwing things up, each generation has contributed to making things worse. People have been given the ability to exclude God and religion from their lives and do as they please. But that has side effects, and the same people that shun God and religion frequently turn around and use the problems they helped create to try and prove that God is evil/uncaring, or that he doesn't exist.
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American
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Jan 18, 2012
Posts: 66
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:28 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, I get the free will part. Free will is cool. So why didn't God give us free will and make it so that we do no evil? |
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abacacus
Rock 'N Roll Outlaw
Joined: Apr 16, 2007
Age: 21
Posts: 3315
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:52 am Post subject: |
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Because god, if he exists, is a malicious, sadistic, and likely sociopathic mass murderer. Just read the bible in full, 'sall in there.
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We'll not rest until the purge is complete
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Candles15
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: May 31, 2011
Posts: 175
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:05 am Post subject: |
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| I wonder this myself sometimes and My conclusions usually differs each time but a Christian would argue it's due to Free Will/ evil is there to test us/ to bring the best out in us ect |
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CrazyCatLord
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 25, 2011
Posts: 2177
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:34 am Post subject: |
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| If there was a god, he might have done that. |
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Aimless
innocent bystander
Joined: Apr 02, 2009
Posts: 8159
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:53 am Post subject: |
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Perhaps for the same reason we don't enter preschool knowing advanced calculus.
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CrazyCatLord
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Joined: Oct 25, 2011
Posts: 2177
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| Aimless wrote: | | Perhaps for the same reason we don't enter preschool knowing advanced calculus. |
Are you saying that god was at preschool age when s/he created Earth? That would explain a few things  Children can be incredibly cruel and thoughtless at that age.
But perhaps s/he was already a little older, and Earth is the divine equivalent of a baking soda volcano. I'd give it an E for effort. |
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Delphiki
Launchie
Joined: Apr 15, 2012
Age: 23
Posts: 1350
Location: My own version of reality
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:35 am Post subject: |
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| Just thought you should know- the title says word, really confused me at first. If you had free will but could not do evil, then how is that free will? But then you could argue that we cannot fly, so how much free will do we really have. |
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ArrantPariah
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 31, 2012
Posts: 4810
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:39 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Hamlet:
What have you, my good friends, deserv'd at the hands of
Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?
Guildenstern:
Prison, my lord?
Hamlet:
Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz:
Then is the world one.
Hamlet:
A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
Rosencrantz:
We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet:
Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
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Aimless
innocent bystander
Joined: Apr 02, 2009
Posts: 8159
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:39 am Post subject: |
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| CrazyCatLord wrote: | | Aimless wrote: | | Perhaps for the same reason we don't enter preschool knowing advanced calculus. |
Are you saying that god was at preschool age when s/he created Earth? That would explain a few things Children can be incredibly cruel and thoughtless at that age.
But perhaps s/he was already a little older, and Earth is the divine equivalent of a baking soda volcano. I'd give it an E for effort. |
No, that's not what I mean at all. There is a theological line of thought that the Garden of Eden story is an allegory for our disconnection from "godhood". In other words, when we separated from God, the ego was born. This reality we experience is a school of sorts where we slowly learn, through the process of reincarnation, how to be one with God again. Every evil act we commit pushes us back further. These are just ideas I've read. I don't believe anything I don't know, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to possibilities. What I've read is a book called A Course in Miracles.
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