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thinkinginpictures
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28 Apr 2021, 9:29 am

Here's some questions I'd like religious people to answer. Atheists, please stay out of it, I'm not interested in atheist perspectives, because without a god, there's no such thing as the questions below anyway.
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1. If God is all powerful and all good, why does there exist evil in this world?

2. If your answer to #1 is "free will", how do you account for the evils that are not caused by humans (like earthquakes, pandemics, genetic diseases etc.)?

3. If your answer to #1 is "contrast" (you need to feel evil in order to feel good) - why not the least amount of evil? I mean, I don't need the full dose of evil to experience good.

In relation to #3, sometimes evil kills people before they've had a chance to strengthen themselves against the evils of this world. How do you account for that sort of evil in God's world?

If you cannot answer either question, here's a last one for you:

Why not abandon God, because God is obviously evil, why would you want an evil deity to be your friend?



Fnord
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28 Apr 2021, 9:35 am

thinkinginpictures wrote:
Here's some questions I'd like religious people to answer. Atheists, please stay out of it, I'm not interested in atheist perspectives, because without a god, there's no such thing as the questions below anyway.

1. If God is all powerful and all good, why does there exist evil in this world?
Free will.
thinkinginpictures wrote:
2. If your answer to #1 is "free will", how do you account for the evils that are not caused by humans (like earthquakes, pandemics, genetic diseases etc.)
Entropy.  The universe is inherently imperfect, and is destined to decay.
thinkinginpictures wrote:
[ ... ] Why not abandon God, because God is obviously evil, why would you want an evil deity to be your friend?
Because abandoning infinite and perfect G^D on your say-so (e.g., the words of a finite and imperfect mortal) would be the ultimate sin from which there is no redemption.


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Mr Reynholm
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28 Apr 2021, 1:25 pm

You have to define what "evil" is.
Evil as I understand it is a deficit of good and not a thing in and of itself.
God created everything and everything as God created it was good.
Man and other beings chose to disobey God. That was where evil entered the world.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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28 Apr 2021, 2:19 pm

thinkinginpictures wrote:
1. If God is all powerful and all good, why does there exist evil in this world?

2. If your answer to #1 is "free will", how do you account for the evils that are not caused by humans (like earthquakes, pandemics, genetic diseases etc.)?


Depending on one's theology, the answer is indeed free will, and all evils on this planet are the result of how humans exercised their free will.

If the thing about God and Satan and a supernatural world beyond this material world is as claimed, then:

Somewhere on the past some humans somewhere were were told to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
That tree and the fruit may be literal, allegorical, metaphorical, whatever; the point is that the humans were told by God to not go getting the knowledge of good and evil.
And they went and got it, thereby committing what amounts to a revolt, treason, or even an insurrection.
Yeah, they were deceived in to doing so, but the ultimate choice to do so was theirs.

(It doesn't help that in popular culture the thing is incompletely referred to as the tree of knowledge, and that presents a warped picture.)

Well, in order to have that "knowledge of good and evil" the best way to gain knowledge of a thing is to experience that thing, therefore, in doing whatever act it was that they did, humans condemned themselves to personal experience of evil, in both the suffering evil and the doing of evil.

And God was like, "Okay, you want the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil? You now have what you showed that you want! And in addition, as punishment for your insurrection, this earth is now cursed."

Now, if is not true that there is a supernatural reality then the Bible doesn't make sense, but if the supernatural is true then the Bible does make sense.

In effect, what "eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil" did, was essentially take the 'title deed' of the Earth from the humans who had been created for and given stewardship of it and give that title deed to the deceiver when the humans submitted to the deceiver's will.

What is unknown by man and not told is detailed point by point specifics of the mechanism by how the tempter, accuser, deciever, devil, satan, became corrupted. It is said that he was a beautiful being and was at the throne of God but somewhere along the way iniquity, pride, jealousy, overtook him, and he wanted to overthrow God.

So, another component of the reason for evil existing in this world is that entity doing all it can to corrupt, violate, twist, destroy, what God has created, all of the planet itself, wildlife, nature, and especially corrupt and destroy we humans, the grand element of God's creation.

And for now, the deceiver is allowed to get away with it, because he has legal title to this earth.

But that's not going to last,

And the deceiver knows that is not going to last, because there at the beginning he was told that there would eventually come a son of the woman who will crush the deceiver's head; oh, sure, the deceiver will bruise the heel of that one, but that one is going to overcome the deceiver and imprison the deceiver for eternity & retake title to this earth.

And, eventually, this world, universe, will be renewed with the influence of that deceiver and the corruption and destruction he brought to this world & the new/renewed world, universe, will from that point on continue forever without any evil in it.

:arrow: Because of that transfer of title to the deceiver, the "default setting" for this earth in both its material and the life upon it, is that of having been poisoned by what we call 'evil'. Everything within the system is poisoned by evil, everything the system is made of is poisoned by evil.
And that includes us, includes me, includes you.
But there is a way to beat that poisoned system,
a way to overcome the default setting,
a way to become part of the renewed and forever free of evil world,
and that way is the person who crushed the deceiver's head.

So there it is, buy in to it or not, the choice is yours.


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