Atheist_Forever

Basically my theory is that God is evil. God apparently created all according the Christian religion. In the book it says that God didn't create evil, evil is just the absence of good, and in a sense doesn't exist. Well even if evil doesn't exist this means God made it so humans are capable of being absent off good. This means that God gave us the capabilities to be evil. Then some will argue if God did not do this we would not have free will. This is true, but there were many other options He could of taken. One option being that in the absence of good someone did not behave “evil”, but behaved more humorous, or they behaved confused, the list could go on. Going by the Christian religion God is all-powerful meaning He can do all, but I feel most people don’t have a grasp of how much all is. If this statement is true this means God can logic and reality. If he were to alter reality, so that being absent of good wasn’t even an option or being absent of good was not even part of reality there would be no such thing as evil. This entire theory would be on nothing. This leads me to my next point, some of you may be asking “So what, who cares if I can do evil I like to curse, fight, jack off. Etc. etc.” According to the Christian religion God is good, He is the definition of good, there is no greater good than God. Well in this current society we know that there are many problems in this planet; such as, murder, rape, and poverty. Well if God is so good then why would he allow this to continue, He could of simply made it a better place, but chose not to. Then some may argue “maybe this is the best way”, this is obviously not the best way considering the entire human race is always battling between doing what is right and wrong and going by Christianity all our morals came from God. This brings me to my final point, if God really is so good then why does He allow “absence of good”, one because He is evil and wants it to be this way, or two because He is incapable of changing it, which makes him a liar which is evil according to his rule God, or maybe three He plain old does not exist.


Let's take the realistic things: He's either a lazy old bastard who doesn't care about us, or he doesn't exist.

quip

Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

KJV

Atheist_Forever

Witch brings up this question : Why did he create evil? Does he not care if we suffer?

ELECTROGOD

He cares enough to send us to burn in eternal torture if we say the wrong word or skip church. Now that's love I can appreciate!

hayahtowb

Hi quip, you said:
The verb "create" is determined by the context, or in contrast with the word peace. Making the rendering "create" = "bring about".

And the word "evil" , is never rendered sin, but the same word used for "evil" is rendered: calamity; adversity; greif; misery; afflicition; trouble; sore; nosiome; wretchedness; hurt; ill; mischief; harm; and I'm sure I missed a few. But never sin.

So the passage should read: "...bring about (take your pick of all the words for "evil" )..."

Did that help any?

Noggin

Atheist Forever:

A.F.

Most theists have successfully compartmentalized the concept of evil along these lines:

Mormonism: Oh, there needs to be an opposition in all things, men are free to choose good or evil. We qualify ourselves for the things of God with every correct or good choice and eschewing of evil. The Fall set in motion this dichotomy so that God's plan may come to pass. We are here on earth to prove ourselves worthy of God's eternal rewards. This earth life is the time to prepare to meet God and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

I'd go into the other religions, but I am sure you get the point. The point being that God created the scenario whereby men would be in a terrestrial position to choose to draw closer to god (with good choices) or distance themselves away from him (with evil choices).

Noggin

mdarus

Your desire that things should be better agrees with a major theme that Jesus promoted:
There is a sharp contrast between heaven where God's will is always done and earth where what God desires for us is done less often. Followers of Jesus are challenged to create situations where God's will (what he prefers) is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Atheos

Was Lucifer doing god's will when he rebelled against god? Was this done in heaven? Is there free will in heaven? Could one do something that was against god's will? If one does, is the result the same as with Lucifer, i.e., that individual gets tossed into the lake of fire? If free will does not exist in heaven, how can one remotely think of it as "heaven"? If one has all eternity to make a mistake (i.e., do something that is against god's will) is it not a mathematical certainty that one would eventually make that mistake? If free will exists in heaven but nobody there ever sins, why didn't god just do that in the first place on earth rather than create a situation where there is so much profound and gratuitous suffering? "Heaven" makes my head hurt.

-Atheos

Soul Invictus

To me the "why" is immaterial. That god did create something as horrendous as evil is not justifiable under any condition from my moral position.

Carin Nel

May I say AMEN to that?
You are correct that the Bible says that God created everything by Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:9, Col.1:15 - 18) for His pleasure (Rev.4:11) and He saw that it was good.
He did not create sin.

Is. 45:7 is always quoted as proof that He does, but let us look at the Hebrew text:
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

The Hebrew word for "create" is "bara" which indeed means "to bring about."
The Hebrew word for "evil" is "ra". It is never rendered sin, but evil. And all the other words in the quote. I have the scripture references if anyone is interested. The idea is that God has made the law of reaing and sowing and evil and bad results will come when men sin. (Gal. 6:7-8) Ra is translated as evil and never with the idea that sin is created by God. If men sin and reap for it the responsibility for both is theirs. God simply made the law and penalties for breaking the law which will always be in force like in any government.