Darth Dane

Premises:

1) God is Good

Problems:

Why is there evil?

Solution:

There is no God, because God could have created without evil or God is bastard.


If there is "evil" in the world, it must be "good" from God's POV, as compared to not having evil in creation at all, as evidenced by th ecreation we live in.

So it would be "evil" to have no evil at all in creation, hence the reason why it exist.

God would have had eternity to try different creational types, and found this to be the overall best way to have a creation in comparison to other ways of having creation.


Discuss

Thesto Neroses

Maybe God is lazy, but well intentioned.

Darth Dane

Maybe God is lazy, but well intentioned.

Reminds me: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

But lazy? The planets spin, the atoms..do their thing, it seems like a big job, of course for "God" a cinch

Gothic_J

isnt there a theorem, or something for that? I almost remember it.

if god is good and capable, why is there evil?
if god is evil and capable,
if god is evil and incapable,
if god is good and incapable, why is he god?

something like that.

Darth Dane

Because what we consider "Evil" is only our skewed perception that makes it so.

Kenneth

the only good god is a dead god

Jamie_L

Well, that all makes sense if you throw out omnipotence. God can't achieve his ends without inflicting evil on his beloved creations. He can't will the end state into being. He's forced into this situation that is repugnant, but what else is he gonna do? He's got to play by whatever rules govern his limited (but admittedly impressive) abilities.

Fine. That works. But it's usually not a conclusion that people making this arguement are willing to accept.

But this leads to moral paralysis, moral nihilism, or monstrous behavior.

Is it our skewed perception that makes cancer seem like a bad thing? Maybe we shouldn't help cancer patients. Maybe we should just let them die. Maybe we shouldn't stop their pain. Maybe we should let them suffer, because that's really good, and we just don't understand.

Maybe we shouldn't help the victims of natural disasters. Maybe we should let them starve, die of their wounds, and suffer disease. Maybe we should cut off aid to victims of natural disasters rather than increase it, because it's good that these people suffer. Maybe making them suffer more produces more good. How can we tell?

If we don't understand what's good, it's impossible for us to be moral. On the other hand, if God does not fit our common definition and understanding as "good", it's meaningless to call him "good". He's not "good" in common terms. He's something else entirely, and our sense of "good" and "evil" isn't important. In fact, it's likely misguided. A product of our flawed perception. We should just dispense with it altogether.

Jamie

Rhaedas

Maybe it's a needed polar opposite. Some believers think that existence in heaven will consist of observing the suffering of those in hell, to make them fully aware of how good they have it. So without evil, there would be nothing to compare good with, so its "value" would be lost.

Thesto Neroses

So Jesus is good?

Shadowy Man

Define "God".