Pyrrho

Aside from the rather obvious fact that if a being created the universe, then that being must have created evil (and for those who try to weasel out of it by saying that "evil is simply the absence of good", then that being must have created things with that absence, so it is still responsible for evil), the Bible is absolutely clear that God created evil:

So, all Christians out there: What does it feel like to worship the creator of evil?

(Thanks to braces_for_impact for providing the verse from Isaiah.)

Heathen Dawn

And before anyone says the word for "evil" actually means "calamity": this is not so. The word in that verse is ra'

רע

which means "evil" or "bad", not "calamity".

Milton

It feels great!

Especially when you know that "no evil shall over come you," as long as you are with Him. "I said you are Gods, and sons of the Most High."--Yes, I am a God!

King Rat

ME TOO!

Heathen Dawn

That is empirically falsified. Christians suffer from evil just as badly as non-Christians. Oh, you mean the afterlife? That's a convenient place where no man can go and come back to verify or falsify.

I thought the aspiration of man to become God was the original sin. (you know, Gen 3:5)

Magus55

This isn't referring to moral evil that you are thinking of, its referring to disaster. God can't be tempted by evil.


Jam 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

The word for evil in Isaiah 45:7 is Ra which is different than the word used in James 1:13, which is Kakos. Its 2 different types of evil, one is destruction and disaster ( obviously God does this out of judgement, i.e the flood), and the other is moral evil and doing wrong, which God can't do or be tempted by.


So, no, doesn't particularly bother me in the least. God knows what he's doing, and is perfect, holding absolute authority. I have no reason to question His methods. Its not like I could do anything about it even if I objected.

Heathen Dawn

How do you know? There is nothing in the context of the verse to suggest a particular meaning of "evil".



One is Hebrew, the other is Greek, but they both mean the same thing - "evil". What kind of evil it is - that isn't established in the text.



It's still evil, no matter how you slice it.



Tell that to those with birth defects.

JerryM

But if God allows moral evil to occur, is He not also responsible for it, in the moral sense? Suppose I am aware that a terrorist is planning to blow up a building, and I have the power to stop him. Yet I do nothing. By any concept of justice, am I not also morally culpable? The argument than God is perfectly just and has reasons for everything that happens does not absolve God of responsibility, it just seeks to excuse or mitigate it. And why should we not question God's supposed perfect justice? Nineteen babies and toddlers were killed when the Oklahoma City Federal building was bombed. What terrible sin did these children commit to deserve God's punishment? If God is willing to use moral evil for His ends, then I don't see how you can say that God is totally good. The best you can say is that MAYBE God has good intentions (but even that is awfully hard to support when you see what He allows to happen.)

Magus55

God didn't blow up the OK federal building, a terrorist did. Tim McVeigh chose to use his free will, to go against God's command of thou shalt not murder. He made the choice, why should God stop him? It isn't God's job to run around to every tragedy and stop the crimes committed by humans. God is not a magic genie, so stop acting like we can do whatever we want, and expect God to make it all better with no consequences. It doesn't work that way. Yes, the OK building disaster was tragic, but Tim McVeigh did it, not God.

And no God isn't responsible for the evil we commit, because while He does allow it to happen, He doesn't force us to commit evil. We choose to commit evil. We have the complete ability to not do evil. So whose fault is it if we choose evil over good?

Biff the unclean

There are sins of commission and there are sins of omission. If you are capable of preventing an evil but stand idly by and let it happen you have committed a sin of omission