Why does God permit evil????

Alan, it only proves there is no such thing as a benevolent god.

Did God create evil as a way of realising goodness?? God is supreme and the ultimate in accountability for good and evil is his (The buck really really stops with him)

Why did God stand back and do nothing during the holocuast?

Why does God permit natural catastrophes like the tsunami that killed 250 thousand people recently?

Why does God create an entity like a virus that does nothing but kill its host?

God didn't create evil at all. Man is the creator of evil. Nothing evil was in this world until man made it so. Around the same time, man also created the idea of a deity called God.


God doesn't stand. I AM. The holocaust was all man.

To quote Karen Armstrong:

"Surely everyone knows what God is: the Supreme Being, a divine Personality, who created the world and everything in it. [Some readers] looked perplexed if you point out that it is inaccurate to call God the Supreme Being because God is not a being at all, and that we don't really understand what we mean when we say that he is "good", "wise", or "intelligent". People of faith admit in theory that God is utterly transcendent, but they seem sometimes to assume that they know exactly who "he" is and what he thinks, loves, and expects. We tend to tame and domesticate God's "otherness."

Descriptions of God cannot be accurate in the way I can accurately describe my wall color red. Descriptions of God can, at best unless they are idolatrous, only point to the ineffable reality of God.

Let me give you another quote from British critic George Steiner: "It is decisively the fact that language does have frontiers that gives proof of a transcendent presence in the fabric of our world. It is just because we can go no further, because speech so marvelously fails us, that we experience the certitude of a divine meaning surpassing and enfolding ours." He goes on to say that "what lies beyond man's word is eloquent of God."

Ever wonder why Zen Buddhism uses koans like "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"? Steiner gives you the answer.

But then, why is God praised and worshiped for His goodness and His justice, and His wisdom, if 'we don't really understand what we mean when we say that he is "good", "wise", or "intelligent" '? For all we know, God may really be evil if we do not know what we are talking about when we ascribe virtues to God. Isn't that right?

No, that is not right.

I never said that we do not know what we are talking about when we do talk about God. Nor did any of the people I chose to quote.

You might try paying attention to the Steiner quote. Or, if you are searching for a constructive question, you might ask what Armstrong means by "transcendent" and the significance of her choice of words.

As for why we praise God for this and that, I gave you the answer: because to say that God is "good" points to the reality of God. We can talk about the ineffable, just not with the absolute accuracy with which we typically speak about material objects.

What about natural disasters? Hurricanes, earthquakes, plagues, crop failures, drought, floods. Man did not cause these, did he?

Well, God would be just as real if he were evil. Isn't that right?

The fact remains that people do praise God for His goodness, so what does it mean to say that when we do that, we can't really mean God is good?

Then what are people doing when they praise God for being good?

When God created the word "and saw that it was good" what does that mean?

Not necessarily. However, disasters like this occur as natures way of keeping balance. Man has tried to dominate and control nature through science etc., rather than work with nature and/or God in balance and harmony.

I believe we inadvertently bring about many of the natural disasters by demonstrating our own imbalance. Imbalance in human relations, chemical imbalances, nuclear energies, etc. etc.

But then, why is God praised and worshiped for His goodness and His justice, and His wisdom, if 'we don't really understand what we mean when we say that he is "good", "wise", or "intelligent" '? For all we know, God may really be evil if we do not know what we are talking about when we ascribe virtues to God. Isn't that right?

Heaven is mythical - it is mythos. But it is not mythical in the same sense as unicorns are mythical.

Not necessarily? How does our own "imbalance" (whatever that means) cause earthquakes or volcanic eruptions? Can you explain that? We must have causal influences even many scientists are not aware of. You mean that volcanoes watch us, and then try to emulate us?

In the sense that unicorns are imaginary beasts, whereas Heaven is a descriptor for human beings living peacefully and lovingly with one another. You will never see a unicorn, but, if you are lucky and work hard enough, you just might get a glimpse of Heaven.

That's a good question. I can tell you why they praise and worship. They do this because some other man told them that's the way to yet another mythical place called heaven. Each Religion has their own version of this.

Do any of you remember Jesus? Now while Jesus or the life of Jesus cannot be verified and many of his words or supposed words were passed on verbally, literally decades after the resurrection, never once did I read anything said by Christ that he demanded to be worshiped and praised. Is this not the same Christ that went into the temple where they were worshiping and praising and tip over tables in a fit of rage? Is this not the same Christ that "ye are also sons of God".

Worship and praise is a man made thing. Again, it's part of settling the restless ego and making the ego feel comfortable. It's the blind leading the blind and literally the bowing down and worshiping of a mythical created deity. They call it IDOLATRY. Worshiping is more for others to see than it is for discovering the consciousness of Christ within.

As humans, we are easily manipulated into doing and thinking some funky things. Heck, look at the manipulation governments dole out amongst their people. We follow whatever trend comes along and then ask each other why? We give ourselves as slaves to the church or to the governments and conveniently forget to give of ourselves freely to each other in balance. Mankind is manipulated and has been manipulated to gain control over by just a few men... and aren't we just easy to buffalo.

Praise and worship fill an egotistical gap, it's not something that will save us from ourselves as we continue to be out of balance and evil towards each other.

I suppose if we interpreted "heaven" as a metaphor for "human beings living peacefully and lovingly with one another", but I was referring to the literal interpretation - a metaphysical paradise where good people go after death.