Why does God permit evil????

@TurboLung,

Alan ,you start to describe god but fail on the details. If he is a thinking god who created us with thought, he has not given it much thought in the consequences of his creation. When I refer to a tiger we are not much different, we make the best of our existence. We act to our ability, or lack of it, just as the tiger acts to his given ability. If we sin or make mistakes, its because that's how we are. You cant blame humans for sin , if you believe in a god who determined our existence, it his failings that created us imperfect, not ours. God relieves us of our evil and turns us into robotics creatures programmed for that purpose.

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

I don't think it's a question of God permits evil, that he allows it because I believe God doesn't have the power over mans free will, it is man who creates evil. In xris' example of the tiger, well that's not evil either, that's just surival.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103778 wrote:

I don't think it's a question of God permits evil, that he allows it because I believe God doesn't have the power over mans free will, it is man who creates evil. In xris' example of the tiger, well that's not evil either, that's just surival.

If you propose god made us Caroline you have to accept he knew the consequences of his creation. He should have known we would commit evil and therefor its his evil not ours. We are the tools of his creation. That's if you believe in this god.

1 Reply

@xris,

xris;103782 wrote:

If you propose god made us Caroline you have to accept he knew the consequences of his creation. He should have known we would commit evil and therefor its his evil not ours. We are the tools of his creation. That's if you believe in this god.

Ok if God exists and he created us you could say he gave us a choice, to choose to be good or bad/evil. Besides what would it be like if we had no choice? How would we learn? Where would the value be in being good, how would we appreciate it if we didn't know the difference?

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103783 wrote:

Ok if God exists and he created us you could say he gave us a choice, to choose to be good or bad/evil. Besides what would it be like if we had no choice? How would we learn? Where would the value be in being good, how would we appreciate it if we didn't know the difference?

If god chose that as our quest, did he consult us? What purpose does it serve his or ours. If he is as powerful as we are told why the self education, let him imbue us with this knowledge, not suffer it.

The world is a stage and we are merely players..

1 Reply

@xris,

xris;103784 wrote:

If god chose that as our quest, did he consult us? What purpose does it serve his or ours. If he is as powerful as we are told why the self education, let him imbue us with this knowledge, not suffer it.

The world is a stage and we are merely players..

I don't know. We can live without evil. We can't live like robots and just be good we have to have the choice, to know evil is to know good, but only knowing evil is good enough, we don't have to have evil in the world to know what is good, I believe it's inherent. The fact that some chose to be evil could be said as making the wrong choice. I don't know what the purpose is, I can only speculate which would lead us onto another subject, such as what happens to us after death, which noone knows. It's all speculation.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline, if we are made imperfect what purpose does it serve to test us. If the failures are built into our make up, why be so amazed when we fail the test of life's challenges.

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

Because that's the point, to learn. I also believe that we learn what is bad and what is good at a very young age from our parents, and again that is where some people go wrong if they don't have very good parents, it can be hard for an individual to choose a good path if they have no guidance.
The purpose is to learn.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103789 wrote:

Because that's the point, to learn. I also believe that we learn what is bad and what is good at a very young age from our parents, and again that is where some people go wrong if they don't have very good parents, it can be hard for an individual to choose a good path if they have no guidance.
The purpose is to learn.

Learn what? what for? Who has decided what we learn? Does god decide what we learn ? We may learn what is good and bad depending on our instruction but what has that got to do with a creator? He could have instilled this learning without all the nonsense of life and how many learn the secret of life before they die? how many succeed in life's challenges? Sorry all this hidden meaning to lifes adventure is drivel, we do the best we can and then die. Do your best to enjoy life and be as nice as you can to your fellow travellers, the rest is semantics. Sorry Caroline im feeling a bit less than friendly towards religion today.

1 Reply

@TurboLung,

TurboLung;103748 wrote:

Answer by Atheists; There is no God.

Answer by religious group; If God stepped in, then, we would not have the ultimate gift - freedom of choice (Although, he did seem to stick his nose in on people's affairs all the time in the Old Testament...).

My answer; I am agnostic, so, don't relly know if we will ever know if there is a God. My guess is that we are either a by product of a higher being (God) who may not even know we exist or, we are in some dream or program and when we die we "come to" and realise where we are.

What has freedom of choice to do with the tsunami?

0 Replies

@xris,

xris;103795 wrote:

Learn what? what for? Who has decided what we learn? Does god decide what we learn ? We may learn what is good and bad depending on our instruction but what has that got to do with a creator? He could have instilled this learning without all the nonsense of life and how many learn the secret of life before they die? how many succeed in life's challenges? Sorry all this hidden meaning to lifes adventure is drivel, we do the best we can and then die. Do your best to enjoy life and be as nice as you can to your fellow travellers, the rest is semantics. Sorry Caroline im feeling a bit less than friendly towards religion today.

In answer to your first question, I don't know what for or who has decided, all I know is that there is good and evil in this world and people make choices and to believe in God doesn't necessarily mean to take on any particular religion. And I agree, do the best you can in life and enjoy your life.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103815 wrote:

In answer to your first question, I don't know what for or who has decided, all I know is that there is good and evil in this world and people make choices and to believe in God doesn't necessarily mean to take on any particular religion. And I agree, do the best you can in life and enjoy your life.

The question was relative to god and evil Caroline not our choices in life. We do have choices but only by those instilled into our personality, god has no relevance to those choices, not unless your defending his existance.

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

No I'm not defending God's existence because whether you believe in God or not the choices still apply. But the question is why does God permit evil and I say man creates evil not God, and if he is the creator of us he has given us the choices between good and evil which we create.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103821 wrote:

No I'm not defending God's existence because whether you believe in God or not the choices still apply. But the question is why does God permit evil and I say man creates evil not God, and if he is the creator of us he has given us the choices between good and evil which we create.

So why did he give us the choice when it so obviously effects the weak more than the strong. What purpose does it serve? Would you give a bully the opportunity to terrorise a child and say i gave him the choice to be god or bad. Do you think the child would appreciate your views?

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

Well we all live in hope that we stop harming each other. Who knows why, maybe God doesn't want people to suffer, just be kind to each other, the fact that some choose to be unkind only shows a person not God making a bad choice.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103917 wrote:

Well we all live in hope that we stop harming each other. Who knows why, maybe God doesn't want people to suffer, just be kind to each other, the fact that some choose to be unkind only shows a person not God making a bad choice.

He may not want us to act badly but he sure knows we will. He has no reason to rely on hope, he knows the outcome of all our efforts. His not some kindly father Christmas figure, a gentle grandad Caroline. He has designed us, manipulated our world and with little regard asked us to suffer the bullies he has granted the power to.

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

Are you saying that bullies can't be dealt with or we can't fight for what is right and what's to say God is in charge of all this anyway. Why is he responsible for what is bad in the world, why cant it be just mans bad choice, why can't we take responisibilty for our bad actions.

1 Reply

@Caroline,

Caroline;103922 wrote:

Are you saying that bullies can't be dealt with or we can't fight for what is right and what's to say God is in charge of all this anyway. Why is he responsible for what is bad in the world, why cant it be just mans bad choice, why can't we take responisibilty for our bad actions.

You can be responsible for your actions , we all are. Thats not the point is it? If you claim god created us you have to admit he made us imperfect, dont you?

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

Yes we are all imperfect, isn't that what makes us human but we can all strive to be good.

0 Replies

@Alan McDougall,

so xris, you basic argument is that because anything bad can happen, God must be responsible, and there are bad things, God created them, therefore God is bad.

Is that it?

The notion of humans having free will and being able to choose their own destiny, is a really important aspect of the whole of Western religious doctrine. It speaks to the nature of freedom. If nobody had any choice but to 'do good', then goodness would have no meaning. In fact you could go further and say that the possibility of error, of evil, is an indispensible aspect of the whole picture. Unless the Good can be freely chosen, and chosen, not out of guilt or fear of the consequences, but because it is the very best thing that can be chosen, then what is it worth?

1 Reply

Why does God permit evil????

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know