@1CellOfMany,
1CellOfMany;123212 wrote:When you consider that chimpanzees share 99+% of our genome, I would say that they may be closer to what we would be without having "eaten the fruit of that tree."
That could very well be... yet, let us consider (actually 95%-98% shared) is still a monumental difference. The human genome is 650mb in size. A 2% difference is 13,631,488 bytes of Information difference between the two. That's 5,452,595,200 bits of difference between the two species.
Heh... we could say, "The Devil is in the Details"... for much can be said with 13 million bytes of Info. It's not the similarities that count... It's the differences.
Also, size doesn't matter whatsoever... Human Genome could fill 90 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica, whereas a mere Lilly Seed could fill 1,800 volumes. Human Genome is but half the binary equivalent of Windows XP.
1CellOfMany;123212 wrote:So, it is now clear that the Bible asserts that God created evil.
There are other considerations... The word "Evil" has changed meanings many times over the centuries, and the Biblical use of the word is different than our modern interpretation.
According to the Dictionary of Word Origins by John Ayto, the original meaning of the English word "evil" has changed considerably over the last few hundred years. Not surprising. It seems theologians have had considerable influence upon shaping words to cause us to see according to their doctrines rather than what is plainly written.
Mr. Ayto writes:
"Evil" has gotten distinctly worse over the millenia. Originally it seems to have signified nothing more sinister than "uppity,"
Etymology of the Word "Evil"
Compare this meaning of "Uppity" to the Biblical verse of Isaiah "I make peace and create evil (Pride)..."
The changing definition for Evil is the entire reason that all Biblical translations do not use the word Evil when quoting Isaiah.
"...the Hebrew word for evil "rah" is used in many different ways in the Bible. In the KJV Bible, it occurs 663 times. 431 times it is translated as "evil." The other 232 times it is translated as "wicked", "bad", "hurt", "harm", "ill", "sorrow", "mischief", "displeased", "adversity", "affliction", "trouble", "calamity", "grievous", "misery", and "trouble." So we can see that the word does not require that it be translated as "evil." This is why different Bibles translate this verse differently. It is translated as "calamity" by the NASB and NKJV; "disaster" by the NIV; and "woe" by the RSV"
Does God create evil? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
I'll stick with the original meaning of "Uppity" or "Pride".
Follow closely and you'll understand my reasoning behind this and how it fits perfectly to my satisfaction.
If we consider the
Big Bang as the beginning of all
Physical Existence, then before the Big Bang there was
absolutely no physicality to speak of. It was a realm
without Energy and Matter. It was a purely Immaterial realm.
If there be Sentient Entities within that realm, they must be without physical form... I say, they are pure Information, beyond the confines of needing to express themselves with Spoken or Written language. It is a realm beyond the notion of Pride and the need to worship a Physical Image. Yet the story goes that Satan embraced Pride, and that was an unacceptable characteristic for a Immaterial realm without Energy and Matter.
So, if God were to kick Satan out of the Immaterial Realm,
where would he kick him out to? The God of the Immaterial Realm (Heaven?) could not allow Pride to exist within his perfect realm, yet he allowed his angels to express free will and rebel if they so desired. The only solution was to create another realm, to have a place to put the rebellious, and thus, the Big Bang created a physical realm where Pride could exist.
I don't think it's so much a matter that
God created Evil, as much as
God created a realm where Pride could exist independently from the Immaterial perfect realm of Pure Information, or (Truth Signal) as I call it.
God provided the perfect solution. He now has a realm where only the Purity may exist (Heaven?), and another realm of physical structure (Materialism) where Purity and Pride could exist side by side. God can enter this realm but Satan cannot enter Gods realm.
There are many Biblical references that suggest
This World as the dominion of Satan. Biblical teaching is one that encourages us to reject the physicality of
This World and embrace the
Immaterial Realm of Purity beyond Pride. I mean really, if Satan tempted Jesus in the desert, offering him all the Kingdoms of
This World, then
This World belongs to Satan.
This is the physical Realm where "Uppity" can exist, and God created it at the Big Bang so that Pride-full Angels could have a place to be Pride-full.
My only question is: Are
we Humans, nothing more than Pride-full Angels in a physical form? Or are we God's caveat, allowing acts of Humility to exist alongside acts of Pride?
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This is why I suggest that Evil is Entropy, and Entropy is Matter. The Material Realm is one of
"Noise on the Line". It is the great veil... It clouds the Truth.
The Immaterial Realm is one of Pure Thought (Information). We Humans have learned to harness the Noise, and assemble it into a physical Language structure. In doing so, we express our own divinity, and invite the realm of Pure Thought to be expressed into our physical realm. Language is the only mechanism that allows thought to be expressed. This fits nicely with Bhartrihari's Sphota Theory of Language,
, where Brahman is invited into our realm with every word we speak.