Does the existence of evil in the world disprove the existence of God?
The Beaver
2008/03/15 03:35:29
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One of the strongest and most popular arguments against the existence of God is the 'argument from evil.' According to this argument, the traditional God people believe in can't exist in a world with so much evil - either God would do something, or God can't be very good. Do you agree?
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus (341–270 B.C.E.)
I do understand you logic but at the same time I can flip that logic around. Innocents get taken away and given pain oh but wait after you go through all that pain hey you get to live in heaven and then everything is just peachy. BUT you can find comfort in knowing that someday the person that did these things to you will be judged.... Yeah thats not comforting in my book.
Then again since I do not believe I guess I'll find myself there as well. Or at least this is what I have been told on SH.
Put it this way my ex husband cheated on me over 15 times (that I know of) in a 3 year relationship. The day before I left him I had already forgiven him. I would have actually liked to remained friends with him... but some men just can't handle that I guess.
Forgiveness is one of my best qualities... or so I've been told.
But hey thanks for judging me!
Six thousand years of human history exhibit that we very quickly absorb the course of the world around us and lose our innocence, becoming self-centered and deceived like everybody else (Revelation 12:9). The vast majority in this world is utterly unaware that they are in bondage to Satan—so unaware that most would scoff if told so. Even if informed through the preaching of the gospel, they do not fully grasp either the extent or the importance of these factors unless God draws them by opening their eyes spiritually (John 6:44-45).
Pray will your heart, and really want it with all your being, and He will open your eyes.
How would we see light, if we saw no darkness?
How would we know joy, if we felt no sorrow?
How would we know music, if we heard no din?
How would we know pleasure, if we felt no pain?
how would we taste sweetness, if we tasted not bitterness?
and how would we know love, if we knew not rejection?
kind of like the old cliche -- if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it fall, does it make a sound? i suspect that it does, even if we aren't aware of it. i suspect that the tree will have fallen even if no one saw it or can appreciate it or understands it. i suspect that good and evil might operate in this capacity. it's possible that it's easier for us to understand the one in the context of the other, but that's just speaking of us. just because we might need both to understand either doesn't necessarily mean that either, in itself, requires the other to exist.
The Hebrew translation of the word "was" is actually "became"....so in the Hebrew text, Genesis 1:2 should read, "And the earth BECAME without form, and void........"
So that leads to the question as to how did it become without form and void? Reading the Books of Ezekiel an Isiah, we are given that answer. Both books give reference to one of God's greatest creations "the brilliant one" "the morning star" - the description of Lucifer - one of the Arch angels. Further reading describes Lucifers attitude that since he is the one of beauty and brilliance as God created him, he likened himself to God, and rebelled thus being cast out of heaven and given dominion over the earth. Becoming an enemy of God. Taking advantage of free will, which God will never overstep, Satan is able to influence us to do his bidding. But GOD did make it clear, that he will send US - his children, a redeemer, a savior. This also occured in Genesis when the fall of man w...'
The Hebrew translation of the word "was" is actually "became"....so in the Hebrew text, Genesis 1:2 should read, "And the earth BECAME without form, and void........"
So that leads to the question as to how did it become without form and void? Reading the Books of Ezekiel an Isiah, we are given that answer. Both books give reference to one of God's greatest creations "the brilliant one" "the morning star" - the description of Lucifer - one of the Arch angels. Further reading describes Lucifers attitude that since he is the one of beauty and brilliance as God created him, he likened himself to God, and rebelled thus being cast out of heaven and given dominion over the earth. Becoming an enemy of God. Taking advantage of free will, which God will never overstep, Satan is able to influence us to do his bidding. But GOD did make it clear, that he will send US - his children, a redeemer, a savior. This also occured in Genesis when the fall of man was chronicled. Man's fall was contributed to the influence of the adversary.
This is what caused the earth to become void...the fall of Lucifer, Satan, the Devil, the adversary - whatever you want to call him.
Since Satan has dominion over the earth....we have the existence of evil.
However, God is a God of Light and in Him there is no darkness. So we cannot attribute any evil doing to God, but by the idiom of permission God does allow things to happen, but is not the cause of it. The ruler of this earth is Satan. God gave him dominion.
Nothing can prove or disprove the existence of God.
"Your wildest misperceptions, your weird imaginings, your blackest nightmares, all mean nothing. They will not prevail against the peace God wills for you." -- A Course In Miracles.