He put us down here and basically said: Go for it. Then sent his son centuries later to straighten out the mess only for it to happen again. He’ll sort them out later.
We also need to distinguish between tragedy and malevolence. Earthquakes are not evil, nor is bone-cancer. These are tragic. These are the conditions for all creatures on this plane of existence here Earth. Of course we are not judged by these events (although we are for our reactions to them).
Malevolence is evil, and belongs to man - his imaginations, his thoughts, his behaviors and his actions.
No. George Soros is responsible.
In the end, if there is a God, and he is almighty, and he created everything... then the buck stops there and yes, he’s responsible for everything. I mean, is he in charge, or isn’t he?
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Stephen Fry ?
Who lets some leftist atheist actor be quoted asan authority on anything ??
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Attention Whoring looking for a new gig?
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I heard it asked as i’m certain others have heard a somewhat rhetorical ‘trap’ question by someone who wants to try and mock your beliefs. The age old question
“WHY IS THERE SUFFERING IN THE WORLD”
The response i considered is the same as what Jesus gave to the mocking pharisees. John 9:2-3
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”
It is the same response. There is suffering in the world so that the power of gods people can be seen in them.
I dont know how effective a response that would be. But it works for me.
For I am the Lord thy God I created the good and the evil”
God allows it.
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all...”
I love these guys who can’t put the stars in the sky, separate the firmament from the waves create Time and place everything in it but nonetheless think that THEY are more moral than God.
The ancient problem of theodicy is that a “perfect” world and mankind would not include evil deeds. And since evil undeniably exists, God MUST be responsible for creating it. So some aspect of God must be capable of evil.
My own resolution of this dilemma is to include the prospect of reincarnation in my Christian belief system. Thus those who commit evil deeds may ultimately be required to “pay” for them “karmically”.
If so, then “evil” may be seen as ultimately beneficial to mankind, by serving as God’s way of teaching and reinforcing moral behavior.
Thus the cruelty of a “hell” can be discarded as an unseemly instrument of a truly loving God.
And for those Christians who regard the idea of transmigration as heretical, several of the early Church fathers (not just Gnostics) adhered to this belief system.
And as Christ himself asked John the Baptist “Art thou Elias?” (John 1:21), some believe that he taught his disciples some aspects of this belief system.
The “New Atheists” do not correctly understand the Biblical doctrine of the Omnipotence {all-powerful} of God.
Epicurus did not correctly understand the Christian doctrine of God’s Omnipotence. God’s Omnipotence does not mean that He can do anything. God cannot create square circles. God cannot make 2 + 2 = 7. God cannot give humans the Free Will to do evil and at the same time prevent humans from doing evil.
God is responsible for all of the innocence in the world.
The holy book of Genesis (literally “beginnings”, the antonym of eschatology) is packed with advanced Hebrew philosophy, with meanings piled on other meanings.
The original Adam and Eve were neither good nor evil, but amoral, like animals. Because whether they *did* good or evil, only God knew. They did not. But when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they became inherently different beings.
If God allowed free determination instead of predetermination then God is responsible because he made the choice to allow for free choice. Ultimately it comes down to the choice God made and therefore is responsible for the choices he made.
This is wrong thinking. There is no such thing as "free will". It assumes people can do what is good. They cannot.
Nobody likes hearing it but people are evil. They are born with wicked and evil intentions. They will never do good-no not one. The problems you see today is nothing that hasn't happened throughout our long, sorry history because it is what people do. There is nothing new under the sun.
And less Christians forget, we once had this same bent to do evil but God has saved us out of that condition.
Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
It doesn't mean Christians can't slip back into this sinful behavior, only that we no longer practice it. We should ernestly pray for those who are bound into this sinfulness that God may grant others salvation. Only the grace of God will solve the situation.
I question the need to "defend G-d" from charges of "immorality" or evil. There is no independent standard apart from G-d by which He may be "judged." Good is good and evil is evil by His decree alone.
If G-d does not exist, then nothing is objectively evil. Objective evil cannot exist unless G-d defines it. In this way G-d is absolutely essential for the existence of objective evil.
We are in this mess today because people have been looking for some "independent" secular moral code by which actions may be judged good or evil apart from G-d. No such code exists. Good and evil are defined exclusively by Divine decree and nothing else. This makes every "atheist" moral crusader a hypocrite, since without G-d there are no evils to vanquish or even problems to solve.
Please let us stop separating morality from G-d. If we all still acknowledged His sole right to define good and evil we wouldn't be in this mess today.