At last a straight clear (ish) answer to the question, you say ;- "god created evil" You go on to explain why you think he did, but you are saying "god created evil" Not Satan, not man, god.
Thank you.

Thank you? Why? Because you believe this? Because this validates what you believe? Do you think God "created" evil?

You have not even answered my question. I ask you to describe or define "evil"

In order to create a thing, it must first be a "thing." Is evil a thing? Is evil an idea? What is it?

I think evil is ignorance. Does one create ignorance?
Evil is ignorance because people hurt other people because of ignorance and lack of love and understanding.

Evil is a lack of LOVE.

Did God create that?

How can one create the Lack of something?

Evil is the lack, the absence of Love.

Evil is not a THING that can be created.

This is so simple.

jeanniebean

Eljay,

Based on this reasoning, god created nothing at all. And I for one would find that very hard to believe!!! ... that god created nothing.

Follow the reasoning you proposed and replace 'evil' with 'good'. God then couldn't have created anything 'good' either; 'NO-THING' 'IS' 'GOOD', anymore than 'NO-THING' 'IS' 'EVIL', according to your logic.

And the line where god only created the 'good' side of every 'thing', and man would be the one that contaminates god's good thing is simply preposterous.

Eljay, that god didn't create 'evil' because of this 'no-thing' 'is' 'evil' approximate logic ... is simply something that I for one, am having a hard time reconciliating.

Now, granted, you believe in the biblical god, and I could understand that you don't want the perfectly loving and 'good' biblical god to be responsible and accountable for anything 'bad', or 'evil'. But that is a matter of faith and belief, and has nothing to do with fact, logic or reason.

You have every right to believe 'for yourself', that god created every 'thing', and didn't create evil, because...

But that is stictly your personal belief, your faith, ... even if you share it with a few friends, it is your shared beliefs and shared faith.

Outside of faith, and the personal domain, it makes no sense that god created everything, and didn't have anything to do with 'evil'.
However, as far as FAITH goes, it is perfectly legitimate. Faith doesn't require anything to make any sense.

There is no need to to keep insisting with logic, to force FAITH to make sense. It is not meant to make sense.

The only potential victim as I see it, will be the 'word for word' bible litteralist view of Christianity.

Not Jesus, not god, not even the possible moral teachings which one could derive from the bible, and enact it in his life.

The only loss would be the 'faith-pressure-cooked-into-fact' prestidigitator trick, which will keep fading away, as it has over the past century.

And that will not be a bad thing. No loss of faith required. No personnal beliefs challenged, or destroyed. Just no more tricks: faith as it was always meant ot be, will be recognized by all as FAITH, and fact as FACT.

Believers of all 'faiths' will finally get along on this planet as Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, 'et all' intended it.

I beleive in that!!! ... it makes no sense you say?!?!?
That's why I believe in it!!!

I WAS saying thank you because I thought at last someone had given an unequivocal opinion in answer to the original question. (It seems I was mistaken.)
I was not saying thank you because it validated my opinion which I have never expressed here.

Of course I have NOT personally talked to 1,0000,0000,001 Christians. And no poll, study or scientific test has ever utilized that many subjects that I know of.

Most of the people in my entire life that I have known have been Christians. NONE of them have indicated that Christianity makes any sense, ALL of them just say "You must have faith" or .."because it is written in the Bible, that's why."

NONE of them can answer any of my questions logically or in a way that makes sense to me. If it makes perfect sense to them, why can't they answer my questions in a reasonable believable manner. They always resort to myth and fairyland, faith and the threat of HELL if you do not believe. mmmmm. That does not, and has never made any sense to me, even as a very small child of 8 years old.



I do not assume that most Christians are "weak and scared." But I have known those who profess to believe that they are saved and yet are petrified as they face death. If they are going home to their God and savior why do they have doubts? Where is their true faith? I have more faith than they do, and they call me a sinner who needs to be "saved."

Really? I seem to remember reading MANY valid opinions on this thread, such as: God did create Evil, God did not Create evil, and Evil does not exist. These are all valid opinions. Did you only see one that you felt you could accept?

This is true. If no thingis evil, then no thing can be good either.

Yet, when God created the world he saw that it was good.

So evidently God uses words differently than we do.

Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace AND CREATE EVIL; I the Lord do all these things.

Olejeb:



The omni-god does not exist... according to it's own words...

Wow... This is fun.

Want my scoop? Maybe not but here it goes anyway:

Let me get something out of the way: I am not a christian. I am a LaVey Satanist. I have no god, blah blah blah...

Just know that I respect your beliefs.

Anyway, asking if your god created evil is an irrelevant question. You guys won't figure that out until you die and ask your god. Why worry about it now? Enjoy life while you have a chance.

When I die, I pass into the Abyss.

The problem with the term "THE LORD" is that back in those days everyone who was anyone called themselves "The Lord." For some reason, people liked being worshiped. There were many Lords and many who would have you think that they were powerful rulers or gods.

If you believe that everyone who called them self "Lord" is your God and savior I have some swamp land for sale that you might be interested in, oh and a a bridge.

I read LaVey's book of Satan and I was truly impressed. Of course I didn't take it seriously enough to join, but I respect the movement. (I think he just wanted to ruffle a few feathers in the Christian community by using the name "Satan.") My impression is that he has a great sense of humor and makes a lot of good points.

So Abra, if we were all to get this right, in this case the biblical god treats 'thing' and 'good' as synonyms, but not so with 'thing' and 'evil' !?!?!?

Such that 'good' and 'thing' here, ...are the samegood!?!?!?

But then again, it's would be a whole other 'good',
... with the 'evil' thing !?!?!?

Hum!!!


:)

Yes, and that's where you differ from the others Abra. Your claim to disbelieve stands respected, because you understand what Christianity represents, and you reject it. You don't misrepresent it to support your lack of belief in it - you just don't accept it. You don't pretend to tell me what I believe in that you see false about the God of scripture. However, you stand amoungst few on this thread who do.

A notion is an idea. Try again.

However, I'll echo Jeannie's sentiment. If this "evil" thing exists, where is it, what does it look like, so we can go get rid of it. Still - anyone - what is a thing God created that is evil?

What was created was good. It is an attribute. The question is "Did God create evil", not "Did God create _anything_ evil. I can think of a lot of things that were created that are good. What can we look to that was created that is evil? Not that "does" evil - but "is" evil?

Voile;

There seems to be a number of posts that are claiming that God created evil. Yet none seem to be able to site an example that doesn't involve an action, or the result of one.

No claims of faith or belief enter into the question. Let's use Abra's God as an example. What did she create that is evil?
What did C.S.'s God create that is evil. He claims his God is inseperable with everything - so where's the example?

damn it, i thought for a second you said Arby's..... **** I have a whole new problem now...

Sorry Jeannie,
I was not trying to say that any of the many opinions on many subjects on here were invalid, merely that most of them were beside the original question.
I thought that someone had made a clear and unequivocal statement, a yes or a no. (It also seems I was mistaken)