Thank you for the explanation but now I can't remember what the Sam Hill y'all were talking about to start with.


Just kidding

*scratching head*

Simplicity is divine.

The patterns that make up the universe are indeed very intricate and infinite, but sometimes people complicate things until God's perfection is a tangled up mess.

Let's just be kind to one another. It is the person who matters. It does not matter who is right or who is wrong or who thinks they are right or wrong.

Jeannie

Jeannie,

And I agree with that sentiment, Eljay asked what or why I based my premise/knowledge a priori therefore I answered... simply at first...

One of the things I believe is that 'God' is indivisible...



I resonate more with the Tao, believe it or not, but when one has a conversation with another who describes a 'God' with human logic, then that is the method used...

The way that can be described is not the true way...

Its ok creativesoul you are a brainiac and a cute one at that... I was really just having some fun messing with you.

I felt like I was at Emory Law School again sitting in on my sisters Latin class *scratching my head* it's no ones fault that it hurts my brain... It's no ones fault that it hurts my brain...It's no ones fault that it hurts my brain.


That’s why I've always chosen PE as my favorite class it was just so much easier for me to understand. *grins* It is also why I am not a lawyer. I prefer just being a kitty.

So, what does a priori mean again? Just kidding...seriously I can relate to the premise that God has superior Knowledge far surpassing any human kind. Yet we are made in his image according to scripture so that makes him humanistic as well to me. Someday I'm sure we will all know him and who he is and no longer have any doubts.

Peace & Love

If we were made in his image, that makes me god like.


Actually there were more than one entity or God doing the work if you go by the Bible. It states, "Let us make man in our image."

So some other humanoid group was doing the design IMO.

P.S.
Scientists, aliens, other worldly beings, and advanced race, who knows. It could have been the Naga race of snake people.

I know he was talking to us before when we were in spirit form before he made us in the flesh. We just don't remember it kinda' like we don't remember being in the womb.

I don't know if I said it before in this post but that is what I was trying to explain to someone about my brief death experience once before. When I was in the light after I realized I was dead but still alive. I had this profound feeling of instant knowledge or truth. Nothing seemed obscure in the other deminsion.

It's hard for me to utilize the right words for it. I remember Abra trying to explain something in the bible that speaks about the veil of truth being lifted in the spirit world in scripture and he was trying to fathom it.

It was a feeling like I was where I truly belonged there in the spirit world as opposed to this flesh one. I recognized who the light was and felt familiar there.

John 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Genesis 1:26 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain



26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

And there you have it. I knew I looked like God. LOL

The O.P. asked if 'God' created evil...

Before creation...

If 'God' was the only thing that existed, then everything that existed was 'God'...

In order to create, 'God' could only use that which existed...

The only thing that existed was 'God', therefore, 'God' used 'God' to create all things...

Yes.

This would depend upon what it means to "exist."

Jeannie

Hi all, just stopped in for a quick look around. I checked out the last two pages of this thread and had to laugh. Creative, if you utilize a philosophical theory to support your point of view, it might be a good idea to provide the philosophical (definition) of the words you use within the context of your idea (in the beginning).

So the thread has come all this way to end up with this:



Jenniebean, asked “This would depend upon what it means to "exist."”.

I think she has a point. Based on current theory, which has been driven by philosophy, it seems that “nothing” as a state may not exist. It is simply, as you say, “a posteriori” or inductive reasoning that indicates the following: if you have an apple taking up a position in place and time and then you remove it “nothing” remains.

Currently, however, we consider, instead, that more intense mass displaces less intense mass. So the apple actually existed at the same time as other undetectable mass, it simply displaced the less intensive mass and was ‘perceived’ to be the only physical mass within a specific realm.

Broaden this idea and it’s clear that “nothing”(no-thing) is actually only a word that helps us communicate on a specific level in accordance with our natural perceptions.

So we come up once again to Jenniebean’s question “What it means to exist”. If energy is the priori of existence, then we have a possible foot up on this question. Science has witnessed ‘creation’ within fields of energy, also witnessed is the dissipation or dissolution of that which was created. We have a long way to go, but new directions to consider through inductive “posteriori” reasoning.

Of course, your point of view, is entirely possible. If energy is priori and if energy can create, then, ALL, that exists is a product of energy interacting with itself. Makes sense that energy “itself” must be imparted, to the creation, in order for that creation to maintain ‘existence’. Or it would dissolve, as has been witnessed.

If that theory is accepted, the big BIG question is “can/does energy have thought, reasoning, purpose?”

PS - I'm really disappointed, my new picture makes my chain saw look so small. As I told our dear KAT, in a recent e-mail. Watch it! I have a chain saw and I know how to use it...

God did not create evil....It was created when Adam & Eve decided to listen to satan as the serpent thinking they were equal or better then God.......Big Mistake......

People think satan is a person with two horns an a tail thats not the case. He was an angel named lucifer who didnt obey an tried to make himself bigger than God. Hince why he was casted down to earth. God gave him power, Why would God do this. To prove that his followers would still listen an obey God. Things are for a reason n everything he trys to show an teach us, The thing is will we listen an learn the first time or keep going in circles?

Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain



I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Two things.

1. ra' (evil) is used as a noun. Ra', when used as a noun means evil, distress, misery, injury or calamity. In this verse, God is contrasting his actions against one another. Evil is not the opposite of "peace", so therefore, evil cannot be the meaning of ra' in this verse. In this verse, ra' means "distress" or "calamity".

2. In Hebrew, an action verb can also indictate that the subject allows the described action verb. So "I (God) create evil" could be interpreted as "I (God) allow the creation of evil." The Hebrews considered God the final authority over all things. If God decided to oppose something, he would undo it.

It's very important to learn a little about Hebrew grammar and use a lexicon when reading the Bible. In all cases, context is key.

Here's a great resource to help you.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.html

God is good there fore evil is the absence of God. God gave us free will. When free will is practiced in the absence of God then we get evil. God mad free will so God must allow evil to exist. So yes, God created evil.

You lost me.



Up to this point, we are pretty much in agreement.



This is where you lose me. If you mean "God allows evil to exist, because God allows us to have free will", then we are in complete agreement. Can you clarify this statement, so that I understand?



I disagree with this conclusion. God does not actively create evil. God allows evil to be created, but God has no hand in it. Each individual is personally responsible for any evil created.

"If God is real, and God created everything, why did He create evil?" "Why did a personal, loving God create a world in which evil exists?" "Why did God give man freedom to commit evil acts?" Atheists reason, "Surely, an all-knowing God of love would not allow evil to exist in His world."

The response to the foregoing is summed up in God's nature and His desire for mankind. Look at the logic: How could God allow for love without the potential for evil? God could have created robots that do nothing more than forever say, "I love you, I love you, I love you." But such creatures would be incapable of a real love relationship. Love is a choice, and the Bible says God desires a real love relationship with His creation.

Love is not real unless was have the ability to not love. One of God's attributes is omniscience. God knew that in a world with choice, there would be much evil -- to choose not to love is evil by definition. However, there would also be the capacity for real love.

Philosopher Alvin Plantinga writes, "An all loving, all powerful, all knowing Being could permit as much evil as He pleased without forfeiting His claim to being all loving, so long as for every evil state of affairs He permits there is an accompanying greater good". The potential for love out weighs the existence of evil, especially if evil can only exist for a time. Evil is a side effect of love.

Suffering and death are a side effect of evil (Romans 5:12). God says in His Bible that this side effect is only for a time. Evil serves the limited purpose of establishing real love relationships between creation and the Creator, and evil will be done away with after that purpose is achieved. "And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever" (I John 2:17).