Why there is evil in the world?

February 22, 2007, 10:39 PM

This came up in another thread here in the forums, the thing is if God is perfect and almighty and he created all that exist then why there are imperfections (Evil) in the world? People sin, but if the man was created by God, why did not he created a perfect man that would never sin? <o:p></o:p>
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I think there would only be 2 or 3 logical answer for this.

1. God is not really perfect, nor entirely good, thus his creations reflect the same imperfection

2. God is perfect but he wanted to create an imperfect world for reasons beyond our understanding (maybe a perfect world would be too boring), he also gave us us free will so we could decide by ourselves regardless of what he wanted us to do, this way he would be sure to have created actually worthy beings

3. The world is actually perfect, what we percive as imperfection and evil is actually part of God's plan, humans need the influence of evil in order to grow and choose the right path, there is evil so people can know it and decide to avoid it, by themselves, and with this experience becoming what God really wants them to be.<o:p></o:p>

February 22, 2007, 10:45 PM

There is a theory which consists of describing two main types of "Evil's" - Natural Evil and Human Evil. The titles given to these types of evil are relatively self-explanitory, but I'll explain anyway:

Natural evil includes such things as volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, earthquakes and hurricanes - that is to say, that these events occur naturally and are not influenced by human activity.

Human evil is created by humans - the obvious example being murder.

I still stick with the contradiction theory that God created everything and, therefore, must have also created evil. It's logical to conclude this for argument's sake. I remember learning something about Christians saying that God created evil to test us, or something to that effect ... but I'm afraid my knowledge on any religion, really, is vague at most. At least this gets us started.

February 22, 2007, 10:47 PM

How do we know what we percieve as evil to be evil?

Maybe what we percieve as evil is actually good, we don't really know do we?

February 22, 2007, 10:56 PM

To me, that's like asking how we know that the number two is actually two, and not eleven.

February 22, 2007, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riku

To me, that's like asking how we know that the number two is actually two, and not eleven.

Now you're gettin' there

February 22, 2007, 11:30 PM

The question of whether we know 2 is 2 is a different philosophical debate (study philosophy, its bloody brilliant!)

As to the question of why is there evil in the world, well that involves seeing onesself as a god (It's easy, just imagine you could go anything)

Now, I would say that the reason a god would put evil into the world is to understand itself. Where did I, omnipotent being that I am, come from. So you create a world and watch it, never interfereing, just watching in the faint hope that you might learn something about yourself.

Thats just my theory, if I believed there was a god then it gets more confusing in that it means that divinity requires endless insight.

A more humanistic approach works better for me. That is a belief like Kama. In other words , If im a nice guy then generally nice people will back me up and love me. If I'm horrible then nobody of any worth will. I may not get caught for murder or any other crime, but my life spent on Earth will be restricted and life will not be anywhere near as fulfiling as if I had been non agressive but helpfull and nice.

Note that I have not used the terms good or evil anywhere because that perception is based on society more than on the individual.

February 23, 2007, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimoire Valentine

The question of whether we know 2 is 2 is a different philosophical debate (study philosophy, its bloody brilliant!)

Way ahead of you, already applied for taking it as an A level, and the teacher is fucking awesome

February 23, 2007, 7:58 PM

To me evil is a point of view. Yes, murder is a bad thing, but it is a point of view. To me some murders are justified. Ex. Saddam Hussein killed thousands of people, I believe he deserved what he got. An eye for an eye as the saying goes.

February 26, 2007, 3:44 PM

Evil is poorly defined because it's largely subjective. What is described as being evil in the bible may not actually be evil at all. There are many reasons why "evil" things happen in the world, be it a misunderstanding, an uncontrollable natural disaster (by the way, I don't believe God did those on purpose, he didn't do them), a psychological condition, a consequence or a coincidence. I don't believe there must be a moral reason for why evil things happen. They happen because it's a part of nature or probability, and it's only evil because thinking makes it so.

March 6, 2007, 5:26 AM

My Naval Instructor once said to the whole class that good intentions, no matter how good they were, are bad if it has a bad end. Bad intentions, no matter how bad they are, are good if there is a good end. Something along the lines of "the ends justifies the means" rather than "the means justifies the end." A great example of that is the proverb that goes "give a man a fish and he will live for a day; teach him how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime." It's good to be able to feed someone but how does that benefit that person being feed? What if you die and that person depended on you for his/her daily fish? What then?

If you read Genesis, it says that man fell after eating a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. A lot of people tend to miss the last part. It was a fruit from a tree of "knowledge of good and bad." Recall what the serpent said? If you eat of the fruit of this tree, your eyes would be open and you will be like the Most High, knowing good and evil? But God warned Adam and Eva beforehand that the day they eat or touch the tree that is in the middle of the garden, they would surely die.

Therefore after eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eva should have knowledge of good and evil. Hence, they knew how to either be good or evil or do good or evil. God even said, "the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil." Interesting. But if God knows good and evil, how come He is only one that is said to be good? (In the New Testament, a man called Jesus Christ a good teacher in which Christ's response was no one is good except the Father.)

The real question would be how does God differs from Adam and Eva even though all three of them has knowledge of good and evil? How is it that it is impossible for God to sin yet mankind is able to sin? So first is that we have to distinguish a dividing line between good and evil versus sin. Basically a differentiation between good/evil and sin.