Monday, February 4, 2013

Just and Good God

How does a just a good God allow evil to exist?

28 comments:

  1. Since Lucifer is such a strong force his evil that he releases into society is almost unstoppable. In Miltons Paradise it talks about how Satan's will power is stronger than gods. If you believe that this is true then it means that god is unable to stop the evil that is released through us humans. All we can do is keep our faith as strong as possible in order to expel the evil from us. If we allow god into our heart we will be more likely to avoid the evil that Lucifer has laid out for us. Its like walking in the forest late at night. You can't see anything so you could fall into a ditch or another hinderance in your journey through the forest. However if you have a flashlight you can safely navigate the forest without any difficulty. We need God to be our flashlight in our journey.

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  2. I think that questioning how a just and good God can allow evil to exist is one of the hardest concepts to grasp in faith. I believe that God doesn't allow bad things to happen and cause evil and pain, but he has no control over it and it is controlled by Satan. Ever since sin was entered into our world by Adam and Eve, we have known in the bible through John 16:33 "You will have suffering in the world." He didn't say that we might have suffering, he said that it is known that we will have suffering. God is all knowing and knows about evil in our world, and he also knows that everyone sins. We have previously talked about how there can't be light without dark and there can't be good without evil. We are given a choice everyday to follow Christ and God and go to heaven, or fall into the evil and go to hell. I don't think it's a question of how can God allow evil to happen, but how can we as people allow our selfs to fall so far into sin that we allow evil to happen.

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  3. I don't think that a good God lets evil exsist in the world, however God gave people choice. It is our choice as a human race to choose what we beleive is right or wrong. God also gave us the choice to beleive what we think is evil and what we think is good, therefor it is not in Gods hands to allow the evil in the world. When Adam and Eve chose evil over good in the garden, they passed the free choice into all of us, and in that case they chose the "evil" choice. Like we talkied about in class, we are all flawed because of this but ultimatly it comes down to our choice and perception of evil.

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  4. Although God had not planned it, there was still a rebellion against Him and his authority. This evil was still based off the choice Lucifer and the Rebellious Angels decided to make-that they no longer wanted be slaves of Heaven yet leaders of anything against God, which is the moral of evil. Yet God has realized, like with Adam and Eve, that these angels are his own creation and He took responsibility in punishing them in order to teach them the consequences of their ways. So in the matter of this situation, one must admit that they cannot just eliminate what they have created, yet let them decide for themselves, for that is what has been given to them- choices.

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  5. I don't believe that God chooses to let evil exist. He choose to give human beings free will of choice. In order to give humans free will evil must exist. A just and good God wants his creation to enjoy life and he knows that he is not always 100% responsible for his creations. He can't control what they do but he can punish them for their evil decisions like he did with Adam and Eve.

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  6. I believe that evil is man made not from God. God gives us free will to behave as we choose, we either follow His way or let our egos and worldly influence determine how we behave. From the story of Adam and Eve, we know that no one is perfect besides God. They both disobeyed him and this put sin in the world. God isn't about evil rather love. We create the bad in this world not Him. It is just easier for us to do what we want to rather than follow God's way. This is where the devil comes in, always tempting us to do our own thing.

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  7. I believe that God did not create evil. The devil temps us and many times we fall to his lies and the way he deceives us into falling into his trap. I also think that many times we cause ourselves pain. The choices that we make have repercussions and we have to be responsible. God cannot prevent anything bad and he gives us the choice to choose him of not, but many times when we don't, there is natural consequences.

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  8. Of course Gods intentions for humans were to live a righteous and painful life but with all the goodness that exist, there has to be an opposite force pulling evil to exist as well. We as humans are born with a free will and because of this we are allowed to live how we want but with this there will be consequences for wrong actions. I believe god allows evil to exist so we can open our eyes and realize what he has set out for us, look at the beauty that is all around us and then make our decisions for our pleasure.

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  9. God is just and good, however, He does not make decisions for us. The reason that evil is present in the world today is because God gave people free choice, allowing people to make decisions that bring evil into the world. People make selfish decisions that are influenced by the devil, which causes evil to be part of the world. God never causes evil, but allows people to make their own decisions. God only allows evil to exist because people choose it, and God refuses to take away free will from people. He wants people to choose good over evil by themselves.

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  10. A just God allows there to be evil to let us grown and have the agency to choose our actions and receive the consequences. If there was only goodness all the time then evil would be unknown to us. The propose of this earth was to be born and choose which path to follow, one of goodness or one of darkness. If there was no evil no one could follow this path but then no one could follow a path of goodness. In affect, no one would get to heaven if there was no evil. That is why God allows there to be evil so we can all have the potential of reaching heaven.

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  11. I feel that a just and good God allows evil to because he wants to place choices in our path. God granted the human race with free will when he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. He gives them choice in order from them to know the value of what they truly have in a glorious and forgiving God. Without this choice we wouldn't know what an amazing gift Gods love is. He gives us the opposites to the good and just in order to let us make mistakes and be flawed as all humans naturally are. So really he doesn't allow evil to exist for negative reasons but for the best and good reasons that there can be for evil to exist.

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  12. God allows evil to exist in the world for two reasons: One being the freewill aspect and the other being a balance in the universe. First, as described in Genesis, God gave Adam and Eve one rule, to not disturb the Tree in the middle of the garden. Adam and Eve CHOSE to go against God's one rule, causing their actions to lead to punishment for all the rest of humanity, as they spawned the rest of the human race, according to Christian beliefs. Because of this first choice, humans were forever burdened with choices between good and evil. God just trusts that man will choose the right path. Secondly, if there is a good power, there must also be an opposite, being evil, just as there are negative and positive poles. Without evil, the true goodness of such a good power would not be known without an evil to be compared to. Good would be static

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  13. A just God does not allow evil to exist in this world, God is all good and all powerful all the time. God did not put evil into this world, it is the fault of the people that brought evil into the world. Even in the beginning God made everything perfect and in His image, so there was no evil in the world when God created it. Evil was present though when Adam and Eve chose to ignore what God made and told them to not eat of the tree. It was Satan who tempted them and caused evil to come into their lives, if they would have listened to what God told them in the beginning evil what not have been present. Evil only exists when there is an absence of good, so if God is all good, evil exist when we push God away from our lives. God doesn't choose where evil is present, we as humans choose where evil is and where evil is present God is not. In all God does not allow evil to exist, God is good and just all the time. It is us at humans that push God away and let evil consume our life.

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  14. I don't think God deliberately allowed evil to exist in the world; back in the beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve, God gave them a choice. He presented them with the decision between eating the forbidden fruit and exposing evil and disease in the world, or to not eat it and continue on living in the Garden of Eden. It is not God who is allowing the evil to exist; it is us as human beings choosing to let evil into our lives. We make the choices to let evil consume the world, God is not completely to blame. Although He is the one who presented Adam and Eve with a choice, he wanted to give them the independence to think for themselves, as we do today. If God had not been disobeyed, I feel like people would be in a very different mindset today. We would not be able to think or choose for ourselves how we want to run our lives; we would depend on someone else to give us answers. It is purely our choice whether or not we want to let evil into our lives.

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  15. I agree with MattD when he stated that we must keep the faith and let god be our flashlight to lead our way.How,ever i believe that satan exists because of God, not the other way around. That which is kin, is kin to that which is not, meaning you can't have one with out the other. This is a duality. God's relationship with satan is that of the Rrelationship between night and day. The ancient greek myth states that god had created day, or light, because of this he created the dark, or the night. So it makes sense that if God stands for good we must have a satan which stands for the bad in the world.

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  16. God allows for evil to exhist because he knows that every person should have to option to have a choice. In the time of Adam and Eve there was no evil because they didn't know what it was. It was because the two of them ate of "The Tree of Good and Evil" that evil came into our world. God allowed them to have the choice to eat of the tree and because Satan prevailed over the two of them they commited the first sin. God sent Satan to Hell because he revolted and because he did not obey God. The reason that Satan exhists is because of the universes dualities. These govern everyone whether you believe in God, some other god, or no god at all. Being a christian I have learned that we must rely on our faith alone to guide us, and that evil will tempt us all along the way. Everyone will stray because of evil but God brings them back, and that is why he allows evil to exhist on Earth.

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  17. This idea is very controversial when discussing the topic of a God, however I think the answer actually goes back to the idea of free will. This relates because if there was only good in the world, no one would be able to make choices on whether or not they should follow the path of justice. God gives us the choice to follow him, however he also gives us the choice of the opposite. Some people would rather sin and be terrible people rather than follow the path of good with God, and this choice is given to us everyday. So, without the implementation of evil, free will would cease to exist.

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  18. God did not necessarily create evil. When Lucifer broke off for more power that's when the first evil was created. This goes back to everyone's free will, and having the power to make your own choices because there is always different paths for everything for one to take on.

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  19. Gof is just and good, and yes he allows evil to exist. He gave the right of free will to all his creations, however he also gave them the sense of adventure. Adventure made his creations test the bounds of what they knew and what they did. It made them try new things and go against the will of God to see what else is out there. The free will fuels the adventure because God cannot control, he can only advise. God gave the traits which went against his power and created evil, but God uses that evil for his own good. Evil brings people closer to him and makes his creations realize what their personal acts have done. Without evil God would seem pointless and useless because nobody would see the benefits of God and the protection which he provides. Evil is what makes people want to believe in God and have faith that he will protect them and take them up to heaven to live eternily.

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  20. A just God allows evil to exist because a just God gave the world free will. To rid the world of evil would not be just. Evil allows the world to learn from the mistakes made with evil intentions. As Milton put in 'Paradise Falls' one must choose either good or evil since both of these characteristics make up us.

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  21. In order for there to be good in the world, evil has to exist. God gives us our own choices, and some people end up taking the wrong path, therefor acts of evil mainly exist because of our own choices. If there was no evil in the world, there would be no good, because evil acts give us all the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, and correct them. A just god may allow evil to exist in order for society to show improvement. If acts of evil did not exist, then goodness in the world would be unknown to us.

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  23. God created the world and is letting it run on its own. Isaac Newton said once that God is like a clock maker; once he clock is made, it must be let to run on its own.

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  24. I think that a just and good God sometimes doesn't have the ability to stop the bad as much as that God tries. Without there being bad there also cannot be good in return.

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  25. I think that a just and good God allows there to be evil, because without evil there can be no good.

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  26. I think that God allows there to be evil, because evil is the opposite of what God believes. For every belief there is a counterpoint, and evil is sort of the opposition to God.

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  27. God allows evil to exist because he allows humans to possess free will. Humans are naturally violent, so with total control, violence and evil will exist. It is all a matter of choices. Fortunantly god has granted humans these choices. I believe it is the path to heaven. Earth is satans domian, and temptation resides at every turn, it is a matter of the choices a soul makes. Entrance into heaven depends on these choices, and it is how god judges humans.

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  28. God allows evil to exist because he allows humans to possess free will. Humans are naturally violent, so with total control, violence and evil will exist. It is all a matter of choices. Fortunantly god has granted humans these choices. I believe it is the path to heaven. Earth is satans domian, and temptation resides at every turn, it is a matter of the choices a soul makes. Entrance into heaven depends on these choices, and it is how god judges humans.

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