View Poll Results: Could God be the Creator of Evil?

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  • Yes

    35 49.30%
  • No

    30 42.25%
  • Not sure

    6 8.45%
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Thread: Did God create evil?

  1. #61
    Registered User marcolfo's Avatar
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    Can't remember who said the following. In relation to god and evil

    Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then is he impotent.
    Is God able but not willing? Then is He malevolent.
    Is God both able and willing? Whence then is evil?
    Is God unable and unwilling? Why do you call him God
    I'm always home, I'm uncool.

  2. #62
    Sipping the Tea a_little_wisp's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by marcolfo View Post
    Can't remember who said the following. In relation to god and evil

    Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then is he impotent.
    Is God able but not willing? Then is He malevolent.
    Is God both able and willing? Whence then is evil?
    Is God unable and unwilling? Why do you call him God

    Epicurus, 'cept it was, "Then he is not omnipotent," aaand "Then whence cometh evil?" instead of: "Whence then is evil?"
    Then she would run until morning to ease the ache; swifter than rain, swift as loss, racing to catch up with the time when she had known nothing at all but the sweetness of being herself.

    -- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

  3. #63
    BadWoolf JuniperWoolf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by a_little_wisp View Post
    Epicurus, 'cept it was, "Then he is not omnipotent," aaand "Then whence cometh evil?" instead of: "Whence then is evil?"
    It's a translation of ancient Greek, so they're both correct.
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  4. #64
    Drama Queen
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    All four questions are addressed in the book of Job

  5. #65
    Registered User hellsapoppin's Avatar
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    Did some god create evil? Mark Twain thought so:


    "Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast"

    Mark Twain, Reflections on Religion, 1906
    When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent

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  6. #66
    Haribol Acharya blazeofglory's Avatar
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    This births another question, a very grave one- is there a greater power than God to create de-create and recreate anything?

    “Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature””

    “If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.

  7. #67
    Registered User JackieGinger's Avatar
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    Wouldn't it have been boring if everything was good?
    I'm going to answer the question with a cliche: if there weren't hard times and evil for that matter, we wouldn't be able to appreciate good, we wouldn't be able to distinguish the good things, because then it wouldn't be possible for it to exist.
    Another thing...maybe God wanted to have fun.
    Alright that's a nasty joke, but if we think of it...if it weren't for conflicts and evil an enormous part of our human culture (literature, music, films etc...) would have never come to life..
    Last edited by JackieGinger; 01-07-2010 at 04:13 PM.

  8. #68
    Registered User NikolaiI's Avatar
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    I guess one question would be, does evil have any substance? Does the world have substance? Sages and mystics of all religions, once they have broken out of illusion, have seen God, and expressed it as a truth beyond expression. They've said, "there's an infinite light at the center and source of everything, and that is God." Sri Aurobindo put it this way; "Look up, O child of the ancient Yoga, and be no longer a trembler and a doubter; fear not, doubt not, grieve not; for in your apparent body is One who can create and destroy worlds in a breath."

    They have all said that God can be realized, and they felt that heaven, by whatever name, God's kingdom, or a divine life, was all around and imminent. So if we can say that perceiving divinity everywhere and God in everything is true perception, then evil loses its substance. Sages and seers have also said that this world actually is God. As Swami Vivekananda said, "This is no world. It is God Himself. In delusion we call it world."

  9. #69
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    Didn't god create evil to give us a choice? To give us freewill? Or, should i say that Evil is a bi-product of giving us freewill? He wanted us to make our own choices. And we, as a people, decided to give into evil. And the story of Eden barrows heavily from other religions.

  10. #70
    Devotion PierreGringoire's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NikolaiI View Post
    I guess one question would be, does evil have any substance? Does the world have substance? Sages and mystics of all religions, once they have broken out of illusion, have seen God, and expressed it as a truth beyond expression. They've said, "there's an infinite light at the center and source of everything, and that is God." Sri Aurobindo put it this way; "Look up, O child of the ancient Yoga, and be no longer a trembler and a doubter; fear not, doubt not, grieve not; for in your apparent body is One who can create and destroy worlds in a breath."

    They have all said that God can be realized, and they felt that heaven, by whatever name, God's kingdom, or a divine life, was all around and imminent. So if we can say that perceiving divinity everywhere and God in everything is true perception, then evil loses its substance. Sages and seers have also said that this world actually is God. As Swami Vivekananda said, "This is no world. It is God Himself. In delusion we call it world."
    Are you basically saying that evil is not an entity. While God is? Evil is not a antimatter--it is simply a lack of light?
    "I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good." - MLK

  11. #71
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    If we apply the Biblical interpretation of God, then yes, he created evil, for Man is created in God's image and evil surely exists on Earth.

    Of course though, this question varies according to how one defines God, and more importantly, how one defines evil. Vegetarians may consider the slaughter of animals for consumption evil while Adolf Hitler may have considered his slaughter of Jews kindness. How one defines God is just as significant. So the question can be subjective, depending on religious interpretation or an independent belief of God.

  12. #72
    Haribol Acharya blazeofglory's Avatar
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    In fact we simply make our on interpretations and then stick to that interpretation of God, the universe, the creation of the world and the like but the truth may lie somewhere else in an unknown zone. Logically speaking, why God created evil? Is it a humor or game God wants to play? There are so many sufferers and can God, the almighty one change it and make all his children happy? Does not God to take the responsibility for not imprisoning the Devil?

    “Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature””

    “If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.

  13. #73
    Registered User NikolaiI's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PierreGringoire View Post
    Are you basically saying that evil is not an entity. While God is? Evil is not a antimatter--it is simply a lack of light?
    Well I was not saying that evil is not an entity, while God is. What I am saying is that all of this world is maya, or it is a dream. Enlightenment, reality, is God. Nothing else, evil or good, is real. God is not so much an entity as the infinite, infinite peace, power, bliss and knowledge. And God is the source of everything and everyone. We're never separate from God. How can we be separate from our source?

    So it's about perception. You see, the maya is like a book, it is like a nearly-infinite amount of information. And yet it is all like frozen in time. Why? Because beyond all the restrictions of space and time is God, the Witness. Therefore, God alone exists. For example, consider that there is an entity, God, who is infinite. That means, He knows everything and He can do everything. Therefore His nature is infinite power, peace, bliss and knowledge. That is also His nature, of infinite bliss. Anyway so this entity, God, can do everything and knows everything. So in relationship to Him, what else exists? In relationship to the infinite, what substance has the number 23? Anyway, this is an ancient Hindu idea that God alone exists.

    In our deep-sleep state, we can hardly do anything.

    Consider it is like this, if you can move at an infinite speed, how fast are the cars of this world moving? They are not moving at all, in relation. The same is true for the rest. God has infinite power, so nothing besides God has any power, or substance, or reality or existence, except for God.
    Last edited by NikolaiI; 01-07-2010 at 02:15 PM.

  14. #74
    That's very pretty, Nikolai, and I'd love to read about it in a novel. However, it's all embellishment. Things simply are what they are. What you've written is purely speculative mental construction; it can never be proved.

  15. #75
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    Yeah, I agree with the post above me. We can speculate where we stand in our relationship to God all we want to, but the fact of the matter is, evil exists. If one believes his God to be the Creator of everything that exists, evil cannot be excluded, unless turning a blind eye to empirical evidence is part of theology.

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