If god is everything, doesn't that make him evil as well as good?

[mazHur]

The modern day has a better way of recording life and death records. Past eras did not have census bureaus in order to ascertain how died from Mongol horde invasions or Crusader attacks on peaceful Muslims.

You forgot to mention the Huns!!

Stats my not be recorded in the event of a WAR....the Mongol invasion and the Crusades were wars...and I think during a war all arrangement to keep record of the dead or alive gets upset as people are more worried to save their lives. They only guess the the number of dead from the number of remaining alive!

It's astonishing that still there is NO accurate record or data about population in some countries....which clearly reflects on planning but who cares?? Pakistan is such a country where I live....where all figures are sketchy and mostly guess work!! Pity If there is a war and people die one can only ascertain their true number through guess work!

On the contrary situation in developed country is different where every person is registered, but not so in some places

[chrissy613]

Proverbs 16:4
The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Hopefully that Proverb provides a little insight

[sports24x]

no..i don't think so..

[Dark Passenger]

Agnostic until proven otherwise.

I've always thought of God--if there is one--to be similar to a referee. He's a watcher, a hands-off kinda guy. He judges the battle of your two halves, and he can ring that bell whenever he wants.

[naphelge]

If god is in everything and everyone, does that not make him as much an evil malevolent as a divine benevolent?

Hawthorne asks a similarly thought provoking question near the end of his novel "The Scarlet Letter" that goes something like: doesn't it take just as much passion and devotion to be evil as it does to be good?, when summing up thoughts about Hester's evil husband (his name slips my memory atm).

In fact, I cam to see Hester's husband in the story, after reading that quote, as the darker side of god (although I am not a religious person and do not in fact believe in any sort of personified ultimate source of creation as what many call God) or rather nature that must deal with the darker issues or sides of life.

It is only through this darker character in the story that Dimmesdale can find his peace. Kind of like necessary tough love, with which he would have remained a lost soul, dying an emptier death than what he did. So evil, or what many people perceive to be the evil in the story is in fact interestingly Dimmesdale's salvation.

Of course without evil, goodness fails to exist. Evil defines what is good as much as good defines what is evil, both necessary for the other's existence (in one's perception of course, which differs from person to person, society to society, and culture to culture).

cheers,
nap

[lobanw]

There was a time when there was no "devil" and people view God as both holy and righteous and punishing as well. God is said to be ALL good but we truly do not know the extent of his powers or ways and we probably never will. A lot of people a presumptive and assume that they know how God works but no one will really know that so you just have to trust in what you know and how you feel.

[G L Wilson]

"God is a little more than everything." e. e. cummings

[iankropp]

well duh!

Doesnt every one think that?? Well not evil but then God not exactly good either. God is God. Not Good or evil as we understand it, its soooo much more complicated. My 6 year old sister asked me somthing similar this morning what is this the day of religious questions?

Anyway my point is as Muslim that is pretty much what I belive for us god has 99 names and some of them are a bit contradictry until you put it in this context like The Giver, The Taker, The Merciful, The Strict, The Forgiving, The Unforgiving, The aparnt, The hidden, The first The Last , just to mention a few that are translateable, I can off the top of my ead only think of a handful that dont have oposites, The Iternal, The One, The all-Knowing, and a few like that.

I totally agree! I believe the problem arises when people stick to over simplifying things. Any being that controls the entire universe is obviously so immense and so complex that we could never have any way to completely comprehend he/she. We humans are so adversely simplistic that the question of "why would God create people such as Hitler" is believed to disprove the existence God.

[G L Wilson]

I totally agree! I believe the problem arises when people stick to over simplifying things. Any being that controls the entire universe is obviously so immense and so complex that we could never have any way to completely comprehend he/she. We humans are so adversely simplistic that the question of "why would God create people such as Hitler" is believed to disprove the existence God.

Why, may I ask, has God created you?

[prickly_pete]

Why do 90% of analogies in life involve Hitler, Nazis, or Nazism? I for one would like to know.

[G L Wilson]

It might be that God is not so much evil as mad.

[mazHur]

Why do 90% of analogies in life involve Hitler, Nazis, or Nazism? I for one would like to know.

Donovan Collection:
Analysis of Hitler's Personality

Special Collections Donovan Analysis of Hitler's Personality
Dr. Henry A. Murray
Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler:
With Predictions of His Future Behavior and Suggestions
for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany's Surrender
Introduction
Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler

In 1943, the Allied forces wanted to understand Hitler's psychological makeup in order to predict, to the extent possible, his behavior as the Allies continued their prosecution of the war and to anticipate his response to Germany's defeat. The Allies were also seeking to understand the German national psyche to gain an understanding of how to convert them into a "peace-loving nation." This report was written for the OSS by Dr. Henry A. Murray, pre-war Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. Dr. Murray obviously was forced by circumstances to psychoanalyze his subject from a distance. He gathered information from a variety of second-hand sources, such as Hitler's genealogy; school and military records; public reports of events in print and on film; OSS information; Hitler's own writings; Hitler biographies; and "Hitler the Man - Notes for a Case History," an article written by W.H.D. Vernon under Dr. Murray's supervision. From these resources and his "needs theory" of personality, Dr. Murray created a psychological profile that correctly predicted the Nazi leader's suicide in the face of Germany's defeat.

With the benefit of hindsight and more than 60 years of scientific advances, one can appreciate this analysis of Hitler's personality and also catch a glimpse into an early application of personality psychology by one of the discipline's founders. Dr. Murray's Explorations in Personality (NY: Oxford Press, 1938) established personality psychology as a behavioral science. Murray explored a theory of personality in which the interplay of 20 psychogenic needs of varying strength produced distinct personality types. Murray pegged Hitler's personality as "counteractive narcism," a type that is stimulated by real or imagined insult or injury. According to Dr. Murray, the characteristics of this personality type include: holding grudges, low tolerance for criticism, excessive demands for attention, inability to express gratitude, a tendency to belittle, bully, and blame others, desire for revenge, persistence in the face of defeat, extreme self-will, self-trust, inability to take a joke, and compulsive criminality. Dr. Murray concluded that Hitler had these characteristics (and others) to an extreme degree and lacked the offsetting qualities that round out a balanced personality.

The language of needs theory may seem unfamiliar to today's readers since personality theory moved on to new terminology and theories. However, Dr. Murray's writing style and descriptive language make this report as intelligible to the lay reader of today as to the World War II era psychologist.

Cornell Law Library is pleased to share this report, part of our Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection, in its original format.

Sources: AdolfHitler.ws: Historical Archives, NoBeliefs.com (Freethinkers), and Kimmo Nummela's Life Of Führer In Pictures.
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[G L Wilson]

Okay, Hitler was a little like God, what does that prove? Either God is good or evil or mad, that's all there's to it.

[Serena03]

Yes, this would explain why the problem of evil still exists because the problem of God still exists. Although God is merely a figure head for all this, removal of the head does not entirely eliminate the body.

[BienvenuJDC]

Okay, Hitler was a little like God, what does that prove? Either God is good or evil or mad, that's all there's to it.

Yeah....just like Walt Disney