Philosophy God and Evil

For the purposes of this discussion, let us assume that God (be it the God of the Bible; a male and a female diety; the hindu pantheon; whatever) exists.

Why does evil exist? What purpose does it serve? Why would God let it exist if he is all powerful and wants to stop suffering?

Here is my stance on it.

Why does evil exist?: Evil exists in order to provide us challenges with which to strengthen our moral "muscles" and develop character. If you grew up in an idyllic teletubbies-esque land, you aren't really going to mature that much because there is no hardship.

Why would God let it exist?: Obviously God is either a) not capable of destroying evil or b) has a reason for evil to exist. Since I believe God is in essence "everything" I believe he has a reason for it to exist - that being a "workout" for our souls.

Is that fair? Not at first glace, since some people are just going to get completely ****ed over. However I believe in reincarnation so I believe there are plenty of different lives we experience.

 

Hmmm this is hard....

I guess i would say that a God/Goddess/whatever, would simply not be able to stop evil. Otherwise they might be testing humanity, but of course why a omnipotent otherworldly being would give a damn about us, is beyond me.

 

Ah right, thats another part I forgot to mention.

According to my beliefs... we're all sort of like... hmm. Remember that scene in The Empire Strikes Back when the Star Destroyer launches all those probe droids?

We are the probe droids of God. Through us, It learns.

 

And if we find Satans snowy hideout, then god will send mighty 4 legged angels to destroy Satans sheilding.


(on topic now) What if God was the evil one? And we were the pawns serving its evil whims?

 

I'm not christian (sp) or anything (not that it's a bad thing for people who are) but I do remember the quote:
With out suffering there is no rejoice

For me that pretty much explains my point of view, but only if I believed there was a god who really gave a crap. If there wasn't any thing wrong with life, we wouldn't apreciate the good things we have.

I "worship" is that's what you wanna call it, the greek gods. So, my point og view it that life is boring with out a little discort/chaos/evil, what ever, and the gods hate being bored. But that's only my point of view. ^.^

 

Here is what I have heard and what makes the most sense to me:

Evil exists in the world because without it, virtue cannot exist. Such things as courage, resilience, honor, integrity and morality are truly recognised and developed in the face of things that can be listed as evil. It is through virtue, that God makes some of us better human beings.

Also, I should not forget what I learned from playing golf. All tha failure, is what makes that occasional success such a sweet thing to achieve.

Having been though many a foul time, I can identify with these two thoughts.

 

I would think that, if there is a God, that she lets evil hang loose for a while. Maybe, y'know, she and Mr. Master Of Evil were all nice and happy but MMOE's true evilness started to bug the **** out of God so God told him to pack his things and get the **** out of her house. So MMOE told God he could take the human race and shove it and, yeah, it just ALL went down-hill from there, man, because God ended up getting knocked up and to cover it, God turned herself into a male form and oh-so-strategically extracted the unborn fetus from within her/his body and put it into Mary for ****s and giggles (c'mon.. s/he's God, s/he doesn't need logic or reasoning). And we all know the story from there.

Anyways, back to evil... Now, MMOE didn't get any visitation rights to see his son (Jesus), so this didn't blow over too well and I mean God even had Jesus going against his own real father and everything, so naturally, MMOE wasn't a happy-camper. So this is where evil took a turn for the worst (well, best, technically... best for all those evils out there). God could go and eradicate the evil because s/he's God and s/he doesn't need a reason and just can. But it seems as if s/he still has this deep-seated true feelings for MMOE that s/he can't get over and thus finds him/herself torn between what s/he wants to do and what s/he must do!

... Christ, this sounds like a bad anime

Anyways, on a serious note... I think... well... evil exists. I try not to worry myself with HOW it exists or WHY it exists because, the way I see it.. who cares? It's here and, Hell, it's probably never going away. But... yeah, I think that if there is a God, s/he's just letting evil sit (and in all seriousness, depending on what y'believe, if the ultimate evil is product of Lucifer himself, maybe God's getting a little emotional over the whole ordeal, who knows).

Either that or we could just blame Loki, that tricky son of a *****.

 

Cool ideas everyone

Here's what the philosophers/theologians/saints in my religion have to say on the matter. I wouldn't mind looking for their works on these matters so I can check their reasoning.

 

I agree with both of these points. I think that not only is God not capable of destroying evil, God has a reason for allowing evil to exist. (This is assuming that God even exists. I believe in the big ol' Guy, but I could be wrong.)

As for the whole two-sides-of-the-same coin thing, if we're viewing Good and Evil as God and Evil, I don't believe that God can be a side of a coin. If anything, God is an entire coin with Evil being part of God's coin because God is supposed to be stronger than Evil, right?

I think it may be a case of Evil being something that God can't live without, and also can't do anything about to change. Sort of like us with the molten core of the Earth, or air. This is just an example though, I'm not suggesting that God breathes Evil. Maybe God has halitosis.

 

Of corse Iv'e never seen evil as a literal essence or tangible thing, but just a way to describe behavior IMO. But still what if god created earth as some sort of horrible plaything for itself. Imagine it sitting up above and throwing a storm here and there, a riot, maybe a fanatic or two. Like I said maybe the gods the bad guy. ( im kind of just rambling)

 

Well, I have a view on this which is more general and perhaps offensive.

God, along with the eternal fight of Good against Evil, are merely things that are slated by the beliefs of the people. 'Good' is generally looked upon as 'helping', 'honor', and such... adjectives that denote a person who is trustworthy and such. And 'evil' is generally looked upon as adjectives that lead to the hurting of people, including but not limited to physical and mental damage. God is basically an embodiment of this belief of 'good', and Satan the belief of 'evil'.

But how is good and evil justified? It isn't, really. If you ask a supposed 'villain' his thoughts on the good and bad, it'll probably be different, and you really can't prove yourself right because you are biased yourself towards 'good'. In this world, I heavily doubt that there is a true neutrality. Therefore, there is never a true meaning of these concepts.

But who knows? There may be a true neutrality, but I haven't seen one yet. So right now, I think this good and evil comparison is null. But that's just me.

 

ok, i' going back to neph's point at the start of this thread

i like to think that god (if s/he/it exists) lets "evil" exist to allow humans to see "good". like if you try to see trees at night it's too dark unless the moon's out. or you have a flashlight. :sweat2:

if we lived in a world where everything was good (and by good i mean the stereotypical "good", not what a sadist or a rapist might think is good) the world would just become mundane and there would be no variety to life.

 

I just wanna point out that evil has to exist. At least, I think so. If it didn't, how could mankind recognize happiness or joy? If you've never hated someone's guts, how can you love someone else? If you are never sad, could you recognize happiness? These concepts are quite deep, and give me a headache if I think about them too hard. But in a way, death, greed, destruction, are more benificial to the human race than an eternal paradise ever could be. If everything was always provided for you, how could you feel grateful for your blessings?

 

Someone could also say that evil is a perception. In a different world where you are the fighter ant, a ladybug comes through your defense and eats your queen. Then, that could be an evil in that you didn't do your duty and now the colony is unattached and separate, and it's your sin. Or, the ladybug could be accused of being at fault also. It really depends on a person as to their experiences and lifestyle. During a Palm Sunday so many years ago, my brother and I tired of the lengthly blah and constant smoke;[no offense] so folded our leaves into swords.Two elderly women behind us gasped and spoke to another about the evils of Satan around little kids. So, their view of evil differs also. Would a fawn being torn by a tiger be an evil to the mother? But if the meat's for the tiger's cubs, then it's a blessing to the cubs.

About God- one must exist or have before. So many things work just right: Earth's at a great distance from the Sun- not freezing cold nor fiery hot. Earth's axis rotated a such more would lose the seasons, and life may not have worked. Plants produce oxygen; animals exhale carbon dioxide. Water doesn't freeze solid during winter, and the fish don't become frozen along with it, but can swim under. The way body cells connect and communicate with another to form one unit that moves all, that memory and dreams can be stored, that the body can break down food into energy really work well together. How things have evolved, can evolve, and will evolve, and that DNA can be stored, copied, and modified for generations is amazing also.

 

In keeping with the cake metaphor, yes, you would enjoy it. But you aren't getting my point. Let's say that was ALL you ever ate. Sweet, good things. That you had never tasted ANYTHING sour, or bitter, or rotten in your life. That good things were all you ever ate. That everything you ever ate was prepared perfectly. Why would you appreciate it? Why should you? That would be the way it always was, why should it change?

 

Perhaps because of recollection and rememberance of just how good those things tasted the first time around, perhaps your brain will register them in such a manner to allow them to be forever remembered in that sense. Of course then there's also the fact that people get sick and tired of eating the same thing over and over again, and in turn begin to dislike it and find faults in it, thus they DO experience negativity, as it is part of human nature and such.

 

I'd also like to point out that while we might not know that these things were so perfectly perfect if we only had perfect things, we also might know that they are perfectly perfect. The fact of the matter is that we can only speculate. After all, perfection, since it has never been achieved, differs from person to person. Suppose you shared your perfect food with somebody else, and they didn't like it? You would find it negative that they didn't like it, and thus experience negativity.

What is negativity? What is perfection?

 

An idea devised through early humanity by individuals who had their eyes wide-open to the world and different things that were occurring that were disliked, frowned upon and people who did such acts being condescended.

An idea devised through early humanity by individuals who were so scared of the obvious negativity in the world that they forever dwelled in this psychodrama forever believing that humanity as an entirety was doomed and devised factioned, organized religion to counteract with the created idea of a perfection and Heaven, a quintessential goodness if you will, in an attempt to try and sway people from doing acts that they deemed "negative".

That's just my input, at least. ;P

 

i belive that evil is here to test us. put us in situations to overcome physical, mental, and spiritual obstacles. even though God knows what you would do, He still wants you to actually do it. He has set up a wall and we are to try to get over it, and if we do, we get the reward. He knows who won't get over it, but still gives everyone a run. i think that is true mercy. if there was no challenge, then our lives would mean nothing. we would be living simply to avoid death, even though itll get us someday anyway. this way we can live for something, and get our reward at the end.