I was sitting around wondering the other day whether or not anyone finds it an adequate and an acceptable response in defense of the goodness of a traditional, creating god, what response to the problem of evil do you find most convincing?
Barry,
Firstly, welcome to the Boards.
Secondly, please forgive me, but I read your question three times and just couldn’t make out what, exactly, you were looking for. Can you please re-state your question?
Zev Steinhardt
So I’m not going mad. I couldn’t interpret it either.
I think its the basic ‘If God is good then why is there evil’ question
I may be wrong, but it seems to me the OP wants to know how anyone can justify the existance of a purely good God with all the evil in the world.
Simupost, great minds think alike, etc etc etc, right treis?
I think you could say great minds if we simuposted the answer instead of the question.
Sorry guys.
My question would be what is the best response you have heard in response to the problem of evil that exists with the existance of a purely good god.
Thank you Barry, for clearing up your question.
The classic Jewish answer is that this world is designed as a place where man is allowed to exercise free will. Once you have free will, evil must exist as a possibility.
Zev Steinhardt
how many roads must a man walk down? forty-two?
the best solution to the problem of evil for me would be to concede that good and evil are relative terms and a creator can be neither of these.
however, the best answer from someone who accepts the assumptions is that the definition of “good” is based wholly on god’s actions. that is, good as defined by god, so there is no evil.
jeez… I understood something else completely !! arrgghh… :dubious:
Well not beleiving in god or God means I have a serious handicap in answering the OP… I’ll just add this:
Where does/did God ever say he was “good” ?
I respectfully disagree Zev. I think ‘free will’ is a bit of a nonsequitor as it doesn’t explain where evil came from to begin with.
God is all good and created everything, right? Well could evil originate from something that has no evil? How does evil originate in a universe without evil?
Furthermore the bible states that God created evil (Isiah 45:7), but why? Certainly not for free will (IMO) because free will can be achieved by exercizing a choice between various types of good and neutral actions.
Maybe you’re looking at a different translation than I.
I am, I’m looking at the original Hebrew. Check it out.
If you check out the blue letter bible, the word used in that passage is ‘Ra’. If you check here you can see all the instances in the bible where the word ‘evil’ (and consequently the hebrew word ‘ra’) is used.
For example this passage:
Which doesn’t make any sense if you substitute ‘disaster’ for evil.
The version of the bible you are reading is probably meant to soften the blow, so to speak. As though natural evil was somehow better.
Another, and possibly better example, is this:
Disaster doesn’t make sense in that one either.
Interesting way to put it. Because I don’t believe in the existence of a purely good god,
Obviously the best answer is that this god, although perfectly good, lacks the power to prevent evil. If you make the standard assumptions of omnipotence and omniscience, the problem is harder.
It doesn’t seem totally inconceivable that a purely good God might feel bound to create all possible good. It may be that the world would be better off in totum if there were no evil, more or less by definition, but perhaps there are specific instances of good that could not have come into being if it were not for evil acts.
In order to do the greatest amount of good, such a God might have to create all possible worlds in which any good at all exists. Of course, if this were the case, we would expect to have no evidence of any sort for the existence of such an entity, simply because most possible worlds would not contain such evidence.
Here how about this…which of these defenses to you find most accetapble?
1-The Ontological defense- claims that goodness, by its very nature, can’t exist without evil.
2-The Knowledge defense- This argument assumes that a knowledge of evil is a good thing and that such a knowledge cannot be required unless evil exists.
3-The Free will defense- Many believe that eveil is necessary for free will. They assume that having free will is a good thing because without it, there would be no right or wrong actions, no good or bad people.
4-The Ideal-Humanity defense- Natural evil has been defended on the grounds that it is necessary to improve the human race. By pushing some of us to our limits, its claimed the struggle against nature helps us to achieve our potential as a species
5-The Soul Building defense- Evil is necessary, not to improve the human race, but to improve each individual human being.
6-The Finite God defense- One way to explain all the unnecessary evil in the world is to admit that God does not have all the properties traditionally attributed to him.
That’s a cool site. I’m bookmarking that one.
This quote I read today seems relevant:
If God is indeed the Creator of Everything™, then He not only created Evil, but freely indulges in it from time to time.