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Antoine
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 2
| Posted 1/20/2003 8:51 PM (GMT -6) |   | Hello there!
So suppose we have (at least) two ideas that, for whatever reason, are referred to with the word 'evil.'
One, let's call it human evil, includes awful stuff like babies being killed in an earthquake.
The other, let's call it absolute evil, is just the kind of evil that God (being both all-good and all-powerful) never allows.
Well, we know that God's standard for what's evil is THE standard for what's evil. So there is not really much of a problem! But it does seem to imply that when we say God is truly good, we mean something which is not like the common, mistaken usage of words like good and evil to talk about things which we find horrible but which are actually for the best. So it seems that we do not really solve the problem of (human) evil at all, so much as show that it's not really a problem (except in the sense of being a philosophical challenge, I mean that we don't have to be anxious about someone evil calling the shots or the world being truly unjust).
This seems like all, did I miss something? What is the big deal with solving the problem of evil, since it is basically just the problem of human evil and not true evil?
(edited: confusing typo).
Edited by - Antoine on 01/21/2003 01:54:25 AM | | Back to Top | | |
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Springs
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636
| Posted 1/21/2003 6:37 PM (GMT -6) | | Welcome to the board Antoine! Are you serious? 
There was a lot more on that post that was confusing besides a typo. ha. 
If I supposed there were two types of evil, and one was human evil, uh, I don't think I'd put the earthquakes in that category.
If I supposed the second type of evil, was evil that God never allows, I wouldn't even know WHAT to put in that category.
And that last part...do you mean philosophical problems aren't real so the philosophical problem of evil aren't real, and human evil is not true evil, so we don't have any problems?
I'm confused,
Springs
"When all was over, and the last key turned, I sought my pillow, thankful that God had appointed a season of rest for the weary." Harriet Jacobs
Edited by - Springs on 01/21/2003 11:38:52 PM | | Back to Top | | |
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fyodor
Registered Member
Date Joined Dec 2002
Total Posts : 179
| Posted 1/21/2003 7:33 PM (GMT -6) | | Hold on Bucko- We've got big problems here....
Just a starter...
quote:
The other, let's call it absolute evil, is just the kind of evil that God (being both all-good and all-powerful) never allows.
This statement makes some erroneous conclusions..How exactly did you arrive at the conclusion that God never allows absolute evil (as you call it). Neither the characteristic of all-good, nor all-powerful equates to God's disallowance of evil.
Just because God is all-good does not neccessarily mean that all actions or events originate with God, allowing for the actions of both human and non-human evil actions. Take for instance, Satan, should we attribute the actions of Satan to be originating with God merely to qualify your arguement that God is all-good? Otherwise, how else could we explain the actions of Satan other than qualifying them as good and not therefore absolute evil. Certainly actions committed by Satan would not be considered amongst evils that are "human evils." So perhaps there should be another category in your system. -human evil, absolute evil, and non-human/non-absolute evil?
The characteristic of being all-poweful does not neccessarily equate to using power in every instance to prevent each and every occurrence of evil. I keep finding problems with your non-problem of evil. 
>>>"And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth." Kahlil Gibran from THE PROPHET | | Back to Top | | |
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Iconoclast
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1227
| Posted 3/16/2003 5:52 PM (GMT -6) | | Antoine
I mean that we don't have to be anxious about someone evil calling the shots or the world being truly unjust.
Iconoclast
What I hear you saying is that all the "evil" we actually experience is either actual evil originating from humans (others or ourself) or perceived evil (pain or death) that is really for our own good.
I think this is true and "solves" the problem of evil in that we now know where it comes from - it comes from us - NOT God or some rogue evil being that God can't control. However, doesn't the fact that God allows us to visit evil on one another mean that we will have some anxiety over another human who is doing evil calling the shots? And won't this actual evil we experience feel like we are in an unjust world?
thanks,
Iconoclast
"The benefit overran the merit the first day, and has overrun the merit ever since. The merit itself, so-called, I reckon part of the receiving." - Ralph Waldo Emerson | | Back to Top | | |
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selah
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210
| Posted 3/16/2003 11:04 PM (GMT -6) | | quote:
"When all was over, and the last key turned, I sought my pillow, thankful that God had appointed a season of rest for the weary." Harriet Jacobs
Hey Springs!!
I love your new tag line...I'm seeking my pillow now! ha
(I wonder if Harriet Jacobs was in school when she wrote that!)
Peace and love,
selah
PS. Lets do LUNCH :)
Then He showed me the river whose waters give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Rev. 22:1
Edited by - Selah on 03/17/2003 04:06:56 AM | | Back to Top | | |
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Springs
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636
| Posted 3/18/2003 5:11 PM (GMT -6) | | Thanks Selah,
I hope you haven't become a complete slave to your studies. I once wondered why God created me such that I had to sleep every night. I figured he had the power to have created me differently. While I enjoy reclining, six to eight hours of anything is a bit much.
It seemed to me that I could use those hours more productively.
When I read that quote it made me think of sleep as a gift from God for the oppressed. A provision for those under relentless evil. Providing them a respite from the slave drivers. A refuge from grueling mindless labor and dehumanization. A balm for evil wounds that plagued their souls toward death.
Lunch? If you weren't doing six million things you could have joined us all for lunch last Sunday!
Springs
Thy love did read by rote and could not spell. - Friar Laurence. - Shakespeare | | Back to Top | | |
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selah
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210
| Posted 3/19/2003 2:17 AM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Lunch? If you weren't doing six million things you could have joined us all for lunch last Sunday!
Springs
HA, Ok well, rub it in whydontcha! Actually, SOME of us were volunteeering our time out of our sheer devotion to GOOOOOOD.
Can I help it if I was named after a saint?? I have to live up
to that....or...or ...(fill in messed up belief here)(then fill
in lack of boundaries here)
poor me,
I LOVE YOU,
T
Then He showed me the river whose waters give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Rev. 22:1 | | Back to Top | | |
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