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Question: (Theodicy) Problem of Evil essay review!?
I wrote an essay hoping to solve the Problem of Evil!. This might be a little too much to ask for, but I would really appreciate it if someone could quickly glance it over and tell me if it is at all convincing!. I know it is long, don't bother if you are not interested!.
Here it is:


If one assumes from the Biblical teachings of Jesus that the Christian God is all powerful, all knowing, and all loving, it becomes logically impossible for evil to exist by contradiction of terms!. As Hume wrote, "Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able!? Then He is impotent!. Is He able, but not willing!? Then He is malevolent!. Is He both able and willing!? Whence then is evil!?" Therefore, how can an all powerful and all knowing God who loves his people permit evil to exist on His earth!?” If God’s very being brings up so much question and confusion, then understanding His nature becomes very problematic to Christians who try to live by His word!. Perhaps then, our understanding of God’s nature is presumptuous and false!. I propose that we do not know God’s natures as well as we think we do, and God’s allowance of evil can be traced back to events in the Bible!. The book of Genesis gives us our first glimpse of God’s nature!. We learn that God is an all powerful god who can create a complex universe out of nothingness!. We also are suggested God’s omnipotence from His name Yahweh, or I AM!. God says to Moses, “’This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14)!. I AM proposes that God’s omnipotence is total existence; He always was, is, and forever will be!. This is important to the understanding of God’s nature because there are several things that God’s omnipotence is not!. For instance, God cannot sin and God cannot tempt anyone to sin!. “No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13)!. God also cannot create the logically impossible!. For instance, He cannot create a square circle!. This suggests that the word omnipotent is very vague, and one needs to know where to draw the line!. Therefore, concluding that not being able to create the logically impossible does not mean that God is impotent!. God also wants humanity to love Him!. Since the love God wants from us is an unconditional and genuine love, he cannot simply use His omnipotence to make us love Him!. In contrast, we have to choose to give our love to God and for that very reason He has given us free will!. Unfortunately, free will also permits us to do evil!. While there will be humans that are devoted to and love God, there must also be those who resent him as well!. If this were not the case, there would be no contrast between the two and the love would once again not be genuine!. Furthermore, Since God is a logical being, he cannot both give us free will to love him and prevent this free will from doing evil!. For that, too, is a contradiction of terms and henceforth God does not destroy evil so that that we may freely love Him!.

God detached Himself from humanity when the Israelites rejected His leadership!. Instead of wanting God as their king, they requested that a man be put in charge of their affairs so that he may have the position of king!. God shows resentment to the people for having chosen to take things into their own hands!. “The Lord is displeased that you have asked for a king” (1 Samuel 12:17)!. "But today you have rejected your God, who delivers you from all your evils and calamities" (1 Samuel 10:19)!. Since the Israelites rejected God, the king is now responsible for His people!. "The Lord anoints [Saul] commander over his heritage!. [Saul] [is] to govern the Lord's people Israel, and to save them from the grasp of their enemies roundabout!." (1 Sam!. 10:1) God’s apparent detachment from our society can be explained logically by that occurrence!. Since we agreed that whatever evil falls upon the world is now the responsibility of our king, it cannot be traced back to God!. God hereafter appoints kings over His people to give them His spirit so that they may have wisdom to make necessary and well-reasoned decisions!. “The spirit of the Lord will rush upon [Saul] and [Saul] will join them in their prophetic state and will be changed into another man” (1 Samuel 10:6)!. This, also know as the Devine Right of Kings, brings evil upon the world because even though God has filled them with His spirit, they still have the freewill to make sinful decisions!.

God is omnipotent, but that that does not mean he can create the logically impossible!. In order for people to love him, free will has to exist and therefore there is evil!. Though humans cannot understand the will of God because He is beyond our understanding, through close examination of the Bible we can rationalize the existence of evil!.

Thank you!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Your essay is not really very convincing!. Which shouldn't be too surprising, really, since philosophers have been chewing over this particular bone for thousands of years!.

Your argument starts with the notion that it is impossible for the ability to do good to exist without the ability to do evil also existing!. That is a pretty arguable point!. It's kind of like saying it's impossible to let someone pet a puppy without also letting them kick it!. This is true only if our power is limited and our only choice is to give someone a puppy to do what he wants with!. But all it would take is another person standing in the room to protect the puppy!. It doesn't even remove the choice from the person: he can still TRY to kick the puppy!.!.!. he just won't succeed!. And he still has the choice of being nice to the puppy or not!. God giving man the opportunity to be nice to each other and Him does require that they be able to choose not to (or it's not a choice) but it doesn't require that they be able to stab each other in the eye!. That's a separate thing altogether!.

Part of your problem is also the precedent of parenthood!. If a five year old tells their parent that they hate them and they want to be left alone, does a good parent say, "Okay!.!.!. if that's what you want!"!. Of course not! That would be abuse of the lowest grade!. This is your problem with God in Samuel!. It doesn't matter how many people told God to go away!. God should know better than any people and God should know that doing this would cause a lot of suffering and God should therefore simply refuse!. And what about all the people that followed!? How is it good or just for the CHILDREN of the people who asked for that to suffer, and their children, and so on!? It's not!. Letting innocents suffer to punish the guilty is an act of spite, not mercy and good!.

What even that overlooks, of course, is all the 'evil' that is NOT caused by humanity itself!. God COULD have created a universe where children weren't born with cancer, where volcanoes didn't incinerate whole villages alive, or where animals didn't regularly maul people!. Removing these things wouldn't in any way have interfered with peoples' ability to do good or evil!. So you're left with your original problem: a good person with the power to do so would certainly save babies, villages, and the like!.!.!. and he certainly wouldn't have created these situations in the first place!. So why did God specifically put man in harm's way and specifically not save him!?

It's a nice essay and all!. Could use a bit of organization and balancing!. But you're never going to convince someone who isn't already mostly convinced with this!. Sorry!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The proof is in the pudding, and I encounter a lot of evil pudding, so I am not convinced you are right!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

after reading the first sentance i thought this bit of scripture will help!. just before his death a man came up to him and said "Good teacher" jesus reply was "only the father is Good" so i've always thought that being human is linked with having to be evil!.

remember we didn't know about good and evil befoe the apple incident so we had free rein to do what ever we wanted and not be afraid!. satan as we know took this chance to strike a fire against heaven!. so in having a masters who knows evil unlike the father can teach us in a language that we can understand ir a mix of good and evil!.This my friend creates a connection between fallen man and good through the body of jesus christ kinda like an isp helps you connect to the internet!.

so in regards to the rest of it i didn't read as i thought you understood that you were doing evil trying to bring salvation through purely agrgument and debate and as far as i know only one man has done that and his death and ressurection is his proof!.

we are obvoisly scared of doing evil but when it happens and we sin only jesus can bring us back to God and he does it just right ever time!.

we are required to be good or evil as we live according to our beliefs its just mine are dependant on the Grace of God and his sons love for me, though he still loves you too so don't worry about it its not a problem!.

ie freewill means being able to choose between good and evil yet never losing our charactors in the eyes of God to any great demise as long as we confrunt our fears and see the truth of our baptisim and taking of communion and REPENtING of our sins in faith, all that you do when you seek the kingdom of heavenWww@QuestionHome@Com

i wont suggest what to leave out or include,
assuming christianity and citing the bible has limitations
a-priori arguments are the strongest

free will is a good avenue for your argument

http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Theodicy

on a side note, is god a man!? (He,Him)
an anthropomorphic being!? caucasian!? bearded!? clothing!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

This is excellent, really!. Your writing is very clear and you had great points!. In fact, I think you explained some stuff I had been thinking about lately and was kind of confused about!. Really really good!Www@QuestionHome@Com