/lit/ - Literature

Evil isn't a problem

>>13266682
>how is this in anyway a 'compassionate' God?
One can be compassionate to some; or be compassionate to many in different manners and degrees.

>>13266682
The answer is G-d doesn't exist.

we stopped being his problem when we were cast out from eden

727. The greatest question of the moralizers hitherto has been the question of why God allows so much "bad stuff" to happen: death, mischief, fighting, rape, destruction and the dashing of hopes and plans. And the answer is, obviously, because God likes all that stuff. Because he loves mischief, conflict, destruction, and the dashing of hopes and plans — even his own, from time to time. Even a little rape now and then. God allows the "bad stuff" to happen because he himself is bad, among other things. Among many other good and hallowed things. And just like girls prefer bad boys, the universe prefers bad gods, and for the same reason (because "All good people are weak: they are good because they are not strong enough to be evil", said the Latuka chieftain Comorro to Baker).

http://orgyofthewill.net/

>>13266682

How many times are people going to have to answer this for you? It's such a pleb tier complaint

>>13266682
Two views I’ve seen, evil is just an absence of a degree of good, so we just can’t perceive that degree of goodness in every act. Or god gives us free will and that’s where evil comes from

>>13266682
Read Lewis' "The Problem of Evil" and the book of Job

/thread

>>13266682
That gaming section
I came with the force of OVER 9000!!!!! suns.

>>13266682
Please delete that sinful image.

The book of job

>>13266682
Why assume a compassionate god? We are in the hands of infinite power and infinite sadism...

>>13266682
I feel that this question is asked all the time and is answered every time but the poster never likes the answer so they post it repeatedly. You act as if evil is an objective truth instead of a subjective belief. Morality is not something that is static, it adapts and changes depending on the society and time. There is no true evil, just as there is no true good. Someone can always justify an action as well as condemn another.

>claims to be monotheistic religion
>god contains good but excludes evil
>oops slipped into dualism
Omni benevolent concept of god is one of the worst heresies church has fallen into

>>13266760
Yes, yes, nothing is good or bad, it is about acceptance... We need to accept the most persecuted and denigrated groups, and paedosexual acceptance is the best way we can integrate these ideas into our society. Free Dr. Pizza! He only wanted to anally penetrate little boys after all...
;-)

>>13266691
This, evil only exists as an emphermality in mind only, presuming that it's a problem that demands an answer is based on mistaken assumptions

>>13266786
This isn't /b/ so please don't create a false narrative.

>>13266792
>Maybe it goes away if I start thinking its not real. My father is perfect, he couldn't do such a thing
Christianity is institutionalized Stockholm syndrome.

To appreciate stuff and for anything to have value, the aspect of randomness/chance is an absolute necessity. Like the chance to be born as a kid who will get his head caved in with a pick axe in the back of a pickup truck by an American funded terror group in the middle east, or a chance to be a spoiled rich kid in the hills, or something like that. God can't put all of us in a life that's just some goofy obstacle course, were we all go through the same exact obstacles and tribulations; shit wouldn't work. It has to be like this. God suffers friend, there is no doubt, because it must be this way.

>>13266786
Yeah the greeks even said that anal penetration is good for a young boy!

>>13266816

Doctrinally, yes. Scripturally, no.

>>13266682
>>>/lit/thread/S13251218#p13253258
>This is not to say evil is necessary, quite the contrary, that Man would enjoy freedom even in depravity under a benevolent God. It being pointless and superfluous further proving his benevolence, not as in Ontological clockwork, that he might "mysteriously" make it worthwhile, but as true benevolence in accepting it as utterly unnecessary, for Man's sake alone.

>>13266682
The alternative is worse

>>13266816
Retard. He wasn't even talking about christianity. His explanation obviously wasn't about Christianity since christianity explicitly affirms the existence of evil.

>>13266682
Why do you people keep on forgetting that we, humans, are placed on earth as punishment? Earth is supposed to be awful and deadly, not fluffy and soft and happy. It's literally in the opening scene of the manga

>>13266816
Don't personify God when making philosophical arguments

"If someone concentrates his attention solely on the metaphors used of God's majesty, he abuses and misrepresents that majesty and thus errs by means of those metaphors with which God clothed Himself for his benefit."

>>13267551
Yes I do because the dogma literally says god is personal and not in just a metaphorical way you heretic.

>>13267543
Ok let me clarify, since you people downright IGNORE this fact. Not only you, few random posters on 4chan, but most people I've talked to about this subject. And smart people too, scholars and philosophers and actual pastors. It's like there's a shadowy veil over this, and people's minds are clouded.

quoth

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (...) therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."

Because we disobeyed God's literal words, and we had known God before YET we still disobeyed his very own words, the one and only command he has given us, he threw us from the garden of Eden into the earth of dust and decay and suffering and sorrow. Life on earth, henceforth, was an extended punishment from the original sin. And because God is infinite, beyond time itself, whether it was Adam and Eve who sinned, or Bob and Susan 3 million years later, it mattered not. Time wasn't linear, God glanced upon us and saw sin that plagued our destiny. It was the MAN and the WOMAN who sinned, not the individual. Humans are sinners at their very core and for that, we must suffer on earth until the end.
That's why there is evil on earth and in places of suffering, and nowhere else. Because earth is a place of suffering and there is meant to be evil here, but not in God's kingdom, which is a reward for living in this pit and still accept the truth that is.

I can't stop staring at that girl's legs whenever I look at the catalog

Universal sin and vicarious atonement

>>13266700
Then how did we all get here and why are we moving around and self aware
>checkmate pseuds

>>13266682
>t.14 year old

God is actively fighting against Evil, which has always existed.

>>13266723
It's a 'pleb tier' complaint that you fail to answer.

>>13266760
It has never been answered. All you did was the mind trickery that 'there is no evil'. That answer does not suffice.

>>13266682
Just blindly obey Thei--I mean His will, you retard.
Don't question these things just know he is totally real and he wants you to vote for trickle down economics and give a cut of your paycheck to your preacher every week.

>>13266819
Why must it be this way?
>>13267470
If their was no 'evil', life wouldnt be 'superfluous', it would simply be 'good', as there is no evil, also, an all powerful god would not see love and creation as 'superfluous' and 'pointless', he would feel happy that mankind is living in harmony, love and happiness. this is a poor argument.

>>13267741
>It was the MAN and the WOMAN who sinned

This takes the idea of a 'benevolent, forgiving and all powerful God away.

If God was all-powerful, he could've stopped the sinning, unless you agree that God is not an active participator in life.

>>13267854
answer it then

>>13266732
>Read Lewis' "The Problem of Evil

copout

when will people realize that all this larping raises more questions than it answers

>>13267476
So your argument is that something is real because you don't like the alternative?

>>13268017
Remember that God wasn't forgiving at first. It took the death of Jesus for God to acknowledge humans and forgive us our sins. Remember that before Jesus, God literally blasted Sodoma and Gomora from orbit.

>>13268063
I don't like Christians. Always felt they were lying. So I feel that from you. I'll ask anyway...Why do you think God forgave our sins and why did he allow us to sin in the first place if he is all powerful? It seems that he does not have active participation in the universe and thus isn't a God if he is not in control. Yet he has to be. So I find it diffiuclt to believe in the Christian God.

>>13266781
Disagree. Christianity should embrace good-evil dualism isn't of rambnling on about how "evil ain't real cuz the fall of adam", "evil and sin exists because humans or something" etc.

>>13267971
why don't u crack open a book instead of asking such a question on an online board (and the wrong one at that)?

>>13268042
My point is that any criticism of this world is meaningless until you first prove that an alternative is objectively better

>>13268078
An omnipotent God necessarily creates both good and evil.

>>13268063
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK insects

also that is Jung's thought in his Answer to Job. that God had some kind of change of heart and sent Jesus to save mankind. but it is known that God is unchanging, and so this theory is wrong.

>If an active God has foreknowledge of evil and the power to stop it yet chooses not to how is this in anyway a 'compassionate' God?

You have been given free will. You may choose to follow God, or you may choose to distance yourself from God. To fall short of your capacity to follow God's example is to sin. To feel remorse for your sin and to do penance is repentance, which by Jesus' grace does erase sin from you.

God did not make you as an angel, obedient in his kingdom. He made you as a mortal, and free to choose.

Romans 11:32
>For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.

So, sin is inevitable, right? And we've established that "evil" is a privation of the good. God made everything that exists, and being goodness itself everything he made is good (see Genesis, God remarks to himself the very same thought). Evil is the lack of good in men's actions. Our falling short. Some malformed people have an exceptionally low capacity for goodness. Serial killers, torturers, etc. Even they are still God's creatures. Therefore, evil in the world is something natural. It should be condemned and man should strive for goodness, but it is not a "problem of" God. It is a problem of man.

If you need more, look at Providence. The black box of God's plans, totally unknowable by man. "God works in mysterious ways."

tldr: what is evil is wrong, but everything in the world (incl. evil) is to a good end

>>13268078
>Why do you think God forgave our sins and why did he allow us to sin in the first place if he is all powerful?
I'll ask the second question first.
I don't think God is all powerful. All encompasing? Yes, but not all powerful. The presence of God is everywhere in existence and can be felt at times. Anything with a sufficiently large amount of processes is conscious, and so I think God is literally the active universal consciousness. Every star, even our Sun, HAS to have some form of consciousness. Hell, we have consciousness and we're so vastly limited compared to what's out there. The universe as a whole NEEDS to be alive. And that's God.
Anyway we're taking the bible at face value, and the bible is a poor, old, innocent text used and abused by -them- and that's a very grave sin that I'll never forgive.
No, I don't believe that the abrahamic God is all powerful almighty, omniscient and omnipresent. I believe that the true God is the universal consciousness, that we can somehow also tap into, but it's a knowledge that's been lost and forgotten.
But I also believe that life on earth is not supposed to be nice. Life is made possible by the emergence of chaos and chaos, by definition, is undefined. It needs no explanation.

Why God forgave our sins? He didn't, your consciousness will still face destruction after your physical death unless you accept the truths of god and see the world and universe for what it is. Even in the poor old bible, if you don't accept jesus as your saviour you're NOT forgiven.
If you do, though, then you'll join within the whole that is God, heaven, as energy and mater never disappear. Perhaps in a million years an apple tree will grow out of your grave and someone will eat an apple that's literally you, and what you've been goes into that person's physical composition and so on for eternity. And the wood is used to make a table, that will sit in someone's home for a few centuries until their descendants decide to burn off old things, and the ash will get blown by the wind and maybe it'll be food for some worms whop get eaten by a bird. That's reincarnation.
But this is so beyond the understanding of mere limited humans with their narrow scope, that I don't think I'll be able to ever properly explain what I sense and feel.

>>13268116
Which book? I've read Whitehead, Hegel, Plotinus...plenty...give me an answer
>>13268189
That makes God both good and evil, you realize that?

>>13268208
answer**
fuck, I rushed to type everything and made a few mistakes

>>13268203
>free will

So God is not active in this domain, as he has given Man free will.

>>13268219
>That makes God both good and evil, you realize that?
Uh... I build guns. Someone might use a gun to kill another person. Am I evil?

Oh fuck, let's go even further. I raise cattle. People slaughter cattle to make burgers. Someone eats a burger, then gets drunk and kills another person. Am I, the cowboy, evil?

And ever further.
I am God. I made the earth and the sea and everything on it. Someone on that earth kills another person (remember, evil is the lack of good in men's actions). Am I, the god, evil?

>>13268203
A privation implies that God does not access this particular domain, as you say evil is a result of Man himself, even though it is a law of nature, as the trees fight and tangle among themselves. If God encompasses all then evil cannot be a privation. If God does not encompass all he is not the true God. If he allows evil, yet can stop it, then he is not good either.

If your following response is a rehash of Lewis saying 'God works in mysterious ways' and thus our wisdom is limited, don't bother. It's not an argument.

>>13268222
>So God is not active in this domain, as he has given Man free will.
I don't see why you think these things are mutually exclusive. But correct. God himself does not act physically in the world. Aside from Jesus, who is present in the Eucharist, he sent a "Helper," the Holy Spirit. The world receives supernatural graces from God, which may or may not affect the physical world (you can't know). But again this is all kind of moot because God is first cause and omniscient and could have tilted the game just so and you would not have been able to tell the difference.

>>13268208
Why do you describe it as a process of 'tapping' into? Curious.

Also, why would I face pain in the afterlife if this is a causation based universe that God has foreknowledge of?

>>13268238
Okay well if you're going to misunderstand the terms so badly and refuse to actually engage with the theology of the Church all I can say is you're wrong and a brainlet. Good day.

>>13268208
>Perhaps in a million years an apple tree will grow out of your grave and someone will eat an apple that's literally you, and what you've been goes into that person's physical composition and so on for eternity. And the wood is used to make a table, that will sit in someone's home for a few centuries until their descendants decide to burn off old things, and the ash will get blown by the wind and maybe it'll be food for some worms whop get eaten by a bird. That's reincarnation.
>But this is so beyond the understanding of mere limited humans with their narrow scope, that I don't think I'll be able to ever properly explain what I sense and feel.


Do you feel like our consciousness joins a much larger Being that constitues reality as a whole and thus every death person's will and such are mingled together that add to overall consciousness itself. Take the idea of the 'racial soul' and apply it ao all of humanity. So a kind of akashi tablet of collective consciousness.

>>13268237
>Am I, the god, evil?

You are not God if you raise such questions to your own being, and I don't believe God's thinking pattern is as disorganized as allowing evil to exist.

If God is aware, has foreknowledge and the power to remove evil yet chooses not to, then yes he is evil.

>>13266682
There isn't a satisfactory answer and there never will be.

>>13268245
If God is omnipotent, active and aware then something cannot be 'private' from him. It has to be apart of him, otherwise he is not the One.

Plotinus wrote that God is first cause but doesn't actively participate in his creation. I guess that's what you think.

>>13268256
If you can't challenge what I said don't bother trying to challenge it.

>>13268287
>I guess that's what you think.
That's actually what I described, dummy.

And privation does not mean private, idiot. It means absence, or lack, like you lack a brain. It is a human failing, not God's. This is the entire thrust of the argument. "The problem of evil" is not God's responsibility, it is yours.

What is evil, but some form of good? When a person dies from disease, is it not good for the virus or bacteria? When a child is raped, is it not in some form a good for the rapist? If God is omnipotent, then He should be able to create all forms of good, even those which harm others. What is the alternative? How should God have made the world?

>>13268287
Imagine being infinitely merciful. Try it. Do this now.

Now imagine you're up on a cloud, feeling infinite mercy for all your creations, when you see a human on Earth torturing someone. Almost any human would say it's an evil act. But God's love is so great he feels compassion for both of them. That's the proper frame for understanding the problem of evil.

>>13268270
I make guns, but I know, by reading the newspaper and watching the news and hearing and seeing what world we live in, that people sometimes use guns to kill other people.
I can make the active, conscious choice to quit my job and not make guns anymore, but It's a comfy job and it pays the bills and my kid's schooling, so I keep making guns.

Am I evil?

>>13268301
God has to be active because reality is self-contained. The abscence of evil in God even though evil exists in reality means that evil is 'private' in this sense, which isn't true.

>>13268322
>Am I evil?
not that anon but I'm going to pretend the entire first paragraph doesn't exist and so should you. here is why:

Yes, in some ways you fail to live up to your capacity for good. You are a sinner. Congratulations. You may call it evil if you want. Sin is sin is sin.

>>13268322
bad analogy. You’re not omnipotent

>>13268307
If God is so merciful then death shall render a good man and an evil man equal, so there is no incentive for good-doers in your scheme of the world.

>>13268331
>reality is self-contained
citation needed

>evil is 'private' in this sense, which isn't true.
Evil is exclusive to man. You can call it private to man if you like. And yes this is true.

You don't know what you're talking about, and probably a fan of Foucault.

>>13266682
Evil is the motion of the will away from the Good.

>>13268322
If you make guns you are essentially like that of a drug dealer. Are drug dealers 'evil'?

>>13268340
>If God is so merciful then death shall render a good man and an evil man equal, so there is no incentive for good-doers in your scheme of the world.
This is only true if you are ignorant of scripture, which it seems many of you are. Read the Bible. Read the New Testament, read Jesus' words. He did not say EVERYONE would be saved. He said you would all be judged. And then he gave commandments in his sermons.

It's like you people aren't even thinking.

>>13268344
If evil is exclusive to man then by the nature of your own claim, God is not omnipotent, active, and full awareness because of the exclusivity you just claimed.

>>13268346
How can will and motion be away from God when he is both will and motion ?

>>13268358
>God is not omnipotent, active, and full awareness
You have it backwards, retard. You don't tell God what he is. He tells you. You can't get a mystery like God into an armbar and make it submit to your words. He is the word.

>>13268352
I'm serious. What did you actually say in this post besides telling me to read the Bible? That we would all be judged, not saved? If God is all-merciful his mercy wouldn't only extend to certain people. You contradicted yourself there.

>>13268264
Well you don't specifically join after death, you can join God in life although it's much harder due to our attachments to our physical bodies and our material forms into which our very minds and consciousness are etched. We're trying to sip an ocean with a straw, that's what's comprehending God is while alive.
What I'm saying is that there are many and beyond many processes going on in the universe, that's it's actually impossible for the universe to NOT be alive and conscious of itself. And you're part of this universe, whether you want or not. But if you reject god, god also rejects you and you end up in the place of suffering, oblivion, forgetfulness, hell.

Again, I will stress the fact that the abrahamic god is NOT the true god. It is the creator of mankind, of earth maybe, maybe even the creator of the physical universe, but it's not that consciousness of the living universe, the living, true god.
To think of it, I'm almost sure that the abrahamic god is merely a power higher than humans which could be interpreted as -a- god, but not -the- god, you feel me? Note that any 4th dimensional being is at the very least omnipresent into our dimension.

>>13268247
Because we are already part of it, read above ^

>>13268367
I don't agree with what you said here, however you didn't adress my point. I believe God to be all those things. I am saying by nature of your claim, you do not, as you made evil exclusive to nature, which separates it from God.

God is unity.

>>13268333
ok, then God is evil. Thread is solved, we can go home lads.

>>13268383
>4th dimensional being

What does this mean exactly? I agree with everything you said btw.

>>13268371
I'm also serious. If you're going to discuss a matter of faith, you can't just ramble ignorantly about absolutes and metaphysics. You also have to reckon with the revealed doctrine.

If you have trouble understanding what I said, read it again.

God's mercy is infinite, and he said we will be judged. And he made a new covenant (a New *Testament*) with man. "So if God's mercy is infinite, why should I worry?" you ask. I'll tell you. Because doing so ignores what he revealed. You throw it back in his face, pretending he never commanded you to love thy neighbor et cetera et cetera. It is good to depend on Christ, but folly to ignore his commandments.

>>13268346 is also relevant here. You move yourself away from God. You choose suffering, being away from him. This life is just the beginning of the eternal life, and you have the power to choose your actions. If you desire to share in the beatific vision, you should orient yourself to it while you can still act.

>>13268384
>God is unity.
Okay big retard. Enjoy your heresy I guess. You're not right, you just aren't humble enough to recognize it.

>>13268420
Lol, I'll rather read Plotinus then discuss 'faith' and the 'doctrine' ... Christians are brainlets.

If God mercy is infinite, then those are evil shall be forgived, due to the infinite nature of his mercy...as you said this mercy solves the problem of evil and this problem...It's really that simple. I might 'ignore' God...but he knows I am doing this...and if he is merciful he will forgive.

>>13268428
Read Plotinus you cuck

>>13268438
t. completely average brainlet who thinks he knows better than those superstitious Christian dummies

kek

>>13268438
Now I have a question for you. Why do you think Plotinus is the end of theology? Why choose his thoughts over, for example, the Christians who developed them further?

>>13268438

Read this again: >>13267470

>>13268438
>I'll rather read Plotinus then discuss 'faith' and the 'doctrine' ... Christians are brainlets.

>he doesn't grasp that all divine metaphysics, Neoplatonic or Christian, requires faith in the unobservable
If you've actually read Plotinus, you misunderstood him.

>>13268397
At the very least there is 1 dimension, because without -a- dimension there literally wouldn't be anything at all. No universe, not even chaos, nothing at all.
A dimension is any point in time and space. Just a single thing, a fleeting moment.
A 2nd dimension is taking another point in space and time, outside of that 1st one. Anywhere you want. There's now 2 dimensions, the 1 point and the line, that whole stretch of -thing- between that 1 point and the other point that you picked.
If you have a 2nd point after the 1st point of -a- dimension, you can have an infinite other points. Compared to 1 point, to the 1st one dimension, the 2nd dimension is literally, factually INFINITE. Can you comprehend infinity? You can't. You think you can but you literally can't. Your mind would explode. Anyway, we're only to the second dimension. You can make any shape in the infinity. a square, a triangle, a circle, but you're limited to the level of that first point, because once you add another point, outside that line between the first and the second point, you already enter the 3rd dimension.
If you had a, say, 2 dimensional square before, in the third dimension you have the literal, actual power to add as many other points as you want OUTSIDE or even WITHIN the first 2 dimensions. Add as many points outside to forms a cube, and now you have a 3 dimensional object.

So:
1st dimension is a single point, a fleeting moment. No shape, no duration, because once you add shape, you get....
2nd dimension. A line, a square, anything you can imagine, actual infinity compared to the 1st dimension. The 2nd dimension is already omniscient and omnipresent of anything regarding the 1st dimension. Adding anything beyond that, you get...
3rd dimension. We, here. We live in the 3rd dimension. There's height, length, depth. You can go up, down, backwards, forwards. A cube, a sphere, an infinitude of 1st and 2nd dimensions, all at once. Compared to things living in the 2nd dimension, we're literal gods.

Now what happens if you add a point OUTSIDE the 3rd, 2nd and 1st dimension? Where is that point? Your feeble mind can NOT comprehend the 4th dimension, my friend. It's impossible for your 3rd dimensional understanding of the universe.
For the record, just as a conceptual thing, a 4th dimensional version of the square / cube is mathematically discovered. If a square is the perfect shadow (or imprint) of a cube in the 2nd dimension, a tessaract is the perfect shadow (or imprint) of the 4th dimension version is.

Pic related is supposed to be a shadow, a 3d imprint of something that exists in the 4d. Did your mind already melt? Say god is merely someone that lives in the 4th dimension. How the fuck you you comprehend something like that?

>>13268466
>>13268514
>>13268524
>>13268524
>>13268550
Why can't any of you Christian thinkers answer the question without resorting to Lewis poor argument that god is ~mysterious~ and us mere mortals cannot fully understand him. You constantly say God is 'omnipotent' and many other pretty adjectives yet claim evil to be in the powers of Man, which then divides God, when God encompasses all....This is contradction

Read Langan and Hegel

>>13268554
That's a good description of the dimensions. Can you explain the 4th dimension further? I have seen people say '5D' too.

>>13268617

I AM making a "Hegelian", actually a Christian, argument here: >>13267470

>>13266682
Necessarily anything God creates is further away from him and is "evil" or sin the Christian doctrine. Necessarily things farther away from goodness or justice will have things we objectively call evil, even if we subjectively may call it applying in this or that instance as good.

In fact justice and even good are a (very small) separation of God. Yet where we're at that's the closest way to find God.

>>13266682
slave morality people sees evil in everything

god has forsaken us

>>13266682
who is this slut?

>>13269062
i'm not a slut!

>>13266682

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Lt8Rn4rkYwqiTXGPy/answer-to-job

This is a pretty convincing answer.

/lit/ - Literature

>>13266682
free will

>>13266682
are you from 1760?

>>13269683
what?

>>13266691
>>13266792
Literally brainless loops of reasoning to justify your imaginary friend, who actually hates you.

>>13267476
It is not. I know.
>>13268177
There absolutely is, but the proving of it scares the little ones

>>13269062
None of your business

>>13269297
Does fourchin need a /christcuck/ containment board?

>>13268388
Get smarter

>>13267470
>free will theodicy
Why does God require man to not choose evil?
How can man do something God cannot do by definition? (All-loving)
How can God create something contrary to his nature? (evil, free will->evil)
Why did God make an existence with so much evil? There's literally way too much.
If God wants man to have free will to choose good or evil, why would he ever want to do that? For what purpose does he need free will for that he couldn't just will himself? Does God lack free will? How could God lack free will? And if it is for some greater good yet to be seen, why couldn't God just will that greater good from the outset?

>>13268388
Welcome to Gnosticism

>>13270903

To answer the first question, he doesn't. The rest are kind of...confusing.

>>13266682
>foreknowledge
Providence, not "previdence"
Read Boethius

>>13266682
>>13270309
>>13264756
>>13271040
>>13270103
>>13270572
>>13265780
>>13266043
>>13269029
for a board that claims to be intellectual, you sure are a bunch of cumbrains

>>13267849
Start thinking maybe

>>13266682
nike and starbucks = generic trash.

>>13270903
>For what purpose does he need free will for that he couldn't just will himself?
The need of purpose in everything is the surest sign of a banished mind.
Why can't you accept that free will has no inherited purpose, by its very definition?

Evil is a creation of the human mind. It doesn't exist.

Answer 1:
Free will!
Ignore natural disasters btw
Rebuttal to obvious criticism of answer 1:
Well it's their fault for not using their free will to avoid natural disasters!
Even though god knew that they wouldn't be able to use their free will to avoid the natural disaster beforehand
Answer 2:
Bro. You're just a dumb, pathetic human. God is good. He knows good better than you know good. How can you question God's logic? Don't ask me how I know God is good even though I just admitted his knowledge of good is beyond us btw.
Rebbutal to obvious criticism to answer 2:
Do you even ontological argument bro? A perfect being must exist outside the mind merely by its conception and must also be /perfectly/ moral.
Anyway, forget religion. I just proved that blorfs exist. I defined a blorf as a round sided equilateral triangle that exists. My definition implies anything it applies to must exist! Wanna go find some blorfs with me bro? We could probably sell it to astonished mathematicians for a pretty penny!

>>13266732
>>13266756
Fuck off with the book of job brianlets, it doesn’t answer op at all

>>13271435
>>13266819
These are good answers, without chance life is meaningless.
>>13266682
God can only create the most prefect world possible, or he would not be god and it is possible that a world with the "possibility" of evil is more prefect and complete than a worldwithout that possibly, but god does not enact the possibly We do.

There is a doctrine that says gods exist but they dont care about mortals and what we do, just as we dont care what the insects are doing right now

I forget the fellas name, theres so damn many of them in history, it was 350bcish if i recall correctly, whoever was alive in that year

> And it is because you don't know the end and purpose of things that you think the wicked and the criminal have power and happiness.

>>13266691
So if I show up to your house and set you on fire, you're not gonna complain, right?

>if an all knowing all capable God made my tummy hurt he can't be perfect, he must give me everything in a silver platter or I'll throw a fit
geez anon, read a book, this was solved 300 years ago

>>13266682
Unironically Gnosticism

>>13266682
WHY DOESNT GOD MAKE ME HAPPY!?!?!?!?!?!? I WANNA FEEL GOOD!!!!!

>>13271382
>Free will is just there, God put it there
In the teleological sense sure it's a bad habit. But I cannot see any justification for free will that God couldn't otherwise achieve without allowing evil.

>>13272786
>without
with*

>>13271867
Tell us because it's not solved

>>13266700
Even if he didn’t exist, he has still existed far more than anyone or anything, even more so than our own sun

>>13266682
>What is the answer to the problem of evil?
Guns.

>>13271881
Gnosticism always starts nice and happy, “hooray! No more hard questions about evil!” But before you know it, you’re building a black pyramid and throwing heads down the stairs to appease the demiurge.
Would not recommend.

>>13266682
The possibility of evil is important. Evil acts are allowed by God in life because life is ephemeral and thus worthless compared to an eternal afterlife. Judgment day brings justice to the oppressed.

>>13271867
Now replace a tummy ache with brain tumors in children so your god comes off as more the asshole he is.

>>13273947
Life on earth IS supposed to be punishment for the sins the collective humankind.
I don't know how and why is the "problem" of evil still debated.

>>13274048
Opinion on monetary reparations for descendants of American slaves?