If there's a god, why is there evil?

Depends on how you see you being immortal. I ask the question would you really want to live forever as you are?

""No words""

heyjme, yes I agree, concepts of 'good' and 'bad' are just human notions.
As for immortality, I think there's a lot more to that than just living infinitely.

"I'll heal ur woundz I'll set u free, I m jesus christ on xtacy"

quote:

---

If there is such a thing as 'evil' is there such a thing as 'good'?

---

quote:

---

You can see the glass as half empty or half full

---

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

quote:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
"If there's a god, why is there evil?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

Try this: God exists (let us assume at least). Evil is the perception of the workings of God in ones own, or our, mind(s).

""No words""

I do believe there is a perception. The power of belief is very strong. There is documented evidence of this.

However - though it may believed that a strong belief might move objects. It is not known how?

For instance - does a strong believe move an object by the power of its own or does the power of belief tap into another power?

For this there is a science called paraphsycology. An answer might be found there.

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

Ha ha ...two lessons here

1. Not what you know but realising your own ignorance.
2. Science best works by as many hypotheses as possible.

Lets go for parasychology then. I'm skeptical on this but always open to new ideas.

So...is the process imaginery or physical? Need some good lawyers and a jury here...

""No words""

imaginery as in "not real" but believed - it could be, I believe that. But the imaginery would have to work with something physical in order for there to be a reaction.

The great Kahunas had a practice called a death prayer. Anthropologists had documented this in their journals before the Catholic church outlawed it. But a Great Kahuna could pray someone to their death. Theory is that when a person dies, they leave behind a shadow. This shadow is the memory of this person's life. The shadow was invisible and had no power unto itself. A Kahuna could control these shadows through prayer, they would send these shadows to kill people. The fact that these things did occur can be found in historical journals. But did it really happen the way the Kuhuna's thought that it did?

http://www.doyletics.com/_arj1/kahunama.htm

I read this book years ago, very interesting book.

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

ok, coming back to the essence of the question, first lets agree on the basic thing, 'if there is 'evil' in the world, that does not mean that God is evil or non existant-due to us being given free will' ?

"I'll heal ur woundz I'll set u free, I m jesus christ on xtacy"

Someone explained to me elsewhere that God doesn't get involved because we do have free will. That could be why Jesus and others are sent to teach us. If God did everything, then why would we have to be taught anything. Part of God's perfection is giving us the freedom we have.

Evil however is not perfect, but the oposit of, so it takes our free will from us.

At this juncture, I am a little confused. If God good and gives us free will and evil is bad and takes it. Who are we should we fall into an evil devious trap and who will save us?

But I don't think God is evil or non existant.

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

Ok. Lets assume God is neither evil nor good. Let us assume 'He' is simply nature or the laws of nature. Thus we have a system where everyone is abiding to the laws of nature. Now our free will is given to us if u like by being a composite, albeit tiny, of a larger equation which changes through time. We have parameters that can change this equation, some larger than others, and I guess our free will would be the extent to which we maximise these. Now it could be the intent when the formula was formed earlier was to have certain markings that will be there or lay out. I.e. there is room for a Jesus to spring up. Or it could, of course, be a formula that was not formulated and then there is no end and no beginning in the absolute sense...like a continuous circle...u could define 12:00 hrs as start and finish on a clockface but then 3:00 is equally as valid.

One thing that has just cropped up also is that time may also be flowing backwards. When you conceive of a device often you trace back the steps so lets say the aim is to get a house..u would back engineer so then you would say where, what bricks, how many rooms right down to laying a carpet. So it could be the future somehow affects the past?

Anyway I think my point is the laws are there. We see good and evil but everyones opinion is different. But the interesting thing is we do seem to evolve better and quicker with good. But the reason for this I think though is that if u turn bad emotions like fear, hate and envy into hope, love and respect you create, someone will need to check this LOL, positive chemical reactions like endorphines which stimulate happy thoughts and maximise self achievement. Now evil I feel is just a concept, like good, but I take good and there is just less good. And I think it could be related to the way we think, which is related to chemicals, but the good is really just positive education. Evil is being physically weak to circumstance and rejecting positive education. I guess if you are a weak person and very intelligent then you need to start recognising that positive thought is a key to happiness, which in my view promotes a better society all round.

Hope this makes sense and sort of vaguely answers the question,

""No words""

(skipped thro the thread so i dont know how relevant) but i dont get it.. of course god (from standard defintions) ciuld hae made us with cabablilty not of whats considered evil! i mean wouldnt we do just fine without it!?? it wouldnt violate our free will bercauee we wouldnt mind that option to be canceled out.. jsut like we cant jump to the moon.. i dont blame god for not giving mr free will to jump to moon.. so how can you say its becasue of free will that evil comes fromus is why god doesnt prevnt it.. thats purioos logic.. could also make it so we everything doesnt ecpierecn what we consider "evil"


on a nother note its funny h ho when we think of our 'good' moral instincts we thnik there must be a god when we think of our 'bad'; instincts we think there isnt one (why couldnt it be vise versa or dif) oh yea becasue of the defniotion of common god.. but also i thnik just from feeling we have intrstinga..

"no quote until i copyright it.."

quote:

---

Ok. Lets assume God is neither evil nor good. Let us assume 'He' is simply nature or the laws of nature. Thus we have a system where everyone is abiding to the laws of nature. Now our free will is given to us if u like by being a composite, albeit tiny, of a larger equation which changes through time. We have parameters that can change this equation, some larger than others, and I guess our free will would be the extent to which we maximise these. Now it could be the intent when the formula was formed earlier was to have certain markings that will be there or lay out. I.e. there is room for a Jesus to spring up. Or it could, of course, be a formula that was not formulated and then there is no end and no beginning in the absolute sense...like a continuous circle...u could define 12:00 hrs as start and finish on a clockface but then 3:00 is equally as valid.

---

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

quote:

---

positive thought is a key to happiness,

---

"I'll heal ur woundz I'll set u free, I m jesus christ on xtacy"

What I am tending to sense is a kind of petty defense of religion and then an equally petty defense of science. Is it possible, per chance, that they actually help us all out. I back neither fully...I want truth. So lets see where this can get us?

Right as an example...I've stated there could be an equation and if u look carefully I say that tiem could go forwards, backwards, or cyclically in it....I simply don't know! But only a fool goes for dogma and says I am right. Its simply stupid to aim for perfection: we are finite and we know more exists than us...otherwise why come to a fourm?

Now the truth is look at all the unanswered questions...what is spirit? how many dimensions are ther? can you create something out of nothing. Typically science stops here and says..leave it to the religions or read a book on philosophy. Ok...wise. But just because the question is too difficult does not mean its not worth asking. When I use the word equation I have no better words than model or theory etc., there just words. This does not mean they are scientific.

I'm quite happy considering the idea of spirit, what it is and how it could fit in. I'm not going to say its just a word...the questions there so I'll give it some thought...why can't it be another dimension. Just because I cant see it or it doesnt fit with models now...so what? Someone somewhere may open my eyes. Understanding this will help actually gather understanding of the greater reality (whatever that is!) he he

""No words""

Concerning my belief in God, I have my experiences also, expressed elswhere.

Ofcourse, I really don't know what God is, I just VERY strongly believe in one. Yet is just a belief. I couldn't prove it to anyone. This belief is faith.

quote:

---

Why do you believe in evil anyway. does it mostly have to do with that guy who went really off path?

---

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."