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The Problem of Evil

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  • The Problem of Evil

    "Why doesn't your God do something about Horrible Thing X?"
    "Maybe He did. Maybe He sent you."

    We've all seen such exchanges. The atheist rolls his eyes and zones out. Not that the argument is bad

    Still under construction.
    "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

    "Forgiveness is the way of love." Gary Chapman

    My Personal Blog

    My Novella blog (Current Novella Begins on 7/25/14)

    Quill Sword

  • #2
    It's a better response in some instances than others (natural disasters are probably not a good time for instance).
    "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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    • #3
      The problem of evil is that it is bad.


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      • #4
        The problem of evil would be worse if this life were all there was and we weren't recompensed for the bad stuff we went through. And of course what Jesus did for us which guarantees anyone who accepts His offer of salvation a happy ending. Or the beginning to endless more happy adventures with each chapter better than the one before?
        If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

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        • #5
          Yeah, I was getting there. I'm thinking the real problem of evil is how can a person having never experienced suffering understand what evil is or why it is bad?
          "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

          "Forgiveness is the way of love." Gary Chapman

          My Personal Blog

          My Novella blog (Current Novella Begins on 7/25/14)

          Quill Sword

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          • #6
            Indeed. Suffering builds character. If we didn't grow up here and know how much living in a fallen world stinks, then we'd take a perfect utopia(aka the New Heavens and New Earth) for granted. It wouldn't do for the entire population of Heaven to be infants.
            If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

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            • #7
              As far as natural disasters go, a lot of that is our own fault too. We build in earthquake prone areas, as well as flood zones, in areas where hurricanes hit frequently, etc. That doesn't cover all natural "evils" but a lot of them. We do live in a fallen world, and that too is our fault (Adam and Eve) -- we are like children who stick their hands on a hot stove that we turned on ourselves, and then complain it is hot and burned us.

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              • #8
                A good share of the problem of evil is a result of folks who have decided THEY know what God is, or should be doing. If you don't know what the question is you are pretty sure to get the answer wrong.
                Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Christianbookworm View Post
                  The problem of evil would be worse if this life were all there was and we weren't recompensed for the bad stuff we went through. And of course what Jesus did for us which guarantees anyone who accepts His offer of salvation a happy ending. Or the beginning to endless more happy adventures with each chapter better than the one before?
                  ## Definitely not convinced by the compensation idea, but nice reference to "The Last Battle" there

                  I think evil is subjective, very largely, and that the problem is not about a recognisable "thing" called evil at all. A tsunami is not evil - it is a body of water behaving as it should. That there are human beings in the way of its action, is no fault of the tsunami; in saying this one cannot get away from the devastating events at the end of 2004. If an injury or form of harm comes our way and brings us closer to God, I don't think I would regard it as evil. Whether to regard it as evil, would be up to those affected by it. It might be appraised very differently by Christians, and by non-Christians.

                  The commission of a crime is almost totally made up of good things, because it requires the use of good things like bodily strength, intelligence, determination, persistence, and so on. These are good things, which in a different context would be rewarded, not punished. A decorated ex-military sniper and a murderer who shoots his victims may even be the same individual. The same personal qualities are needed for both kinds of shooting. What makes the moral difference, and thus makes the act of shooting either praiseworthy or criminal, is the will that binds together the intelligence, strength, determination, and so on, that are needed for aiming and shooting a fire-arm. It is the direction of the will, and what it binds together, that make the action morally culpable or not.

                  If an act is intrinsically immoral, but not appreciated as being such, to do it is wrong, but not subjectively culpable. That Oedipus murdered his father and married his mother was objectively wrong, but he had no idea that he had done these things - unlike King David, who knew very well what he was doing when he had Uriah put in the front line so that David could have Uriah's wife. (The similarities and contrasts & differences between Classical mythology and the Bible are fascinating, even though OTT.)

                  If evil is anything, maybe it is a wrong relation between things. The will of a criminal is not bad because it is a will, or because it is the will of a human being, but because it, a good thing, is used to put other good things in a deformed relation to itself. Evil is not a thing in itself - it has no being, so it has no reality. It is an absence of good that ought to be present. To think of evil as having any positive reality of its own, as goodness has, is to take a step towards Manichean dualism. (C. S. Lewis is very good on this.)
                  Last edited by Rushing Jaws; 07-23-2015, 05:19 AM.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                    As far as natural disasters go, a lot of that is our own fault too. We build in earthquake prone areas, as well as flood zones, in areas where hurricanes hit frequently, etc. That doesn't cover all natural "evils" but a lot of them. We do live in a fallen world, and that too is our fault (Adam and Eve) -- we are like children who stick their hands on a hot stove that we turned on ourselves, and then complain it is hot and burned us.
                    Not only that, but I wonder if we never fell if we would have had the same power over nature and death that Christ had.
                    Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

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