I'm not looking for debate. I just need an answer. Why did God create evil? Couldn't he create a world with free will that was free of evil?
I'm not looking for debate. I just need an answer. Why did God create evil...
Caleb Collins
Ryder Cooper
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Colton Watson
Who told you God created evil? God created Lucifer, but iniquity was later "found" in him due to pride. It never says God PLACED iniquity in him. It says he was found with iniquity, due to his own pride.
God created the heavens and earth, but he did not create darkness or chaos. He created light, and all his creatures afterwards he called "good". Not once does the scripture say that God looked on his creation and called any of it bad. And after the act creation, he didn't create the death or destruction. That was brought about by Satan, and Adam, and Eve.
Ryder Phillips
The problem with this is that evil isn't defined. I think there are 3 types though
Natural evil is sort of impossible to not have, having air to breath and water to drink means that clouds will form into a hurricane once in a while. Nobody is at fault for this, nor can God be said to be in the wrong.
Suffering is actually not to imply that anyone is particularly being evil. Disagreements about what is valuable, what to save and what to let be destroyed, will ultimately happen, suffering and destruction is not entirely negative, because space for new things and experiences is created. It could be seen as more natural evils (just with some well-meaning human elements). The march of time also implies that this kind of suffering is liable to occur, and there is no justifiable reason to be against it (especially if an afterlife is assumed to exist).
Finally spiritual evils, malevolence, pride, wrath, sloth, greed and the like. These are not caused by God either, but by human agency, separated from God.
So I don't think a world without evil is possible, unless God intervenes with free will, to prevent spiritual evil. Even if God does this, then there are still going to be instances of destruction, suffering and death, which seem evil or at least cruel from a human perspective.
Really the truth of the matter is that it is a good thing that the world is not wrapped in bubble-wrap in the way it would have to be in order to limit evil. Such a world would only be trivial, and could only be desired by someone who had no belief in God or an afterlife in the first place, but instead wanted to be coddled. I think this is probably why socialists are always trying to create the biggest nanny state (i.e. they lack the religious consolation that allows one to accept a world that is imperfect).
Elijah Turner
Even then, and this is hard to swallow for some, but even rain wasn't a part of God's original creation.
"the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground" - Genesis 2:5-6
Not once does it ever say it rained after that either, until Noah's flood. Which in itself was a reaction against evil, not part of the original act of creation. Genesis and the ancient mindset in general didn't exactly look upon waters kindly. God is said to have separated waters and brings order out of that chaos by bringing out land, then enclosing waters below the earth and above. Noah's stories broke the "levies" from below and above, but only because man had become exceedingly corrupt - partly due to the first part of Genesis 6, where abominations (the nephillim) were created when angels broke their vows and mated with women. Again, this is not a creation of God, but an abomination. And he wiped it out, as he should have.
Parker Rogers
Regarding natural evils I always understood it in terms of the 'Wisdom of God' at the end of the book of Job, when God takes Job on a tour of creation to show him how complicated it all is.
Lucas Perry
Good an evil are contingent on each other. Without evil, there is no such thing as good.
And I think I know the next question already.
God allows us to make our decisions ourselves, it's us who are evil. God is the judge of all humanity, and humans show their true selves in the absence of immediate consequences, so for God to judge humanity justly, he must first allow us to show our true selves, hence the rampant evil in the world. It would be unjust for God to judge us on crimes we did not commit.
Nolan Lee
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Blake Bailey
Lurk moar.
Ethan Martinez
How can God rebel against Himself?
He will, but he wants the world to know Him first and doesn't wish to harm the overall harvest.
John Lopez
Honestly, no good answers so far.
Here you have some Catholic perspective from Ed Feser:
edwardfeser.blogspot.com
edwardfeser.blogspot.com
Robert Russell
You can't have free will without the possibility of evil
Connor Ross
God did not create evil. And no evil can come from God, either.
James 1:12-15
Wisdom 1:12-15
or bring on destruction by the works of your hands; because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.
He did. Evil was introduced by the angels who, with their free will, chose to turn against God. Their leader, Satan, came down on earth to trick Adam and Eve into turning away from God as well. The rest is history.
Evil does not have an essential existence by itself. Evil is a lack of good, a "parasite" that latches onto God's good world, so to speak. All things were made good by nature, even the demons - see Genesis 1.
A world without evil is possible. The world was without evil before the Fall and it will be without evil at the eschaton.
And yet the Kingdom of God is described as perfect good, without evil.
Chase Peterson
A correction to this: we must take into account the influence of the Devil, but you get the idea.
Anthony Bennett
Anyone who thinks they could make a better universe go ahead.
Kevin Hernandez
But doesn't God know that someone will betray him?
Juan Jones
Sure, but that doesn't mean He created them for that express purpose of them being evil. Those angels, like us men, are given free will to choose to love and obey God.
Jackson Davis
God created humans to love and worship him.
You cannot love something you are forced to love - it's not love then.
This is why we were given choice. Imagine chaining someone up and forcing them to give you compliments; would it be authentic.
Inherent in that choice is the option not to love God (sin).
Juan Perez
No they are not.
Evil is contingent on good. Good can exist in and of itself.
God is good without depending on anything, while Satan is evil but even he depends on God for his existence. God must give him being before he can say "thats mine" and twist it in his own image.
Kayden Price
Begone, talmudist. That’s like saying light can’t exist without dark, which is entirely false. Photons are not contingent on being blocked.
Brayden Williams
Evil isn't even something that is "created". Evil is simply the absence of good. Just how darkness is merely the absence of light.
Adrian Ortiz
Exactly. Evil is either to corruption or the absence of good.
This further reinforced when we observe the nature of sin.
Its either when we dont perform a good required or when we subvert the good for our own benefit at the expense of others.
Luis Hall
What would be the point of such a world?
Ryder Ramirez
There would be no point and there would be no love, for you cannot force someone to love you it must be done out of free will.
Love without free will would make us no different than insects or robots connected to an allpowerful AI.
Noah Scott
no
Juan Foster
What exactly do you think "evil" is? It's not a substance; there aren't little particles of evil floating around causing you to sin. "Evil" is a word which describes actions that you do that go against the will of God. It's not a noun, it's an adjective. Nothing is created with a little evil mixed in; it's just that you commit evil deeds. You may as well sit here and ask us why God created funny. Funny isn't a substance, it's just that you sometimes tell funny jokes. You're using words improperly, and it's confusing you.
Read the Confessions of Saint Augustine.
In other words, "Couldn't He grant men free will but also deprive them of free will?" The answer is no, because the question is nonsense. If men have free will, then they have the ability to use their wills in ways that displease God. Otherwise their wills aren't free. God can't grant you restricted free will, any more than He can really go so far as to use even go want to do look more like; this isn't a question of omnipotence, it's merely a question of nonsense.
Read CS Lewis' The Problem of Pain.
Nicholas Morris
a world is either inconceivable (so with us unable to understand or perceive it) or has absence of evil incompatible with free will. If you are free you can choose evil. If you cannot you aren't.
So basically you are asking for a world alien to your perception or understanding.
Ian Cox
yo smartass, the kingdom of god is where those who KNEW evil and chose to follow good end up.
So, while evil is not present, they all are familiar with the concept, because they lived in the imperfect world. Therefore they can tell good from evil. I can't believe these sophism still has traction. It's like asking well so what happens if somebody in heaven wants to be evil? Oh i dunno, maybe god knows past present and future so the possibility doesn't even materialize, or maybe they get demoted to hell, does considering a possibility deny the feasibility of a system? Since when? "Oh this car can't do 200kph because the wheel might want to roll into the engine bay"? what the winnie the pooh? have you tested the car? no? stfu then.
Jose Long
OP, if tomorrow, everybody on this God-forsaken planet decided to simply love one another and love God then that would solve a lot of problems. But of course we aren't going to do that.
Angel Torres
Evil is really a matter of perspective.