God Is All Good, And The Creator Of All Things We Create It?

God cannot determine the outcome of our free choice. So either there is no omniscient god or we are created without free will and therefore are forced/unable to avoid doing evil. Again this shows that god is not benevolent, nor omniscient, therefore he is non-existent. Theists may argue the following reason for god to have granted humans free will. It is possible that god raised homo sapiens to rationality giving the gift of abstract thought, language and disinterested love. And so it is arguable that god gave us free will to allow for love, as free will is necessary for love. Although this may be one of many reasons that god granted us free will, it is one that we may understand. Free will is necessary for both erotic and platonic love. One may argue that evil is only trumped by love. And that the existence of evil, although in its masses is worth it for the sake of

If god was all good, all powerful and all knowing, he would not allow the existence of evil.

In a world of chaos, he who lives, lives by his own laws and values. Who is to say that the death of millions is any worse or better, for that matter, than injuring a cockroach. And in the case of an existing power in the form of God, who is presumed to be all which is good, presiding and ruling an organized universe, why then does evil exist? The prosaic response of “without evil, there is no good” no longer holds any validity in this argument as the admitted goal of good is to reach an existence without evil. So even if a God does exist, I think it is fair, at this point, to say that he is the embodiment of both good and evil. And if humoring those who would answer the previous question with the response that there can be no good

Various religions define good and evil in various ways. However, one thing is certain. Since our society has existed, good and evil have also been in existence and many religions see them as two sides of the same coin. Some religions see them as counterparts, one of which focuses on promotion of happiness and the other on everything evil or all that is contrary to happiness. Every religion and mythology define them in its own way and they find representation in various forms like demons and angels in Christianity and Devas and Danavas in Hinduism. But the concept of good and evil has always been there and in old times

When we are discussing the problem of evil, we are specifically discussing a God that is omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good. A God that is perfectly good would not allow suffering to exist, and any minute amount of suffering that exists disproves God’s existence. Unless, the suffering is justified with an adequate reason. However, even then there seems to be large amounts of evil in the world that seems unnecessary for any good reason. By evil and suffering I mean death, pain, and disease. I will be using these terms interchangeably. In the problem of evil, many arguments are placed in order to find a justification for the evil that exists. However,

This then begs the question; what are the reasons that God believes that the existence of evil is necessary? There are two ways of approaching an argument for the belief that God has his reasons to allow evil. These two ways are a theodicy and a defense. In his book, Inwagen says “The difference between a theodicy and a defense is simply that a theodicy is put forward as true, while nothing more is claimed of a defense than that it represents a real possibility” (31). Theodicy takes into account the evidence of evil and shows that it is still reasonable to believe in a God despite the existence of evil. Overall, a theodicy is a justification for God. A defense, on the other hand, offers a logical explanation for the existence of evil. A defense may say that there are reasons that God allows evil to persist, but, humans may never know these reasons. There is one well known and most rational defense. This is called the free-will defense. The free-will defense says that God made the world and included rational beings. He gave them the power of free-will. This meant that humans held the ability to make their own decisions and to have their own desires freely without any barriers. God decided that overall, free-will was a great enough good and that the existence of it outweighed the existence of the evil that results from the abuse of

In a world of chaos, he who lives, lives by his own laws and values. Who is to say that the death of millions is any worse or better, for that matter, than injuring a cockroach. And in the case of an existing power in the form of God, who is presumed to be all which is good, presiding and ruling an organized universe, why then does evil exist? The prosaic response of "without evil, there is no good" no longer holds any validity in this argument as the admitted goal of good is to reach an existence without evil. So even if a God does exist, I think it is fair, at this point, to say that he is the embodiment of both good and evil. And if humoring those who would answer the previous question with the response that there can be no good

Now that I have discussed where evil originated, I want to provide a brief definition of evil. Most people will agree that evil is any cruel act, serious harm to another person mentally or physically. It can also be identified in a level of evil meaning people tend to feel that the more harm done to a person the greater the level of evil. Some examples of evil are acts of murder or abuse that harms another human being or animals. While I do agree with this definition of evil, I also think there is another crucial part of the definition. It is that evil itself is an act against the law of God. The Bible uses the word evil to define anything that is in violation of God’ law. In the connection between good and bad, evil is also seen as the absence of goodness. A simple way to understand the connection is that evil is a “fundamental and troubling departure from goodness” (Alcorn, 2009, p. 25). Alcorn’s view of evil is a complete absence and rejection of God’s goodness. I completely agree with this definition of evil, but I also understand that not all people believe in my God or any God for that matter. Atheists also identify evil in the world and they would agree with me on some acts that I think are evil. However, their definition does not include God. For example, Humanists believe there is good without God. They see the evil in the world and believe they must

God is all powerful, loving, and knowing and allows evil in the world not because he approves evil but because he has given us free will, the choice to chose right or wrong with the consequences. We are loved by God so much that he has given us free will. Free will is the decision we have to do good or evil in any situation we are put into or can be tempted by Satan. Every decision we make is showing how we use are freedom He has given us. Many people get double minded, which is when Christians know God's word is true but do not believe it necessarily when the time comes. God loves us not by a feeling but by a choice and we are given the free will to love him or it is not love. C.S. Lewis explains why we are given free will in this quote:

Why do bad things happen to good people? In reference to Christianity, if God is all knowing and omnipotent, why does he allow evil to exist? I believe God is all knowing and omnipotent, he created us with a purpose and knows what we will do before we make the choice ourselves. But God has also given us the gift and curse of free will. Evil is a result of sin and is present because of the fall of man. (Romans 8:19-23) The secular world uses the problem of evil to attempt to denounce the existence of God. Evil is seen in some lights to depend on good for its existence (Bennett, 1938) while others believe without struggle, temptation and failure there is no progress, moral growth or moral worth (Pauley, 2011). Last, God uses evil for his purposes.

How we view the presence of God and evil depends on why we believe the world was created. If man is a fully created creature then the world was created for him to live in, a comfortable, pleasant place. Our world is obviously filled with suffering, danger, hardship of all kinds, so an all-powerful God could not have created it. To Christians the world is not a paradise where one can experience the maximum of pleasure and a minimum of pain. The world is a place of “soul making” or person making. As we try and understand the challenges of our lives, and our environment we may become “Children Of God”.

“Did God create good” and “did God create evil” are two questions that are essential to explore in order to fully comprehend the Christian faith. It is evident from the account of creation in Genesis that what God creates is inherently “good” (Genesis 1). Moreover, God himself is good and without sin (Habakkuk 1:13). We know that God is good and his creation is good so now the question of evil remains. Moreover, how do we reconcile the statement “God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him” (John 1:3, NLT) with what we know about God’s character? In order to respond to this scripture with an accusation against God for creating everything including evil we would have to consider evil an entity that is able

Paley’s Natural Theology argues that in order for something to exist, there has to be a creator. A well-known passage from his book includes someone noticing a watch on the ground and anyone would assume that the watch was made by someone else. He connects this to the creation of life and everything we know, to God’s creations. That God made humans and everything else in this world, maybe as explained in the Biblical text of Genesis. According to Paley, God is our benevolent creator, but what if everything existed before hand and God had nothing to do with it? It is hard to tell what is true, following Paley and Christianity or the idea of true science and evolution.

Whether or not evil is the absence of good is a question that has puzzled Christians since the time of St. Augustine of Hippo. In The Confessions of St. Augustine, he initiates this premise and argues in its favor. Discourse about evil is based on the Christian theological teachings of the omniscience, omnipotence, and perfect benevolence of God as well as the understanding that evil is present in this world. Since these four concepts are contradictory, one of them must be rejected. Thus, St. Augustine argues that evil does not exist. I find St. Augustine’s explanation to be satisfying.

evil shouldn’t exist. But because evil does exist in this world, God is not all-good and