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How can evil exist if God is omnipotent? And how can free will exist if God is omniscient?
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
I would say evil doesn't exist. It's a subjective word and varies by culture and a person's individual interpretations. Likewise, I'd say there's no good for the same reasons.
One can say god is just the motor of the car and we are at the wheel. You can't "tell" the motor to run and don't know when you'll run out of gas. Make life what ye will. Evil is in the eye of the beholder.
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
My god is infinite space which is pretty awesome in my eyes so all powerful and all knowing seems appropriate. You always hear people say they can’t wrap their brain around infinite space but my god ‘knows’ it because he is it, therefore he’s all knowing. As far as all powerful is concerned, like I said infinite space is pretty mind boggling and permits existence imo so I’d say it’s pretty powerful.
free will is just choices we make imo. I believe I relive the same exact life over and over but I still believe in free will. Go figure. Gods mysterious ways I reckon. Well not really mysterious as I only really live once in the lords eyes. It doesn’t make sense to our limited understanding but it makes perfect sense looking through the lords lenses
free will is just choices we make imo. I believe I relive the same exact life over and over but I still believe in free will. Go figure. Gods mysterious ways I reckon. Well not really mysterious as I only really live once in the lords eyes. It doesn’t make sense to our limited understanding but it makes perfect sense looking through the lords lenses
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Freewill can't exist if God knows the future. Evil exists because of free-will, but God could have forced all creation to be good and make sure to get guided, so it's because God wanted to try us and see us for who we are. He is testing us in real time, to see what we will choose and how we fulfill the pledge we gave him.
"and if we wished, we could've gave every soul it's guidance..."
The Prophets (a) he knows what is before them and after them in terms of the path of light because he trusted them and knows they will always walk the straight path, and if ever the falter, they don't alter. They come back and purify quickly.
The rest of us while he knows us before we come, he also wants to test us and see what will choose, and obviously we aren't his trustees and so our future is unknown.
"and if we wished, we could've gave every soul it's guidance..."
The Prophets (a) he knows what is before them and after them in terms of the path of light because he trusted them and knows they will always walk the straight path, and if ever the falter, they don't alter. They come back and purify quickly.
The rest of us while he knows us before we come, he also wants to test us and see what will choose, and obviously we aren't his trustees and so our future is unknown.
I've been asking the same question as why did `God` create evil ?
From where did the idea come, because of what reason ?
`God's` purpose was to put into all his creations, the fear of their `God`,
The satan of the Earth, created by `God` to hide behind him, as `evil`.
That also doesn't make any sense, none of this thinking does.
From where did the idea come, because of what reason ?
`God's` purpose was to put into all his creations, the fear of their `God`,
The satan of the Earth, created by `God` to hide behind him, as `evil`.
That also doesn't make any sense, none of this thinking does.
Brian2
Veteran Member
It is our choices and free will that have brought moral evil into the world with it's consequences.
Evil doesn't have a positive existence, it is only the lack of a good, for instance the "presence" of disease is really only the lack of health. Free will exists because God is Three Persons who made other persons who are capable of free choice, but this is not to be confused for randomness or no influence:
"Freedom is a being’s power to flourish as what it naturally is, to become ever more fully what it is. The freedom of an oak seed is its uninterrupted growth into an oak tree. The freedom of a rational spirit is its consummation in union with God. Freedom is never then the mere “negative liberty” of indeterminate openness to everything; if rational liberty consisted in simple indeterminacy of the will, then no fruitful distinction could be made between personal agency and pure impersonal impulse or pure chance."
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Why wouldn't evil exists if God is omnipotent? Do you think that God should prevent evil just because God is all-powerful? That does not compute because there is no reason why God should prevent evil. "God can do it since God is all-powerful" is not a reason. Humans are fully responsible for the evil acts they commit, God bears no responsibility for what humans choose to do.
Why wouldn't free will exist if God is omnipotent? Just because God knows everything that will ever happen that does not mean that God causes anything to happen. God's knowledge is not what causes things to happen, what people choose to do and act upon is what causes things to happen.
“Every act ye meditate is as clear to Him as is that act when already accomplished. There is none other God besides Him. His is all creation and its empire. All stands revealed before Him; all is recorded in His holy and hidden Tablets. This fore-knowledge of God, however, should not be regarded as having caused the actions of men, just as your own previous knowledge that a certain event is to occur, or your desire that it should happen, is not and can never be the reason for its occurrence.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 150
My thoughts are that free will and an all-powerful God can coexist because one has nothing to do with the other. God gave man free will to use as man sees fit. God is all-powerful so God could override human free will choices and actions, but just because God has the capability that does not mean God uses His capability. God could wipe out this earth in a heartbeat but that does not mean God will do that.
Brian2
Veteran Member
If God knows what we will freely choose then there is no problem between God's knowing the future and our free will.
Truthseeker
Non-debating member when I can help myself
This I agree with. It agrees with what Baha'i says. You are paraphrasing what 'Abdu'l-Baha said.
Briefly, intelligible realities such as the praiseworthy attributes and perfections of man are purely good and have a positive existence. Evil is simply their non-existence. So ignorance is the want of knowledge, error is the want of guidance, forgetfulness is the want of remembrance, foolishness is the want of understanding: All these are nothing in themselves and have no positive existence.
(Some Answered Questions)
www.bahai.org/r/630038474
God is all-knowing and all-powerful.
He gave us free will to choose between good or evil, right or wrong, etc.
Evil comes from people making evil choices. No one has to choose to do evil.
How did God create evil when evil doesn’t exist until someone chooses it?
How does God’s power and knowledge prevent free will?
Good and evil are one dimension of so many things that have apparent reality in duality. Reality to me is non-dual and apparent good and evil are the products of illusion, maya.
Free will and determinism is another polarity that does not truly exist outside of illusion.
Reality lies beyond the intellect's grasp and that includes reconciling apparent opposites.
74x12
Well-Known Member
God made everything that is good. On the 6th day he said he saw it was all "very good" without exception. So all the things God made that were finished by the 7th day are very good. But that is still future tense for us.
In the mean time evil exists only to test the creation of God and make it more pure and perfect.
The choice however between good and evil is in our hands so long as the day hasn't yet arrived when works will be tried by fire. The gods we choose to replace him cannot last forever. So if we trust in them we'll surely lose out. They'll slip through our fingers. But if you really trust in the Lord you'll not be lost. Because an idol you can hold in your own hand; but if choose the Lord then he holds you in his hand in which there is everlasting strength.
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Evil is nothing really, it is like darkness or emptiness, the lack of good. Evil doesn't need to be created, because it is the emptiness that is left, when good is not present.
I believe God allowed us to know evil, because people wanted to know it in the beginning. For that people were expelled to this first death, where we can experience what evil truly means.
Luckily this "Matrix" is only a short lesson and those who are righteous, can get back to life with God, without anything evil.
These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Mat. 25:46
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Evil is not really a problem, and we should not fear anything of this experience, because:
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matt. 10:28
The Bible provides the answers....
#1 is answered by understanding the issue of Sovereignty raised in Genesis 3.
For the most part, Jehovah God has temporarily stepped away from human affairs & the Earth, letting humans govern themselves. To let time prove that they can’t do it beneficially.
He knows it (Jeremiah 10:23), but we don’t.
It’s pretty much proven, with us killing each other. We can’t even successfully take care of the Earth...Grief, we’re at the point where we’re destroying our Earth past the point of no return! (Revelation 11:18)
#2: (Why does omniscience always have to include “knowing the future”? Isn’t knowing everything happening in the present & what happened in the past, enough?)
If God knew how we individually would act, why did the Bible account show He tried to reason w/ Cain to not do what he ended up doing?
Why would He test Abraham, asking Abraham to offer up Isaac, then stop him and say “Now I know that you fear me....”
Because He didn’t know before.
We may not think so, but Jehovah respects our Free Will, even when we make decisions that He knows will hurt us. He’s got to let us, to prove the issue raised in Eden, that we’ll be ok if we disobey God, is false.
No matter what problems face us — whether sickness, or injustice, or whatever — they are fleeting. Some health problems, tho, can Last our entire lives, but then our life lasts no more than 100 yrs.? If sickness is real bad, then we die sooner.
But then, we “RIP”, until the promised Resurrection (John 5:28-29; Acts of the Apostles 24:15). At that time, the Kingdom will have “come”, and we’ll appreciate even more Jesus’ prayer, “Thy Will be done on Earth.” — Matthew 6:9-10
#1 is answered by understanding the issue of Sovereignty raised in Genesis 3.
For the most part, Jehovah God has temporarily stepped away from human affairs & the Earth, letting humans govern themselves. To let time prove that they can’t do it beneficially.
He knows it (Jeremiah 10:23), but we don’t.
It’s pretty much proven, with us killing each other. We can’t even successfully take care of the Earth...Grief, we’re at the point where we’re destroying our Earth past the point of no return! (Revelation 11:18)
#2: (Why does omniscience always have to include “knowing the future”? Isn’t knowing everything happening in the present & what happened in the past, enough?)
If God knew how we individually would act, why did the Bible account show He tried to reason w/ Cain to not do what he ended up doing?
Why would He test Abraham, asking Abraham to offer up Isaac, then stop him and say “Now I know that you fear me....”
Because He didn’t know before.
We may not think so, but Jehovah respects our Free Will, even when we make decisions that He knows will hurt us. He’s got to let us, to prove the issue raised in Eden, that we’ll be ok if we disobey God, is false.
No matter what problems face us — whether sickness, or injustice, or whatever — they are fleeting. Some health problems, tho, can Last our entire lives, but then our life lasts no more than 100 yrs.? If sickness is real bad, then we die sooner.
But then, we “RIP”, until the promised Resurrection (John 5:28-29; Acts of the Apostles 24:15). At that time, the Kingdom will have “come”, and we’ll appreciate even more Jesus’ prayer, “Thy Will be done on Earth.” — Matthew 6:9-10
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This would mean that evil does not exist.
Hmmm... what do you think, does darkness exist? Darkness is the condition without light. Similarly, evil is the condition without good. I think it is possible that people are without good and when they are not good, don't do good, it is called evil.