Praise God but don't blame it!

[Madhuri]

Well it seems as if the complaint is that people don't blame God. I would say that idea is flawed in the first place, as many Christians do blame God for different ideas.

Not saying you are wrong but I've never heard a Christian blame God for anything and I'm assuming Misty hasn't either...

 

[Eliot Wild]

This is a technicality, and a weak position from which to ridicule.

Why is this 'ridicule'? This happens to be the General Religious Debates section. This is the place where opposing ideas are supposed to meet, and disagreeing with seemingly flawed dogma doesn't strike me as 'ridicule.

If God is omnipotent and created everything, then He must be responsible for evil--that doesn't strike me as 'ridicule' nor does it strike me as a weak argument. It seems to be quite sound in its challenge to popular Christian-Judeo teaching, even if it is not perfectly indefensible.

There are likely good answers and defenses to this proposition, but what are they? If God can do anything, why could he not create a world in which all his creations have freewill yet do not suffer from the evil of others?

Why did God allow Satan to use his cunning against mankind's innocence? If we look at Garden of Eden story literally, then Adam and Eve didn't even know what a 'lie' was when Satan deceived them. How could they possibly defend themselves against Satan? Didn't God set them up to fail? And even if He didn't, isn't He still responsible for evil if He created a world in which it could actively operate?

 

[Strength & Honor]

It is rather more than a technicality!

Saying that God is to blame for all evil is a technicality, and nothing more. Evil should be blamed on those who commit evil. God created something that was very good, then that creation, in turn, committed evil. So, God can only be to blame because, technically, He created evil by way of creating something capable of doing evil. That is a technicality.

If God created good and evil he must have known what mayhem would be thrown into the mix.

That’s just it. God didn’t create evil. Genesis 1 says that everything he created was “very good.”

If he was responsible for creation it would seem to me he knew exactly how it would turn out

I agree with this, but only because he gave his creation free will to do good or evil, most likely with full knowledge that some would turn against Him, yet others would remain fathful.

and did it for kicks!

That is debatable.

 

[Misty]

That’s just it. God didn’t create evil. Genesis 1 says that everything he created was “very good.”

Well that is a big fat lie for a start if God had anything to do with creation, which I don't believe it did!

 

[fallingblood]

That’s just it. God didn’t create evil. Genesis 1 says that everything he created was “very good.”

Well that is a big fat lie for a start if God had anything to do with creation, which I don't believe it did!

Up until that point, everything that God created was evil. If wasn't until after the fact that evil entered in. And the serpent itself wasn't necessarily evil. It was a tool to allow man to have free will. The serpent wasn't Satan. The idea of Satan being an evil entity didn't start developing until much later.

 

[averageJOE]

Again, according to the Christian bible, they sinned. They were tempted by the serpent and gave in to his deception, bringing that which is unclean into God's perfect creation. That seems to be the point at which everything started to go downhill.

Wow. I had no idea that us pesky humans possessed the ability to thwart the perfect plan of an omnipotent god.

 

[Misty]

Wow. I had no idea that us pesky humans possessed the ability to thwart the perfect plan of an omnipotent god.

Good point!

 

[Twig pentagram]

If a god created this universe and it is omni-everything than it created evil. If it did'nt create evil than it's not omni-everything. You can't say god hears all, sees all, knows all, created all, and is all powerful and it did'nt create evil. That makes no sense.

 

[Misty]

If a god created this universe and it is omni-everything than it created evil. If it did'nt create evil than it's not omni-everything. You can't say god hears all, sees all, knows all, created all, and is all powerful and it did'nt create evil. That makes no sense.

Exactly, but try getting that through to some people!

 

[fallingblood]

If a god created this universe and it is omni-everything than it created evil. If it did'nt create evil than it's not omni-everything. You can't say god hears all, sees all, knows all, created all, and is all powerful and it did'nt create evil. That makes no sense.

Maybe it isn't omni-everything.

Maybe he did create evil though. Or at least allowed humans to make the choice of being evil.

 

[PolyHedral]

Nonono, the original post's logic makes absolute sense to me. Big Brother would never inconvenience true goodthinkers, therefore it must be the agents of Goldstein!

(Did it really take us 1940 years for someone to invent the concept of "doublethink"?)

 

[yourhopeboundheart]

Why do you want these Christians to blame God anyway?

i dont think that an atheist would be interested in anyone blaming a god for anything, or giving it credit.

i think the point of the OP is that it's an oddly imbalanced burden of responsibility.

this is just a concept that is very confusing to those of us who dont have a belief in god, because we're so used to taking full responsibility for our actions, positive and negative, and we recognize the effects that our actions will have. so to hear someone thank god for something they clearly worked hard for is very confusing, almost as confusing as that person turning around five minutes later and trash-talking themselves for something that's gone wrong in their life.

 

[Midnight Pete]

Even the Teletubbies have more substances than ID.

The Teletubbies were intelligently designed.

By man.

 

[JustWondering]

God is the source of all good things, but since the Fall of Eden we have had Satan in our lives. Just as he slyly obtained Adam & Eve's consent to destroy their lives, he does the same with all of us today.

Who created Adam and Eve KNOWING they would fall? God (according to you anyway). Who supposedly created Satan? God. Who let's Satan run wild? God. Face it, your dogma makes no sense.

 

[Midnight Pete]

Who created Adam and Eve KNOWING they would fall? God (according to you anyway). Who supposedly created Satan? God. Who let's Satan run wild? God. Face it, your dogma makes no sense.

It makes no sense because you've decided it makes no sense.

 

[crocusj]

Again, according to the Christian bible, they sinned. They were tempted by the serpent and gave in to his deception, bringing that which is unclean into God's perfect creation. That seems to be the point at which everything started to go downhill.

Nobody likes a pedant but since you were talking about technicalities and Genesis...God's creation was not perfect, it was merely very good, which clearly implies a degree of flaw. That and the fact that the good He saw was obviously not the opposite of evil but the satisfaction of a job well done (unless you are suggesting that the sun and the seas and the vegetables are capable of evil). Perhaps the flaw that God imagined is one you allude to yourself when you say that He created a being cabable of commiting evil which - according to Genesis - was in His own image.

 

[ChristineES]

A load of baloney, imo!

It's really nice to call someone else's beliefs a load of baloney. As I said on another thread, people have a right to believe whatever they want. :beach:

 

[Reverend Rick]

Exactly, but try getting that through to some people!

Misty, if you are trying to get that through to some people, you would be proselytizing, right?

 

[JustWondering]

It makes no sense because you've decided it makes no sense.

God is also the source of all evil. According to your faith God created everything. Which means he created suffering, evil and atheists. Why would he do that? Wait, let me answer that for you. His ways are beyond our understanding. Right. Just another way of saying you don't know how to answer the question without admitting your God is a saddistic monster. Your dogma makes no sense.

 

[Midnight Pete]

God is also the source of all evil. According to your faith God created everything. Which means he created suffering, evil and atheists. Why would he do that? Wait, let me answer that for you. His ways are beyond our understanding. Right. Just another way of saying you don't know how to answer the question without admitting your God is a saddistic monster. Your dogma makes no sense.

Okay. I guess I'll see you around, then.