Why Can't Monotheism Escape Dualism?

[gnostic]

Same goes for "good and evil". These terms refer to values and conditions as they relate to ourselves. They don't define conditions that actually exist independent of us. So when we say that "God is good". What we mean is that God is good as we conceptualize and experience God. It doesn't mean that God is actually an independent state of goodness, because there is no such thing as an independent state of goodness. Goodness doesn't exist in and of itself. It's a value assessment made by us relative to us. And the same goes for "evil".

That's what I think too...well, if I actually believe in a god.

That's why I think god is capable of being good or evil, at the same time. He can be both creator and destroyer. The concept that God is good doesn't make sense to me, if there is no god of evil. Neither can exist without the other.

But at the same time, I believe good and evil to be a matter of perspective.

Take the situation with some political leaders, like Bush, Iranian president (I don't remember his name, and Saddam Hussien. Different people will view these leader as either good or evil, and each of these leaders have accuse the others as being evil. Personally, I would say that they are all evil....if I believe in evil. They are definitely mad.

 

[astarath]

because there are two sides to every coin. It may be just one coin but regardless something of the magnetude of God holds many dimesions and thus can not be seen in a single dimension method, Dualism is an inevitabilty for where there is good so to is there evil, where there is light there must also be dark, where there is male so to is there female. God holds both sides of the coin to his one entity because he is God and he can do that but for our minds to be able to rationalize this is a test of futility.