dfnj
Well-Known Member
The problem of evil is well-known. Consider this classic argument by the Greek philosopher Epicurus against the existence of God because evil exists in the World:
"If an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient god exists, then evil does not.
There is evil in the world.
Therefore, an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient god does not exist."
The problem I have with this argument is it seems to me there certainly can be a possibility for God to be omnibenevolent even with the existence of unnecessary evil occurring in our World. I present five arguments why God can be omnibenevolent in spite of unnecessary evil.
My first argument why God is good: God Created Us With Imperfections
If God created everyone perfect then evil would not exist, and therefore, we would not even know of the existence of good and evil. Our imperfections not only give us our ability to appreciate good and evil but give us the desire to aspire to be more perfect like God. In our striving to be as good as God we achieve a higher ideal of being good in spite of our imperfections. God then is the source of our inspiration to be good.
The second argument why God is good: Man's Is Responsible For His Own Evil
Since God created us with imperfections, it is man's imperfections that are the source of all that is evil in the World and not God. If a child commits murder the parents are not arrested and charge with murder. There is a point where people become solely responsible for their own behavior. Blaming God for our imperfections is like blaming our parents for us not making the High School football team. When in reality the reason why we did not make the team is because we did not practice enough or did not do enough weight lifting.
The third argument why God is good: The Golden Rule Argument
Most people who are not psychopaths do not have to be told the golden rule to know doing certain things to other people will hurt them. Most children learn at an early age hurting someone else is not good because it's like getting hurt yourself. So most people have some sense of empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings. Most people share in other people's pain with remorse and not glee. So if God is responsible for evil because He created man with imperfections, then God is also responsible for making people good. Since most people have compassion, and most people are not psychopaths without empathy, then God is good because God created the majority of us having compassion, empathy, and an appreciation for the golden rule. If you accept the idea we are created in God's image and combine it with the idea God created us having an appreciation of the golden rule, then you have a God that is not only genuinely good but also one who suffers when we suffer.
My fourth argument why God is good: The realization of God's omnipotence by having multiple space-time dimensions
Consider the way free-will gets realized. For God to be omnipotent, then God must be able to know the results of every possible choice we can make in our lives. Not only does God know the results of every choice we can make, but an omnipotent God is certainly powerful enough to know the results of every possible choice we make intersecting with every possible choice everyone else can make. With so many people making choices in the World, an omnipotent God is very busy!
The problem with our understanding of God is we impose artificial limitations of what is possible. Certainly what we are experiencing now in this Universe may not be the first time the Universe has unfolded in this way. It does not take a lot of imagination to think that there are many possible ways for the Universe to repeat itself. Each time the Universe recurs it may be slightly different than the time before. You may have heard of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics where you have an infinite number of alternative realities in a much larger multiverse.
But even if you do not like this interpretation, and many results of experiments in quantum mechanics have shown hard determinism does not exist, most scientists hold the assumption or belief that hard determinism exists even though we have not found it yet. Einstein's famous words, "God does not play dice" comes to mind.
Let's assume Einstein is right. Hard determinism really does exist. Then as long as you except the idea there can be more than one Universe over an infinite amount of time, then God being omnipotent would imply God has or will experience every possible achievable physical state in the Universe based on hard determinism given enough time. Either God experiences every possible state in His mind, or, every Universe in which a set of hard deterministic states is realized is just one piece of the infinite number of Universes required for God to realize His omnipotent powers. Either way, real or imaginary, in God's mind, God will eventually know everything that can possibly be known. It just takes a really long time to do it.
So if God is somehow the steward of the realization of every possible outcome, then consider this argument why God is ultimately good:
God exists and is the creator of many Universes. For God to be omnipotent, God must know the result of every possible outcome to every possible possibility. Every possibility is realized by God's creation from nothingness to the complete end of time. Just because we experience only one possible set of outcomes in one single Universe, it does not mean God approves or prefers unnecessary evil. If the sum of all Universes people are mostly evil and not good, then one can conclude God is evil. If the sum of all Universes people are good or evil in equal amounts, then one can conclude God is neither good nor evil. Since most people in our Universe are good, and not evil, one may assume God is good based on what is possible and what gets realized in our Universe. In other words, God is good because God creates every possible reality we can experience based on our preferences, or choices, which are mostly good. Since we are good then God is good.
My fifth argument why God is good: Evolution is God's way of creating a better life
Maybe the way life evolves is how God creates a perfect being. When God created the lizard brain through evolution, for millions of years lizards were killed and eaten which is certainly evil from the animal's perspective. But after millions of years of tribulations the lizard brains gave rise to the ape brains. And the ape brains eventually gave rise to human brains. And the human brain is complex enough to be able to appreciate beauty. Maybe after another million years or so our brains will evolve into a new type of brain that will not only be able to appreciate beauty, but a brain capable of achieving a level of perfection where evil no longer occurs. So maybe God's ultimate plan is to get rid of all unnecessary evil but it will take a really long time to do it. But from our limited perspective, it appears to us as if God is condoning or not preventing unnecessary evil. In this broader sense of time, God is ultimately working towards achieving the highest possible level of good by designing a Universe where life evolves.
Now you might argue why would an omnipotent God wait for life to develop at all and just create life in it's final state of perfect being. My answer would be maybe the evolution of life is how the mind of God achieves or exercises His omnipotence. We are just not aware of it happening from our limited perspective of the Universe. The point is God may still be omnibenevolent in the long run from a different perspective of time which extremely short on the cosmic timescale or on God's timescale.
I have presented five arguments why God is ultimately omnibenevolent. I have heard many atheists say the Universe looks exactly the way it should look if there is no God. I have heard the atheists say the evidence does not suggest otherwise. I think this is a very subjective judgment. I see no reason why you can not take the very same experiences of the Universe and use it to form the exact opposite conclusion.
We are made of the very stuff we are experiencing. I see no evidence to suggest or confirm our conscious experience is NOT part of a much bigger complexity of experience of some larger unfolding Universal mind. I think how each of us views our experience as we are participating in reality is purely a subjective judgment each of us chooses to make.
"If an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient god exists, then evil does not.
There is evil in the world.
Therefore, an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient god does not exist."
The problem I have with this argument is it seems to me there certainly can be a possibility for God to be omnibenevolent even with the existence of unnecessary evil occurring in our World. I present five arguments why God can be omnibenevolent in spite of unnecessary evil.
My first argument why God is good: God Created Us With Imperfections
If God created everyone perfect then evil would not exist, and therefore, we would not even know of the existence of good and evil. Our imperfections not only give us our ability to appreciate good and evil but give us the desire to aspire to be more perfect like God. In our striving to be as good as God we achieve a higher ideal of being good in spite of our imperfections. God then is the source of our inspiration to be good.
The second argument why God is good: Man's Is Responsible For His Own Evil
Since God created us with imperfections, it is man's imperfections that are the source of all that is evil in the World and not God. If a child commits murder the parents are not arrested and charge with murder. There is a point where people become solely responsible for their own behavior. Blaming God for our imperfections is like blaming our parents for us not making the High School football team. When in reality the reason why we did not make the team is because we did not practice enough or did not do enough weight lifting.
The third argument why God is good: The Golden Rule Argument
Most people who are not psychopaths do not have to be told the golden rule to know doing certain things to other people will hurt them. Most children learn at an early age hurting someone else is not good because it's like getting hurt yourself. So most people have some sense of empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings. Most people share in other people's pain with remorse and not glee. So if God is responsible for evil because He created man with imperfections, then God is also responsible for making people good. Since most people have compassion, and most people are not psychopaths without empathy, then God is good because God created the majority of us having compassion, empathy, and an appreciation for the golden rule. If you accept the idea we are created in God's image and combine it with the idea God created us having an appreciation of the golden rule, then you have a God that is not only genuinely good but also one who suffers when we suffer.
My fourth argument why God is good: The realization of God's omnipotence by having multiple space-time dimensions
Consider the way free-will gets realized. For God to be omnipotent, then God must be able to know the results of every possible choice we can make in our lives. Not only does God know the results of every choice we can make, but an omnipotent God is certainly powerful enough to know the results of every possible choice we make intersecting with every possible choice everyone else can make. With so many people making choices in the World, an omnipotent God is very busy!
The problem with our understanding of God is we impose artificial limitations of what is possible. Certainly what we are experiencing now in this Universe may not be the first time the Universe has unfolded in this way. It does not take a lot of imagination to think that there are many possible ways for the Universe to repeat itself. Each time the Universe recurs it may be slightly different than the time before. You may have heard of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics where you have an infinite number of alternative realities in a much larger multiverse.
But even if you do not like this interpretation, and many results of experiments in quantum mechanics have shown hard determinism does not exist, most scientists hold the assumption or belief that hard determinism exists even though we have not found it yet. Einstein's famous words, "God does not play dice" comes to mind.
Let's assume Einstein is right. Hard determinism really does exist. Then as long as you except the idea there can be more than one Universe over an infinite amount of time, then God being omnipotent would imply God has or will experience every possible achievable physical state in the Universe based on hard determinism given enough time. Either God experiences every possible state in His mind, or, every Universe in which a set of hard deterministic states is realized is just one piece of the infinite number of Universes required for God to realize His omnipotent powers. Either way, real or imaginary, in God's mind, God will eventually know everything that can possibly be known. It just takes a really long time to do it.
So if God is somehow the steward of the realization of every possible outcome, then consider this argument why God is ultimately good:
God exists and is the creator of many Universes. For God to be omnipotent, God must know the result of every possible outcome to every possible possibility. Every possibility is realized by God's creation from nothingness to the complete end of time. Just because we experience only one possible set of outcomes in one single Universe, it does not mean God approves or prefers unnecessary evil. If the sum of all Universes people are mostly evil and not good, then one can conclude God is evil. If the sum of all Universes people are good or evil in equal amounts, then one can conclude God is neither good nor evil. Since most people in our Universe are good, and not evil, one may assume God is good based on what is possible and what gets realized in our Universe. In other words, God is good because God creates every possible reality we can experience based on our preferences, or choices, which are mostly good. Since we are good then God is good.
My fifth argument why God is good: Evolution is God's way of creating a better life
Maybe the way life evolves is how God creates a perfect being. When God created the lizard brain through evolution, for millions of years lizards were killed and eaten which is certainly evil from the animal's perspective. But after millions of years of tribulations the lizard brains gave rise to the ape brains. And the ape brains eventually gave rise to human brains. And the human brain is complex enough to be able to appreciate beauty. Maybe after another million years or so our brains will evolve into a new type of brain that will not only be able to appreciate beauty, but a brain capable of achieving a level of perfection where evil no longer occurs. So maybe God's ultimate plan is to get rid of all unnecessary evil but it will take a really long time to do it. But from our limited perspective, it appears to us as if God is condoning or not preventing unnecessary evil. In this broader sense of time, God is ultimately working towards achieving the highest possible level of good by designing a Universe where life evolves.
Now you might argue why would an omnipotent God wait for life to develop at all and just create life in it's final state of perfect being. My answer would be maybe the evolution of life is how the mind of God achieves or exercises His omnipotence. We are just not aware of it happening from our limited perspective of the Universe. The point is God may still be omnibenevolent in the long run from a different perspective of time which extremely short on the cosmic timescale or on God's timescale.
I have presented five arguments why God is ultimately omnibenevolent. I have heard many atheists say the Universe looks exactly the way it should look if there is no God. I have heard the atheists say the evidence does not suggest otherwise. I think this is a very subjective judgment. I see no reason why you can not take the very same experiences of the Universe and use it to form the exact opposite conclusion.
We are made of the very stuff we are experiencing. I see no evidence to suggest or confirm our conscious experience is NOT part of a much bigger complexity of experience of some larger unfolding Universal mind. I think how each of us views our experience as we are participating in reality is purely a subjective judgment each of us chooses to make.
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