How can a good, all-powerful God tolerate evil? If he can’t stop evil from happening, he can’t be truly all-powerful. But if he is all-powerful and is not inclined to stop the evil persisting on earth, how can he be all-good?
This is commonly known as the Problem of Evil and still puzzles a lot of people. Presumably since everything comes from God, so does evil.
Even the bible itself concedes that, but apologists can't seem to grasp the concept.
quote:
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. -- Isaiah 45:7
I suppose it is conceivable that is the absence of good as a frame of reference just as darkness contrasts light -- one would be meaningless without the other, which makes it a requirement to allow the existence of evil. Its also conceivable that God will grant people the ability to fall so as to not conflict with their ability to make freewill choices. Of course, this is where the real slippery slope comes into play. If god is omniscient and already knows the fate of every single human soul, and yet he set the entire thing in motion, then the fate of human beings is all but predetermined. If that is the case, then freewill is merely an illusion.
"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it" -- Thomas Paine
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