Summations Only

God only created the knowledge of it?
So who created evil then?

Light is. Darkness isn't. It isn't anything. Darkness is the absence of light. The only reason darkness is, is because light isn't there.God is. He is light, he exists with all his attributes that I'm sure have been talked about several times around already. Since God is good, then anything he is (love, etc.) is good. Anything that is not like God is, is evil. God didn't create evil, the idea of evil existed as something that was not like God. By allowing free will God allowed this evil to become a reality with the fall of Lucifer. Evil was not created, it existed as opposite of what was already there. Evil exists because it is the places where God's attributes have been turned aside from.

John 1:1-5=In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.In him was life, and that life was the light of men.The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Rev 17:7-8=The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.

(a) God cannot be directly measured (in contrast to light0

(b) You attribute the property good to god (for which you have no proof and given some of the contents of the bible, I'm sure some would claim that this is not so...

Now you say that by measuring "good", we can deduce God's existence?

You keep forgetting about omni-presence (so there's no place where he isn't)

Rev 12:7-9 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Isa 14:12-15 How you have fallen from heaven,O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven;I will raise my throne above the stars of God;I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.

Job 1:6-7= One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."

Matt 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

1 Peter 5:6-11 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Dualism=Like most other philosophical terms, has been employed in different meanings by different schools.First, the name has been used to denote the religious or theological system which would explain the universe as the outcome of two eternally opposed and coexisting principles, conceived as good and evil, light and darkness, or some other form of conflicting powers. We find this theory widely prevalent in the East, and especially in Persia, for several centuries before the Christian Era. The Zend-Avesta, ascribed to Zoroaster, who probably lived in the sixth century B.C. and is supposed to be the founder or reformer of the Medo-Persian religion, explains the world as the outcome of the struggle between Ormuzd and Ahriman. Ormuzd is infinite light, supreme wisdom, and the author of all good; Ahriman is the principle of darkness and of all evil. In the third century after Christ, Manes, for a time a convert to Christianity, developed a form of Gnosticism, subsequently styled Manichaeism, in which he sought to fuse some of the elements of the Christian religion with the dualistic creed of Zoroastrianism (see MANICHAEISM and ZOROASTER). Christian philosophy, expounded with minor differences by theologians and philosophers from St. Augustine downwards, holds generally that physical evil is the result of the necessary limitations of finite created beings, and that moral evil, which alone is evil in the true sense, is a consequence of the creation of beings possessed of free wills and is tolerated by God. Both physical and moral evil are to be conceived as some form of privation or defect of being, not as positive entity. Their existence is thus not irreconcilable with the doctrine of theistic monism.Second, the term dualism is employed in opposition to monism, to signify the ordinary view that the existing universe contains two radically distinct kinds of being or substance -- matter and spirit, body and mind. This is the most frequent use of the name in modern philosophy, where it is commonly contrasted with monism. But it should not be forgotten that dualism in this sense is quite reconcilable with a monistic origin of all things. The theistic doctrine of creation gives a monistic account of the universe in this sense. Dualism is thus opposed to both materialism and idealism. Idealism, however, of the Berkeleyan type, which maintains the existence of a multitude of distinct substantial minds, may along with dualism, be described as pluralism.

Catholic Scientist writes:It looks to me like you made some observations from today's world, like say that Christians are made to look ignorant, and then said that if Jesus and Satan were real, then we should see these observations from today's world that I've made.

Catholic Scientist writes:You've provided no reason why those things follow from the premise.

Ringo writes:Your predictions stem from a very narrow view of that proposed "reality". You seem to be assuming a fundamentalist reality in which Christians are the victims rather than the "saved".

1 Cor 1:1-2 writes: 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours:

1 Cor 15:44-47 writes:If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

1 Cor 5:12-13 writes: 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

nonukes writes:I submit that more of this would happen if Jesus and Satan were provably unreal, since the description of ignorance would be justified.

Diomedes writes:But by invoking this premise, aren't you in essence starting your argument with a logical fallacy of the False Dichotomy (or False Dilemma)?

Why do kids who cling to a belief in Santa Claus for a bit too long get ridiculed by their peers? Is it because belief in Santa is a threat, or is it because silly actions draw ridicule?

1 Cor 2:14-15 writes:--The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:

Your 1 Corinthians quote talks about a natural or spiritual body, not mind.

Romans 12:2 writes: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

NoNukes writes:I am not saying that belief in Jesus is silly. I believe in Jesus.

Now if I were using your kind of hyper-literal logic, I'd have to assume that you believe in Santa Claus.

NN writes:I contrasted the situations from when Jesus was real and not belief to show you that your assumption that being real draws more ridicule was quite likely wrong.

NoNukes writes:I would suggest that scripture poses no threat for people who don't believe that Jesus is real.

C.R. Stam writes:Slothful Christians often consider themselves quite spiritual merely because their emotions are easily aroused. They boast of their contentment with "the simple things" while they should be ashamed of their indifference to the written Word of God. They claim great devotion to God, yet neglect the one great means of knowing Him better. They profess fervent faith in Him, yet scarcely
trouble to find out just what He has said. They do not, like David, meditate upon God's Word day and night nor, like the prophets, "enquire and search diligently"as to its true meaning.

PaulK writes:Just a point about your hypothetical. It does nothing to distinguish between genuine foolishness and spiritual truths. I think that we would both agree that the Flat Earther's are simply foolish, not "spiritual"

In fact I would say that it is hard to judge ideas about the history and operation of the physical universe as "spiritual truths" - indeed they would seem to be natural truths by definition.

PaulK writes:And is a literal reading of the Bible really the best way to extract spiritual truths?

Wouldn't a preference for literalism be more likely a mark of a "natural mind"

Now if you want to look for spiritual truths perceived as foolish be the world, how about loving your enemies ? Giving all you have to the poor? Choosing to live in poverty, trusting God to provide?

NoNukes writes:it seems that the last time Jesus was here that he had a lot more to say about the Jews and their religious system than he had to say about the Romans and their political system.

Studying the Bible dispensationally may seem confusing at first but actually it dispels confusion, explains difficult problems, reconciles seeming contradictions and lends power to the believer's ministry.

Matt 15:24 writes: He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."