WHY DID GOD CREATE EVIL? Maybe The Answer Is So Simple That People Expecting To Be Tantalized By Complex Reasons For Evil's Existence Are Too Stupid To Realize The Truth. Not all religious people claim God created evil, yet there are many who do, and there are those who realize what evil really is.

Why do some religious people say God did not create evil when God created the tree that contained both good and evil?

Happy Riches, answers request by anonymous.

Religious people are variously defined as people who worship idols, attend football, are devoted to their belief in atheism—depending upon who is doing the defining, of course. Many people think that there is no need to use faith when it comes to reason, but they have faith in many people for all sorts of reasons, even if they lie. What this means is much misconception exists and we have to work out what is true and what is false.

Calvinists are religious people who believe God created evil. They even wrongfully quote a verse from Isaiah to justify their accusation that the Creator is really like the Devil, using the King James Version of the Bible that incorrectly states:

• I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things (Isaiah 45:7) KJV

The Bible would not warn against saying that what God created as good is evil, if He created evil.

• Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

What the verse in Isaiah 45.7 should really read in the King James Version ought to be along the lines of what is found in the ESV, which speaks of God bringing calamity upon those who do evil. For God has not created evil (moral evil) but he will oversee the punishment of the wicked, which is really what Isaiah is talking about when contrasting the word shalowm (shawlome) with ra` (rah), [1] which is better interpreted as per the following:

• I form light and create darkness; I make [shawlown] well-being and create [ ra`] calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

When the Lord God creator of Heaven and Earth had finished creating everything, He looked upon it and declared it good, not evil.

• And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)

The whole of Creation was declared GOOD after the Creator (of the Universe and everything in it) had appraised what He had done.

Unfortunately, people think that because God created man in His own image, He ought not to have given them the same option that He had to commit evil, if so desired. Even though God has not committed evil, this does not mean that He does not know what is evil. Being omniscient, God knows what the consequence of evil would mean, and the first man was warned of this consequence, too.

To put this another way: one does not have to decapitate one’s own head to understand what the consequence will mean.

God had knowledge of evil. The evil that is being spoken of here is moral evil, not calamity as humans know it, when a category five hurricane strikes and raises buildings on an island to the ground, or when a towering inferno burns alive occupants of a high-rise apartment building.

Moral evil is what people do to each other when they bear false witness, cheat, steal, hate, etc. When God created Adam and Eve, those things were unknown.

Adam and Eve had the knowledge that such evil existed by virtue of the fact they were given an option not to disobey their Creator and distrust Him. Trust is very important if we are to have faith within a relationship and remain faithful. (Morons do not understand this, but they will scoff at those who explain these matters and demonstrate their ignorance frequently as they hinder the truth being stated—anarchy is their preference.)

The reality is God did not create evil. Religionists are usually people who are puffed up with false conceptions and think they are knowledgeable about what the Bible states, or about God, when they have no relationship with Him. If they did have a relationship with God, they would know that He is not evil.

Those who quote Isaiah 47:7 or even Proverbs 16:4 to justify their belief that the Creator delights in evil, are actually exalting the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). They do so because they are still influenced by the god of this world and have not been made alive to the truth. Those who have been made alive understand the difference.

• And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

A correct understanding regarding what happened in the Garden of Eden is God, having created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, did not create evil, but made man aware of its existence.

Actually, the mere fact that Adam was told not to eat of the tree’s fruit was sufficient to provide him with the knowledge of evil. For upon rejecting the advice of His Creator, he broke faith with Him.

What happened in the Garden of Eden can be compared to two people avowing eternal commitment to each other during the afternoon wedding ceremony, only to be heading for divorce, the morning after they made their vows, because the other was unfaithful the night before.

Only a materialist, who is looking for an atom that creates thoughts, believes that an apple contains evil. But after tasting a rotten apple, there are questions still to be answered?

The Wise Understand That Faith Is The Essence Of Success And Enjoying Life

Footnotes

[1] The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

EVIL DAYS ARE HERE. But Is Evil An Unfortunate Consequence Of Intelligence Coming Into Existence? Could evil come into existence from nothing?

Harry Riches •answers

Is evil an unfortunate consequence of intelligence coming into existence?

The question assumes there was a time that intelligence did not exist. But first, let’s address whether evil is an unfortunate consequence of intelligence?

The idea that evil is an unfortunate consequence of intelligence assumes that evil is like the fruit of intelligence in the same way a rotten apple is the fruit of an apple tree. A more apt analogy would be that of defecation being the natural consequence of eating. A person may eat and burn up the energy provided by what is eaten and not need to defecate. Nevertheless, like a person who finds himself struck with the sudden uncontrollable onset of diarrhea when at an important black-tie function and thinking he is merely about to break wind, while trapped in the middle of a large auditorium by the numerous guests, the consequent state is unfortunate.  In which case, evil’s existence is unfortunate. However, the cause of the diarrhea is really the evil, not the diarrhea nor the consumption of food.

Is evil a consequence of intelligence?

The short answer to this question is no, on the one hand, and yes, on the other. Evil could not exist unless intelligence existed, but an intelligent being would not create evil.

First, let us define “evil”. From looking at the many dictionary definitions, the common definition of evil is either “that which is morally wrong” or “something that causes harm”.

If the questioner imagines something that causes harm to be the consequence of intelligence, maybe he or she is overlooking the fact that most who consider themselves intelligent would understand that to cause harm to another person would invite retaliation, if not in the short term, definitely in the long term.  So would doing something morally wrong invite retaliation?

Essentially, no intelligent beings would cause harm to another if they weighed up the consequences and concluded that the retaliation would be disastrous for themselves. However, if an intelligent being concluded that by doing something morally wrong, nothing much would happen and he would survive the consequences of his actions, he might attempt to harm another intelligent being. In which case, an intelligent spectator might conclude that the one who initiates evil is not too intelligent after all, if his actions cause the wrath of another against him. This is especially the case, if the one who wronged is greater and more powerful than the one initiating the evil action.

Evil is not a natural consequence of intelligence. Intelligent beings would reason that there is no profit in initiating evil actions if they invite retaliation and result in greater harm than the initial harm inflicted by the antagonist.

However, evil could not exist unless there were intelligent beings that recognize evil could exist as a possibility and therefore identify it as morally wrong. For something to be morally wrong, a violation of faith has to take place between two individuals who are able to exercise freewill. If a violation of faith is morally wrong, this means immorality is a not just a transgressing of rules, but a violation of faith between two or more individuals. This is because rules are the moral constructs originating from intelligence and they are designed as the means for reminding intelligent beings for the need to keep faith lest evil should eventuate.

When speaking of intelligence coming into existence, this implies that intelligence never existed beforehand.

As a human being who did not exist before I was born into this world, I understand that there was a time that I was not. Therefore, just because I cannot imagine how I could have existed before I did, this does not mean intelligence did not exist before I arrived on the scene. Fortunately, I am not so arrogant to think intelligence did not come into existence until I appeared outside my mother’s womb. In humility, I admit intelligence has been in existence long before I came into being. Yet, even if it did not exist, I would have been none the wiser, for I would not exist. What I know is I exist and, evidently, I possess the ability to acquire information and convert it into knowledge that enables me to execute judgments and appraise the possible consequences of my actions before I make them; this, I am led to believe is what constitutes intelligence.

That an Infinite Being who possesses intelligence does not exist is beyond my limitations to disprove. If I were to assume that there was a time that intelligence did not exist, it would be mere conjecture and I would be a fool to assert such a claim as fact.

My evaluation of my surroundings suggests a Designer exists who is greater than I am.  Any other assumption is a matter of conjecture and requires me to reject the obvious: that an Intelligent Being designed the Creation; one who possesses more intelligence than I do.  In which case, I marvel at how the complexity of Creation holds together when the laws of chance indicate it should dissipate.

Now if an intelligent being exists who possesses more intelligence than I do, then I would be a fool not to seek out such a being. If it were the expectations of the Designer of the Creation that I should seek Him out and demonstrate my intelligence by doing so, then not to do so might be morally wrong. In which case, this would be like me telling my parents to take a hike and jump off a cliff, for I refuse to acknowledge them because I consider them unworthy. If my parents were to think I was being disrespectful and that these actions were harmful to our relationship, then my insults would most likely invite some retaliation. This would be an unintelligent act on my part. Such an act would be morally wrong: a violation of faith between my parents and myself.

We could posit that there was a time when intelligence did not exist and everything was evil. This being the case, intelligence would have originated from evil, and when there was a deficiency in intelligence, evil asserted itself once more. The difficulty with this proposition is that we are asserting evil to be greater and more powerful than intelligence. We are also attributing to evil that which it does not possess by definition: the ability to construct goodness and life rather than be a force for destruction and death.

In conclusion, evil is impossible unless there is intelligence to evaluate the act as harmful; also evil appears to be an act that originates from a lack of intelligence. Evil therefore is not a consequence of intelligence but occurs when there is a shortage of intelligence. The corollary of this declaration is that intelligence has always existed and evil originated from a deficiency or malfunction within the thinking process of an intelligent being, when an oversight brought about an opinion that proved destructive.

The answer to the question “Is evil an unfortunate consequence of intelligence coming into existence?” has to be no; as we are unable to prove that there was a time when intelligence did not exist.