Why does God allow evil?????

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A question from an atheist that i don’t have a good answer for…

If God is all powerful and all loving. WHY does evil exist???

thanks for your responses?
 
At the end of the day, when its all said and done, everything will glorify God. If there is a creature, that actually committed an evil act in the ultimate sense of the word (not proximate), then this finite creature, in some sense, harmed God.

The way I understand how the Holocaust, for example, will glorify God is that all those people who are in Hell for it, will be glorifying God by being an example of God’s Divine Justice.
 
suupah said:
WHY does evil exist???
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When we were made in the “image in likenss” of God, part of this is that we are given 1) Reason 2) Free Will. Hence, if we have free will, there is a choice to commit either good or evil.
 
Hi, I’ve asked that question before myself and the answer that I received was that God has given us a free will and therefore mankind causes the evil and not Him. God does have the ability and has used it to make good come from it.
examples: I’ve known people that have had abortions and then gone through severe depression and pain from doing it mentally and physically. They then repented and have gone out to speak against it ans help others. The same has been of DUI’s and so on. They all have the same message that once they have realized what they had done they felt that they had to go out and speak against it.
I don’t know if this has helped but I hope that it does.
 
God allowed the ultimate evil to be perpertrated when His Son was killed on the cross.
His creatures killed their Creator thus allowing the greatest good (He atoned for our sins and thus opened up heaven to us) to occur.
 
suupah said:
A question from an atheist that i don’t have a good answer for…

If God is all powerful and all loving. WHY does evil exist???

thanks for your responses?
Click to expand...
Does your atheist friend really what a answer? Ask him if he hears the truth will he understand it to be truth, or treat it as knot
 
Read Job:

Afflictions and sufferings may, as your question well demonstrates, boggle the human mind–even the mind that believes in an infinitely Loving God, but there is always a purpose being accomplished and we do not HAVE to understand fully, though we may in part.

Now read Habakkuk:

God can use terror, evil, all things, to glorify himself. He can use evil to accomplish Good. Think about it: Had Adam and Eve not partaken of the Forbiden Fruit, there would be no need for a Savior or Messiah. Hence, the ultimate display of God’s Affection never would have been made manifest in the person of Christ had it not been for the Devil’s first “victory.” Make sense?

Now, in the same way, because there* is* evil (okay, so evil doesn’t, technically “exist,” being only the privation of Good, but bear with me), this being attributed to Man’s freewill (his innate ability to choose between the two), we must therefore conclude that God shall ultimately use this corruption, as he did with our First Parents’ sin, to accomplish his end–to glorify himself, displaying his Wrath and Justice in the condemned and impenitent, his Love and Compassion in the blessed.

It’s complicated. Like I said, read Habakkuk and Job.

Never do the stars shine brighter than in the blackest of nights. Neither is God’s radiance clearer than in the most perverse of ages.
 
It has been stated someplace that the world is a poor home but a great gymnasium. Suffering and evil are the exercise machines. Part of Satan’s punishment is that he is reduced to being a sparring partner for those much weaker than him.
 
suupah said:
A question from an atheist that i don’t have a good answer for…

If God is all powerful and all loving. WHY does evil exist???
Click to expand...
Tell your friend God temporarily allows evil to exist because our Lord wants to save your friend and the rest of us, not judge us with perfect justice. This is why He is said to be ALL loving.

The more your friend assumes God’s existence for these arguments, the more he should be thankful that God does allow evil to exist rather than complain about it. If God didn’t allow evil to exist for the moment, does your friend think he would somehow be exempt from the purge?

This is important. The reason your friend asks this question is because he totally discounts the danger and severity of sin, if he even acknowledges it.

Of course, this must be pointed out in a very loving but firm way.

…
 
Joe_Kelley said:
It has been stated someplace that the world is a poor home but a great gymnasium. Suffering and evil are the exercise machines. Part of Satan’s punishment is that he is reduced to being a sparring partner for those much weaker than him.
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Well said, sir. Well said.👍 👍
 
The_Truthinator said:
Read Job:

Afflictions and sufferings may, as your question well demonstrates, boggle the human mind–even the mind that believes in an infinitely Loving God, but there is always a purpose being accomplished and we do not HAVE to understand fully, though we may in part.

Now read Habakkuk:

God can use terror, evil, all things, to glorify himself. He can use evil to accomplish Good. Think about it: Had Adam and Eve not partaken of the Forbiden Fruit, there would be no need for a Savior or Messiah. Hence, the ultimate display of God’s Affection never would have been made manifest in the person of Christ had it not been for the Devil’s first “victory.” Make sense?

Now, in the same way, because there* is* evil (okay, so evil doesn’t, technically “exist,” being only the privation of Good, but bear with me), this being attributed to Man’s freewill (his innate ability to choose between the two), we must therefore conclude that God shall ultimately use this corruption, as he did with our First Parents’ sin, to accomplish his end–to glorify himself, displaying his Wrath and Justice in the condemned and impenitent, his Love and Compassion in the blessed.

It’s complicated. Like I said, read Habakkuk and Job.

Never do the stars shine brighter than in the blackest of nights. Neither is God’s radiance clearer than in the most perverse of ages.
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God cannot look upon sin with the lease degree of allowance, how then can he work with evil, have you not heard of the devil an enemy to God. Evil does exist, in the hearts of men continually but it does not come from God. There must be opposition in all things, that man may choose that is why there was two trees the one would give death and the other the tree of life, free agency was introduced to Adam. Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve… Be careful how you attach sin to God, just a warning nothing more. You are heading in the right direction, but you are adding to much of your deep thinking.
 
Don_Hepler said:
God cannot look upon sin with the lease degree of allowance, how then can he work with evil, have you not heard of the devil an enemy to God. Evil does exist, in the hearts of men continually but it does not come from God. There must be opposition in all things, that man may choose that is why there was two trees the one would give death and the other the tree of life, free agency was introduced to Adam. Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve… Be careful how you attach sin to God, just a warning nothing more. You are heading in the right direction, but you are adding to much of your deep thinking.
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God does not cooperate with evil, as we are capable of doing, but He can make good come of it. Take the example given in a previous post of the Crucifixion: the ultimate good came from God allowing us to torture and brutally murder Him. Judas had the opportunity to stop it, as did Pilate, and ultimately the soldiers who beat Jesus and nailed him to a cross could’ve said “No” – they were all acts of free will.

God does not impose Himself on us; we are not forced to allow His grace into our hearts, and if we choose not to, we choose evil (defined above as the privation of good, not something that exists in and of itself). To say evil resides in men’s hearts is a misnomer; the possibility of choosing evil resides there. We are created as good, but tainted by original sin, which opens the door for other sin. If evil were truly our nature, how could we be God’s creations? We are not dung heaps.

Furthermore, the sufferings caused by evil, while unpleasant and destructive, are opportunities for us to further participate in our redemption by taking up our little crosses and following Jesus. God does not “cause” tornados and hurricanes and Holocausts and world wars and terrorism; they are forces of nature and choices of men. But rather than despairing over the suffering they wreak (or, perhaps worse, suggesting that they are God’s wrath upon the victims), we can unite our suffering to Christ’s. This is a topic about which I have been learning a great deal of late, and it’s worth looking into.

Peace,
Dante
 
DanteAlighieri said:
God does not cooperate with evil, as we are capable of doing, but He can make good come of it. Take the example given in a previous post of the Crucifixion: the ultimate good came from God allowing us to torture and brutally murder Him. Judas had the opportunity to stop it, as did Pilate, and ultimately the soldiers who beat Jesus and nailed him to a cross could’ve said “No” – they were all acts of free will.

God does not impose Himself on us; we are not forced to allow His grace into our hearts, and if we choose not to, we choose evil (defined above as the privation of good, not something that exists in and of itself). To say evil resides in men’s hearts is a misnomer; the possibility of choosing evil resides there. We are created as good, but tainted by original sin, which opens the door for other sin. If evil were truly our nature, how could we be God’s creations? We are not dung heaps.

Furthermore, the sufferings caused by evil, while unpleasant and destructive, are opportunities for us to further participate in our redemption by taking up our little crosses and following Jesus. God does not “cause” tornados and hurricanes and Holocausts and world wars and terrorism; they are forces of nature and choices of men. But rather than despairing over the suffering they wreak (or, perhaps worse, suggesting that they are God’s wrath upon the victims), we can unite our suffering to Christ’s. This is a topic about which I have been learning a great deal of late, and it’s worth looking into.

Peace,
Dante
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You cleared up my confusion of your understanding. Thank you I missed understood you.
 
Because we cannot choose Him without knowing the alternative (which we demanded to know, as recorded in Genesis), and He will not compel us or enslave us.
 
suupah said:
A question from an atheist that i don’t have a good answer for…

If God is all powerful and all loving. WHY does evil exist???

thanks for your responses?
Click to expand...
Evil is a direct consequence of free will. As long as one has free will, one may choose good or evil. Some choose evil. If we are unable to choose to do harm as well as good, we do not have free will.
 
suupah said:
A question from an atheist that i don’t have a good answer for…

If God is all powerful and all loving. WHY does evil exist???

thanks for your responses?
Click to expand...
I recommend a book called Why Does God Permit Evil by Dom Bruno Webb, O.S.B.
 
Teflon93 said:
Evil is a direct consequence of free will. As long as one has free will, one may choose good or evil. Some choose evil. If we are unable to choose to do harm as well as good, we do not have free will.
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I agree that personal evil within us is a choice. However why does God allow his children (the baptised) to be victims of evil? Such as murder victims or rape victims.

Also wondering why God doesn’t preserve all of us the way he preserved Mary?

thanks again
 
suupah said:
I agree that personal evil within us is a choice. However why does God allow his children (the baptised) to be victims of evil? Such as murder victims or rape victims.

Also wondering why God doesn’t preserve all of us the way he preserved Mary?

thanks again
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Murderers and rapists have free will.

Look at how many of the Apostles, beloved of Christ, met deaths in the most horrible fashion.

Christ’s own suffering certainly ought to place God above such questions (if simply being God doesn’t suffice). He has suffered more than any of us, and none of us have ever been more blameless or innocent than Christ.
 
Teflon93 said:
Murderers and rapists have free will.

Look at how many of the Apostles, beloved of Christ, met deaths in the most horrible fashion.

Christ’s own suffering certainly ought to place God above such questions (if simply being God doesn’t suffice). He has suffered more than any of us, and none of us have ever been more blameless or innocent than Christ.
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The question by the atheist is why an all powerful and all loving God allows this to happen especially to his faithful
 
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