Why don't the ends justify the means but God can permit evil to draw out a greater good?

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If you see someone doing a great deal of evil and won’t repent. You take care of the problem and get an indulgence.
 
CrossofChrist said:
Then we are doing the greater good.
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Correct!
Or in the case of lying to SS officer lying is the unintended effect of trying to save a life.
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It is certainly not the primary intention! There is intent to deceive but it is justifiable because lying is a lesser evil than saving life (which is a greater good than telling the truth in this instance. If we knew the person we could save would commit atrocities it would be a different matter. 🙂

Similarly God permits evil because it is a necessary consequence of creating us with free will and physical attributes.
 
tonyrey said:
Similarly God permits evil because it is a necessary consequence of creating us with free will and physical attributes.
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I disagree, but because of a technicality. I would say that evil is a possible consequence that comes from allowing the free will of a rational creature, but that the reason God even created us out of love (hence permitting evil) is so that we could attain the beatific vision.

:twocents:
 
CrossofChrist said:
Similarly God permits evil because it is a necessary consequence of creating us with free will and physical attributes.I disagree, but because of a technicality.
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NB:

385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil.
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tonyrey said:
There is intent to deceive but it is justifiable because lying is a lesser evil than saving life (which is a greater good than telling the truth in this instance. If we knew the person we could save would commit atrocities it would be a different matter.
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If we could only save one person, or we could save many by killing one, is there a way to decide who that person should be?
 
It’s all about repentance, is my (humble) answer. The Lord works everything to the good upon repentance, and through the justification of a contrite soul in Christ Jesus. Without such repentance, and justification, the good doesn’t come out of the evil that has been done.
 
tonyrey said:
NB:

385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil.
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If we didn’t sin there wouldn’t be any evil, at least moral.
 
Bradski said:
If we could only save one person, or we could save many by killing one, is there a way to decide who that person should be?
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The one who volunteers do give his life for his friends in an act of love?
 
Bradski said:
There is intent to deceive but it is justifiable because lying is a lesser evil than saving life (which is a greater good than telling the truth in this instance. If we knew the person we could save would commit atrocities it would be a different matter.
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We’re not expected to be infallible but to do what we believe is right. Being faced with difficult decisions doesn’t imply that morality is a fantasy; it simply demonstrates the extreme complexity of life.
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CrossofChrist said:
If we didn’t sin there wouldn’t be any evil, at least moral.
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Considering how many types of sin there are it would cast doubt on whether we can choose to sin if no one ever sinned.

We are expected to love ourselves as well as others but it is very difficult never to put ourselves before others because we live with ourselves all the time and see things from our own point of view far more easily than putting ourselves in some one else’s place.
 
PRmerger said:
Being faced with difficult decisions doesn’t imply that morality is a fantasy; it simply demonstrates the extreme complexity of life.
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Thanks PR. 🙂 I was trying to work out criteria for choosing who should be sacrificed and came to the conclusion that whatever I decided I might well be wrong. Then it occurred to me that it wasn’t my fault but neither is it God’s fault. Some situations must arise when some one has to pay the price for others - which is yet another reason for believing Jesus was not deluded but divine.

As you pointed out, to volunteer our own life is the best solution! 👍
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tonyrey said:
Considering how many types of sin there are it would cast doubt on whether we can choose to sin if no one ever sinned.

We are expected to love ourselves as well as others but it is very difficult never to put ourselves before others because we live with ourselves all the time and see things from our own point of view far more easily than putting ourselves in some one else’s place.
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I was talking about original sin, not our everyday life.
 
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