Good questions from an atheist to a theist

[Sweetdeath]

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus

Ok, I found something I am more sick of hearing than Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory." Good job. :/

Maybe we should put that to a poll.

No more polls!!  XD

[xSilverPhinx]

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus

Ok, I found something I am more sick of hearing than Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory." Good job. :/

Maybe we should put that to a poll.

No more polls!!  XD

Should someone make a poll asking if Free-Being should make more polls? I hope I'm not giving anybody any ideas here...

[Asmodean]

hope I'm not giving anybody any ideas here...

...Not sure 'bout that...

We should make a poll and ask them. 

[Davin]

To remove the ability for "evil" actions/thoughts is to remove freewill.

Not quite that simple.

This is something that has bugged me for a long while. Like the assumption is that there are only two choices for everything: a good choice and an evil choice. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Let's say you see a man hanging on a ledge who asks you for help and on a table next to you there is a rope, a crow bar, a rifle and a jet pack. Each one of those things can be used to do something good (help the person) or something evil (kill the person). So let's remove all the "evil" things a person can do with the items: is there only one choice remaining?

You could just tie a rope to something and toss it down, walk away and let the guy climb up himself. Maybe not what most people would consider the best action, but it's still good.

Or you could actively help the person using any combination of the four items until the guy was safely on top of the cliff.

The point is: even if all the evil choices are removed, there would still be several choices to make, hence removing "evil" doesn't remove "freewill".

[Sweetdeath]

I agree Davin. Most Religious crazies see the world in black and white.  If you are not with God, you are against god.

I live my life in shades in gray in general.

Also, that whole good can't exist without evil is a load of horse shit. 

[Davin]

I agree Davin. Most Religious crazies see the world in black and white.  If you are not with God, you are against god.

I live my life in shades in gray in general.

So do theists (in spite of their objections), they have no direct link to their god, what their god commands or anything their god wants; they only have the word of man to go off.

Also, that whole good can't exist without evil is a load of horse shit.

I agree if they're also proposing that the god is omnipotent.

[Asmodean]

The point is: even if all the evil choices are removed, there would still be several choices to make, hence removing "evil" doesn't remove "freewill".

Thank you for demonstrating that point so Asmodean the Lazy F**k doesn't have to 

[Too Few Lions]

I love that quote, but maybe I'm in a minority of one (or two if we include FB). Plus FB is a free-being, I imagine starting up random polls is the kind of thing free-beings do!

If good exists, then evil must exist to define what good is and is not.  To prevent one is to do away with the other and thus render one or the other nothing.  God is called God because it is He that defines good and therefore evil; being all powerful can turn evil to good ( have good come from evil in the sense of the biblical character of Joseph )

that is strictly just your definition of 'god' and 'good' and not necessarily everyones. If I look up the definition 'good' in the dictionary or thesaurus, I don't find the word 'god' listed there! Plus not all gods have been inherently good in nature, the two words are far from synonymous. I and many others would include yours in that group.

If God is God and God is Good, then evil cannot be destroyed/prevented.  To remove the ability for "evil" actions/thoughts is to remove freewill.  

The idea of freewill seems a bit of a cop-out and circular argument to me, to try and explain why an omnipotent good god would allow so much suffering and evil in the world. Why did he give people inclined to evil freewill in the first place? sounds like a mistake to me (so maybe Epicurus is right and your god's not omnipotent). Or was it just so he could take pleasure in punishing evildoers for all eternity along with us godless heathens?

If God is God and we are in the middle of an "evil" portion of eternity, what is a few billion years in relation to eternity?

Trouble with this is your god's only been around 2000 years and probably won't be around in 2000 years time. And during his watch there's been plenty of evil, wars and suffering in the world, a lot of it caused by his followers. If you really think he works in the realm of billions of years, he seems to have scored a bit of an own goal by allowing so much evil and suffering in the world in the 2000 year blink-of-a-god's-eye that anyone's been bothered to worship or believe in him! Again, hardly omnipotent...