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Ah. That's profound. Certainly garden variety, though. Nothing but good thoughts towards you though, AA. 
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True, you didn't say he created it, but your book does.
Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
You've activated my trap card!
but your book does. Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
You've activated my trap card!
Now though what does GOD choose? Is evil been created for us to see free choice and choose yes I think so, because all that was left after the cross was nad is to either believe and Choose God over Evil or not beleive and just continue in one's sinful behavior of hurting others as the religous leaders did in Christ's day here on earth HMMM!!!!!!!!!!
God does no evil, man does and God came to earth to show us to depend on God christ's Father and sent us the Holy Ghost to guide us as what guided Christ and this comes by belief, trust, Faith in the Gospel of Christ filled and all powerful in and of the cross, nowhere else or no way else. It is what it is, and by this one is changed to new life and is content in all that happens here as Paul exclaimed nothing can seperate him frpom the Love of God, nothing, and this I do believe is for all to exclaim by Christ living in oyu and through you
[h=3]Romans 3:1-27[/h]New King James Version (NKJV)
[h=3]God’s Judgment Defended[/h]3 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? [SUP]2 [/SUP]Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. [SUP]3 [/SUP]For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? [SUP]4 [/SUP]Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:
“That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.”
[SUP]5 [/SUP]But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) [SUP]6 [/SUP]Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
[SUP]7 [/SUP]For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? [SUP]8 [/SUP]And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
[h=3]All Have Sinned[/h][SUP]9 [/SUP]What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
[SUP]10 [/SUP]As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
[SUP]11 [/SUP]There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
[SUP]13 [/SUP]“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
[SUP]14 [/SUP]“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
[SUP]15 [/SUP]“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
[SUP]16 [/SUP]Destruction and misery are in their ways;
[SUP]17 [/SUP]And the way of peace they have not known.”
[SUP]18 [/SUP]“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
[SUP]19 [/SUP]Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. [SUP]20 [/SUP]Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
[h=3]God’s Righteousness Through Faith[/h][SUP]21 [/SUP]But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, [SUP]22 [/SUP]even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; [SUP]23 [/SUP]for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [SUP]24 [/SUP]being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [SUP]25 [/SUP]whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, [SUP]26 [/SUP]to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[h=3]Boasting Excluded[/h][SUP]27 [/SUP]Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith
L
has humanity been around for 200,000 years? I say not as does so much of science. I think that there is truth and untruth. If Jesus is the truth (which Christians believe because he said so) then we would surely want to follow him and believe that the future as well as our day to day lives lie in him. Some people say that this is true for you and this other is true for me etc. Do we need to redefine 'truth'. There surely can't be many 'truths', but only one, otherwise it is a very strange word.
P
I'm midway into reading the original message, I really like your answer to question 1 (which I just read), I never thought of it like that before. It sort of rings of Buddhism a bit, in how you are reborn until you are mature enough to become one with God in that system. You presented the angle that God isn't trying to make the ultimately good world, where there is minimal suffering, he's trying to mature us and produce the complex, dynamic, experienced minds that have endured through sin. Really cool.
In the last paragraph there was something I found a bit perplexing though:
"Evil cannot be identified without Good, and Good cannot be understood without evil. Had the " tree" of knowledge never been consumed, how ignorant would we have been to everything?"
I'd tend to use evil synonymously with cruelty, and good synonymously with kindness and caring. Perhaps we could identify cruel acts by their malicious intent, even in a world without kindness. In the same way, I don't quite understand how it's possible that we couldn't, had we not eaten from the tree.
(p.s. I'm an evolutionist, I think Genesis is non-literal and there was no tree)
In the last paragraph there was something I found a bit perplexing though:
"Evil cannot be identified without Good, and Good cannot be understood without evil. Had the " tree" of knowledge never been consumed, how ignorant would we have been to everything?"
I'd tend to use evil synonymously with cruelty, and good synonymously with kindness and caring. Perhaps we could identify cruel acts by their malicious intent, even in a world without kindness. In the same way, I don't quite understand how it's possible that we couldn't, had we not eaten from the tree.
(p.s. I'm an evolutionist, I think Genesis is non-literal and there was no tree)
P
2 wasn't so good though
Adam and Eve didn't get a slap on the hand, a spanking or a scolding in the story. Every single life form in the universe was punished with death and suffering. It's a parable
For it to be literally true would be morally nonsensical, out of God's character. (And science has proven evolution to incredibly high certainty anyway, it's demonstrably a parable).
Totally won my enthusiasm back with 3, good answer! I reject 'all complexity requires a designer' too.
Adam and Eve didn't get a slap on the hand, a spanking or a scolding in the story. Every single life form in the universe was punished with death and suffering. It's a parable
For it to be literally true would be morally nonsensical, out of God's character. (And science has proven evolution to incredibly high certainty anyway, it's demonstrably a parable).
Totally won my enthusiasm back with 3, good answer! I reject 'all complexity requires a designer' too.
P
To touch a little more on that thing in question 1, I think 99% of mankind are born caring, sympathetic beings by nature- and so would be able to identify right from wrong even if there was no punishment; by assessing the impacts of actions on other minds, if the actions cause any harm to others. I don't avoid murdering people because mankind got punished with death for sin before, I avoid murdering people because I care about people
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First of all God gave them many chances to change but they didn't so he is not uncaring. He always gives chances he gives everyone a chance to believe but some don't. God does not look at good as humans tend to look at it. God is giving a choice to believe or not. Again, if people refuse to believe, then they refuse. Secondly, we are not caring, sympathetic beings by nature we are selfish, going after our own interests, lustful, arrogant, etc. Also you are throwing away the 1% but God even cares about the 1%, he wishes all to be saved or rescued from their sins. He gives you an offer that you can refuse but he extends that offer nonetheless. If you read the part before the flood, you can tell that God was grieved and saddened and had to do it even though he gave them a chance because he was caring, merciful, etc. Only Noah and his family believed and entered the ark. But I understand why many look at God in a human way and think that God should be how they think he is, many have this problem Christians and non-Christians. But to see who God is look at what the Bible says he is like and not as you want him to be and ask Him to reveal himself to you.
P
I think it's equally as unreasonable to claim science and logical thought will one day fully understand God, as it is to say that God is beyond the reach of science to ever understand. We can't say science can never discover something, and we can't say science will definitely solve a particular mystery.