I'll give my answer to the problem of evil, which will almost certainly be insufficient, but here it is anyway.
What if the things we see as evil aren't actually evil? We are extrapolating from extremely incomplete data. Even materialistic interpretations of the universe acknowledge this.
So, and bear with me here, what if childhood cancer isn't the evil we think it is? (I have children, and Ive suffered personal tragedy before you think me callous) What if the reality we experience is not actually real? Have you ever experienced a dream which changed your life? I have. There was a point in my life where I was starting to get into some gnarly shit, and I had a nightmare about the consequences and turned it around. As horrible as that nightmare was, it wasn't real. But it had real, positive effects. What if this reality is a proofing ground for remedial souls to give us a foretaste of existence outside of God's presence so that we can make a more informed decision about how to spend eternity?
"Why doesn't God just say that, then?" He kinda does if you read the Bible a certain way. But it would also spoil the effect IMO if He was more explicit.
"But there's no proof for this" True. Which is why it's insufficient. Here's the thing, I find that there's plenty of evidence, both material and philosophical, for intelligent design. (Not young Earth creationism, ID) So if there is a God, there's no reason we should expect to understand His mind completely. And there's no reason to assume that we can comprehend the complexity of His actions.
Spez: here's the mindfuck, imo: what if God is all powerful and all evil? What if the good things we experience are designed to make the suffering here and after more intense? Now, I don't believe this but it can be disconcerting in moments of weakness.
Very well worded (I've long dabbled in the realm you are speaking) except I would counter your "mindfuck" with this, hopefully calming, questioning:
If God was all powerful and all evil and good things we experience were designed to increase suffering (contrast) - why then does the world default to decay? The absence of action in this life results in good / usefulness / fufillment dwindling:
Stop lifting weights? Muscles shrink back.
Don't go to work? Stop getting paid.
Don't plow the fields? Weeds grow not heads of cabbage.
Stop enforcing the law? Criminals run wild.
Don't take care of your teeth? They rot.
Etc. Why would a constant need to perservere / face adversity be needed to demonstrate contrast so suffering was deeper? Why not just make everything extremely easy?
You may then counter that well then that an "evil" God made us desire the satisfaction of rewarding work so that we can than be made to toil for ever and never reach satisfication in some sort of hell but now then are you not seeing the infantile nature of this line of thinking? If God can (which we must assume at face value for this topic) plant the inner concepts of desires / mental feedback does this whole thing not seem like a bunch of extra steps that are unneeded? Would an "all powerful" God waste his effort time / creation / power doing such things?
Now taking it all back a step to the higher picture let's flip it. Why then would an all powerful "good" God put us through this if he could just control our desires / mental feedback to make us want to do good? Well, my interpretation of the Holy Spirit is that he actually has. I believe our conscious is the Holy Spirit guiding us subtly to know what is right in God's eyes - this manifests itself in successful cultural norms that even most athesists accept as "right". Don't murder, don't steal, fight off addictions, etc. The important distinction is we are not robots though - you still have the choice to ignore such guidance though God very much does not want you to.
But I will stop here as we are getting into "initial sin" / knowldge / Adam talks as to why you can even choose to do sin / be evil. I wil lleave it with this for those still following who struggle with this part: If God is everything and good and if true praise (not shallow modern usage of the word - think deeper here, 'oneness') is his desire - would he want it to come from creations that had to or from creation that actively had to surpress a mountain of reason not to but still chose to? Does a merciless tyrant have more real power than a deeply loved President?
If you consider good and evil as a spectrum such that it is impossible for good to exist without evil, maybe this universe is an optimal balance of the two?
I'll give my answer to the problem of evil, which will almost certainly be insufficient, but here it is anyway.
What if the things we see as evil aren't actually evil? We are extrapolating from extremely incomplete data. Even materialistic interpretations of the universe acknowledge this.
So, and bear with me here, what if childhood cancer isn't the evil we think it is? (I have children, and Ive suffered personal tragedy before you think me callous) What if the reality we experience is not actually real? Have you ever experienced a dream which changed your life? I have. There was a point in my life where I was starting to get into some gnarly shit, and I had a nightmare about the consequences and turned it around. As horrible as that nightmare was, it wasn't real. But it had real, positive effects. What if this reality is a proofing ground for remedial souls to give us a foretaste of existence outside of God's presence so that we can make a more informed decision about how to spend eternity?
"Why doesn't God just say that, then?" He kinda does if you read the Bible a certain way. But it would also spoil the effect IMO if He was more explicit.
"But there's no proof for this" True. Which is why it's insufficient. Here's the thing, I find that there's plenty of evidence, both material and philosophical, for intelligent design. (Not young Earth creationism, ID) So if there is a God, there's no reason we should expect to understand His mind completely. And there's no reason to assume that we can comprehend the complexity of His actions.
Spez: here's the mindfuck, imo: what if God is all powerful and all evil? What if the good things we experience are designed to make the suffering here and after more intense? Now, I don't believe this but it can be disconcerting in moments of weakness.
Very well worded (I've long dabbled in the realm you are speaking) except I would counter your "mindfuck" with this, hopefully calming, questioning:
If God was all powerful and all evil and good things we experience were designed to increase suffering (contrast) - why then does the world default to decay? The absence of action in this life results in good / usefulness / fufillment dwindling:
Etc. Why would a constant need to perservere / face adversity be needed to demonstrate contrast so suffering was deeper? Why not just make everything extremely easy?
You may then counter that well then that an "evil" God made us desire the satisfaction of rewarding work so that we can than be made to toil for ever and never reach satisfication in some sort of hell but now then are you not seeing the infantile nature of this line of thinking? If God can (which we must assume at face value for this topic) plant the inner concepts of desires / mental feedback does this whole thing not seem like a bunch of extra steps that are unneeded? Would an "all powerful" God waste his effort time / creation / power doing such things?
Now taking it all back a step to the higher picture let's flip it. Why then would an all powerful "good" God put us through this if he could just control our desires / mental feedback to make us want to do good? Well, my interpretation of the Holy Spirit is that he actually has. I believe our conscious is the Holy Spirit guiding us subtly to know what is right in God's eyes - this manifests itself in successful cultural norms that even most athesists accept as "right". Don't murder, don't steal, fight off addictions, etc. The important distinction is we are not robots though - you still have the choice to ignore such guidance though God very much does not want you to.
But I will stop here as we are getting into "initial sin" / knowldge / Adam talks as to why you can even choose to do sin / be evil. I wil lleave it with this for those still following who struggle with this part: If God is everything and good and if true praise (not shallow modern usage of the word - think deeper here, 'oneness') is his desire - would he want it to come from creations that had to or from creation that actively had to surpress a mountain of reason not to but still chose to? Does a merciless tyrant have more real power than a deeply loved President?
If you consider good and evil as a spectrum such that it is impossible for good to exist without evil, maybe this universe is an optimal balance of the two?
Maybe. That kinda gets into dualism, which is a path I'm not ready to walk.