god can't hold us completly responsible for not choosing the right religion becuase there are so many how are we to know wich one is the right one.
Well it sounds like that definitely, yes, but just think about it, while dreaming, upon realizing that it's just a dream, you will no longer have any suffering, you will know the truth, in the sameway, upon realizing reality is just another meaningless super-dream-like thing, there will no be more stress, no more anger, fear, sorrow, etc....no more suffering...how could there be? You will also get powers like walking on water, transforming matter, etc...just like how in a dream you would be able to do anything if you realized it was just a dream..... Ofcourse reality is not the same as a dream, it just has many similarities... Yeah but God is within you, in the beginning everyone was with God, dwelling in the kingdom of God, and had no suffering, but then for some reason we all chose to be seperate from God, so this is the consequence....
god can certainly chose the nature of his byproducts - and its fortunate that such 'evil' is a byproduct, since if it wasn't the rebellious living entity wouldn't have a medium to work through their material desires, which would also further complicate the issue of how a living entity could express their free will
So, it isn't like how the sun 'creates' a shadow. And God chose to create evil. I think we're in agreement actually.
the sun analogy indicates how an entity(the sun) can be the cause of something (shadow) that bears no resemblance and has no expression on itself - in other words just like the sun is not a shadow, god is not evil - which was the whole push of the OP
But the sun analogy doesn't work. Shadow is a byproduct of the sun's existence, where as the creation of evil was a choice made by God. One is unintentional, the other intentional.
its the nature of an analogy to share some parallels but not all of them (- I am not arguing that the sun is god -) I am arguing that just as the sun is the cause of shadow despite being bereft of shadow, god is the cause of evil despite being bereft of evil
Depends if the creation was intentional or not. EDIT: Er, heh, just realized that makes no sense at all. I meant to say, that doesn't totally apply to evil. A shadow is something physical. I can create one right now. But evil is an idea, a concept. The creation of it, if it's intentional, is evil. Sort of like how kindness from one person to another can create kindness in others.
what is the purpose of evil in this world is to enable us to better appreciate the nature of god? even in mundane affairs there are examples of how evil can lead to kindness - in fact acts of kindness become most potent when performed in the greater context of evil, since they stand to be more greatly appreciated
So, when the mother of a murdered child asks you why God let this happen, you'd tell her it's because God wanted other good things to be appreciated more?
emotional circumstances are not the best for discussing philosophy - philosophy however can determine the nature of emotional circumstances Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
