D Bryan wrote:
Many people ask how a benevolent, omnipotent God can allow suffering
and evil in the world. Here is my attempt at an answer -
God exists outside of time. Only IN time is there evil.
If god made the stuff in time, he allows evil to exist.
Can god do teh impossible, the illogical, make a 4 sided triangle, a square
circle?
That is, does god make teh rules of the Universe?
If so he could make a Universe where man has free will yet freely chooses
only to do the morally good.
We don't live in such a Universe. God then is the creator and sustaining
cause of all evil in the Universe. he is not omnibenevolent, he is
omnimalevolent.
Well, can't have THAT.
So no, god does not make the rules of the Universe, the laws of the
Universe, the logic of the Universe?
Then, what are they and where do these rules and laws come from
that are so powerful even god must obey them?
God supposedly created everything, but in the Universe at large is so
powerful that god must pbey these laws, these rules, the logic of the
Universe, these things must be outside of god and therefore preceed him.
So god is not only not omnipotent, he is also not the most powerful thing
that can be concieved of. The Universe at large is.
And since it must preceed him, he cannot have created it either.
He ios not teh creator god as posited.
And outside of time? No, if he was outside of time, there would be no free
will at all. Without time, everything happens at once, there is no real
past, no real future, all is a big now. Time is just an illusion.
But that means everything happens at once, this Universe at all points of
time and space and all god's interactions with all time and space at
specific times and places. All is including all god does. We are then all
caught like flies in amber, there is no free will, not even for god.
Congratulations, by trying the old, old, Augustinian out of time dodge, you
strip god of all free will and all real power.
And where would such a state of affairs come about?
A Universe forever frozen in inaction?
Its a stupid concept, you guys NEVER bother to even try to reason
out the logical conclusion to your drivel.
And what are the rules of the Universe, the laws of the Universe, the logic
of the Universe. All is matter and energy with specific rules and
laws, no thing as complex as a supposed god that has will and can act can
exist that is not made of energy and matter and operates in time and space.
That is the law.
So no gods.
No supernatural entities, and if you say yes there are, the burden of proof
by now is thoroughly on your shoulders to prove it with hard evidence. No
chin music.
Only IN time
is there
free will. Only IN time is there choice. Only IN time is there
suffering.
You are full of bull doo doo.
Living in the experience of time (as we apparently do) is actually a
pale imitation of true "life" which is timeless and "perfect" as is
God. Living within time is an incomplete and imperfect life.
But there is also a part of a human being that exists outside of time
- known by Christians as the "soul".
God allows us to live within time. Within time, God allows us to
suffer. God allows us to make choices. He even prompts us in these
choices.
He also shows us ways of moving beyond the inadequacy of a life IN
time. One way is through prayer. Prayer allows the mind to partially
separate from life within time to connect more fully with the timeless
God.
God also shows us that death and suffering cannot harm us. Death is a
removal from a life within time to a life outside of time. In some
ways this is true "birth" rather than death. Removal from an
imperfect world of time to a perfect timeless world.
Living within time means not having a correct and full understanding,
not being perfect, still having much to learn. As we learn and
progress we can transcend time.
Suffering is an experience only within time. Suffering is a fear of
something "bad" occurring. Bad occurrences and fear only exist in a
world of time. In God's timelessness there is only goodness.
We are trying to interpret our "reality" while we are still "stuck"
inside a partial and imperfect world. True reality (outside of time)
has no evil, no suffering, no choices. True reality contains only the
pure joy of existence.
God knows that no harm comes to a soul simply by experiencing time,
change, suffering and even death. All these things are temporary and
can even be considered imaginary in comparison to the true timeless
reality of God.
Harm comes only through attaching oneself to this false reality (time,
change, suffering, fear etc) and holding onto those false experiences
(in the world of time) when in fact God offers us a perfect timeless
reality which is available to all now and as with all timeless things,
always will be.
Regards
db
--
"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun
in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to
Canada. So I chose to better myself and learn to fly airplanes."
- George W. Bush May 1984 to the Houston Chronicle
Cheerful Charlie
.
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