Question on Christianity (no not a rant, just a nice querry)Follow

everyone know babies become fairies and cherubs.

There have been a lot of great posts so far in this thread, but this one stuck out for me...

Many try to state that the allowance of evil is proof that God is not omnipotent - most likely by trying to use 'human' motivations and understandings.

From my understanding, it is much more basic than that... without the concept of evil, the concept of good would have no basis. How can one describe something as good if there isn't the polar opposite to compare and contrast it to?

Just like the yin/yang, white cannot exist without black, and black cannot exist without white. The same is true of good and evil. The creator of all could never truly eliminate either concept in our current 'world', as we are meant to experience both sides of the coin - ridding us of this essential choice would eliminate free will and negate the reason we are here in the first place.

The creator set things in motion so that we could experience everything possible, not some watered down Disneyland version of existence.

These are not your limited options to consider.

Maybe in order to understand the thought process of the christian you should place the order in the same process a christian would.

1>God is omnipotent
a. capable of all things including good and evil but not choosing good or evil.

2>God creates
A. angels, humans, animals, and all else that is created.
B. desires that creation loves and serves their creator in completeness
C. gives created the power to choose for themselves
D. creates complete beings "in his image" with abilities of all good and evil

3>Creation chooses (here's where it gets complicated)
A. choose evil
a. Impacts relations with the creator negatively causing seperation from communion with God
b. Creates a need for redemption to communion status
B. choose good
a. Creates need for consistant dedication to chosen path and struggle to define what is deemed good.
b. Develops division between those who choose evil creating seperation within creation.
C. choose not to choose (This seems where this threads premise is rooted)
a. created does not subscribe to goodness or evil.
b. choosers of good demand a choice creating seperation
c. choosers of evil demand a choice creating seperation
(according to the ancient scriptures man did not get into any trouble until he actually made a choice)

4>God is still omnipotent



From that outline I think that evil has always existed and so has goodness. The ultimate answer to consider in this argument is whether or not you have established or reestablished the communion with the creator.

Also, consider how this redemption happens (3Ab) and who does it apply to. I will probably be refered to the scripture that states that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. To this, I state that even those who claim christianty or any other religion and live according to those practices are still not as glorious as my perception of god. Given the fact that all haved sinned and noone is as glorious as god, it still does not demand a choice.

My 2 gil.





"there is some fiction in your truth.
there is some truth in your fiction."

others would call that denial or delusional.

Just sayin

I'd say "neutrality" is kinda an illusion, unless the universe were to suddenly come to a halt.

Existance is a constant back and forth of the scales of positive and negative... neutrality would be that point of balance, but all in all, things are constantly moving.. the pendulum is constantly swinging.

Question:
Waht is the opposite of God?
and don't say Satan.


I'd say it's about both.

Christianity was not "designed" to be thought about like this. It is only designed to be followed and not questioned. once you start questioning it all kinds of worms come out of the can.

That's like asking what the opposite of "tree" is. What makes you think God has to have a polar opposite?

Man, that is incredibly deep. Good discussion all, keep it up.

True, but if you accept the notion that God is the final arbitor, then God equals good for all intents and purposes.

For that matter, Satan equals evil in that he seeks to make people disobey God (again, accepting the notion that disobeying God is evil). But that doesn't make Satan the opposite of God any more than a camera is the opposite of a television just because one takes in images and the other projects them.

So I guess "relativly speaking" Satan is the opposite of God. Relativly If I were a Christian.

I just heard somthing on the radio that reminds me of this.

I have a pot of boiling water on the stove:
Why is it boiling?

#1 Because the heat is agitating the water molecules.

#2 Because my wife turned the stove on.

#3 Because I want tea.

Three completly differnt facets of reasoning and explanations for the same thing.




The real parodox question is, If God is perfect, how could the need to create have arisin?

for the record I disagree with the logic of the question... for it places God inside of the frame of time that we are in.

Edited, Fri Jan 21 16:43:19 2005 by Kelvyquayo

Proxy errors suck

Edited, Fri Jan 21 17:01:30 2005 by Pensive

meh. Im lazy. I'm so tired of religious threads now that I cant read the whole thing anymore.

Me too. I just kinda skimmed this.

While theology can be an interesting topic, I've decided I just don't care what may be out there.

But if there are any devine beings out there, I bet they are more like Fizban and Takhisis