Christians, did Yahweh create evil?

Another meaningless question. Atheists have a diversity of opinions regarding these issues, just like theists do. Some are going to be despots, just like some theists are going to be despots, and some area going to be live-and-let-live, just like some theists are live-and-let-live.

 

What nonsense.
Reality created two different kinds of men, each behaved in accord with how they were made.
Each type of man, Gentile and Patriarch, acted in the ways reality had made them.

You are one or the other, too, unless you became an Christian who recognized Truth for the image of Reality, and then behaved accordingly.

 

Is it that you have no commentary on that which was posted...or are you simply sidelining to avoid uncomfortable truths?

 

?
You never heard of the Puritans?

Do you not know that during the Age of Monasticism, for 1000 years sexual promiscuity was repressed in the culture.
Even Art was flat, and the human body was not drawn nor sculpt.
Before the Renaissance abortions, illegitimacy, divorce, etc disappeared, and then the beast of Roman and Greek culture returned again.

 

The human body was both sculpted and drawn during this time period, sexual promiscuity still existed, paganism still existed, abortion drugs still existed, illegitimate children still existed, etc.

 

The Truth is that it will set us free from being evil.

That is the message of the Bible.
Reality tells us that men need one another, as the technological era has pretty much shown to be true.
Truth is what will save us from the evils that await bad behaviors.

 

WRONG,...

Book: " From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity (Revealing Antiquity)," Hardcover – June 10, 2013


While Roman sexual culture was frankly and freely erotic, it was not completely unmoored from constraint. Offending against sexual morality was cause for shame, experienced through social condemnation. The rise of Christianity fundamentally changed the ethics of sexual behavior. In matters of morality, divine judgment transcended that of mere mortals, and shame—a social concept—gave way to the theological notion of sin. This transformed understanding led to Christianity’s explicit prohibitions of homosexuality, extramarital love, and prostitution. Most profound, however, was the emergence of the idea of free will in Christian dogma, which made all human action, including sexual behavior, accountable to the spiritual, not the physical, world.


http://www.amazon.com/From-Shame-Sin-Christian-Transformation/dp/0674072774

 

You have no basis in which to compare your morality to God's. None. Ultimately, whether God is evil or not, is entirely your personal opinion - from an atheistic worldview.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin

You like to talk about aspects of Christianity you do not understand, so I will explain this to you. Sin is described as actions that mankind does to hurt himself. That is sin. No more and no less. You are insinuating that God made sin. So, to say that, you're literally saying God makes mankind hurt themselves. That doesn't make sense.

Once Adam disobeyed God in eating the forbidden fruit, sin entered the world. Remember, sin is described as actions that mankind does to hurt himself. The fruit had serious effects on Adam and Eve's body that aren't really explained in the bible, but its pretty obvious that those effects weren't good. By eating the fruit, he not only disobeyed God (which wasn't the problem), he hurt himself by consuming something that changed something in his body. Man's mind awakened and he became more knowledgeable about himself. Perhaps with his knowledge, he gained the ability to know how to inflict pain upon himself. Pain leads to more pain and it doesn't stop.

God hates sin because sin hurts mankind. Sin is like a cancer. Sin (the action that hurts mankind) leads to death. When God saw man corrupted by sin, He could not face them. Facing them would be like watching your child cut themselves over and over and over. Mankind was never meant to die. So, to prevent death, God had to make it so that when mankind died, he'd still live, no matter what he did. So, God sent His only son, Jesus, to die and absorb everyone's sin, so that when you do bad things, God wouldn't need to look at you, He'd look at Jesus, because He knew Jesus would be the one that would heal you (John 3:16). God (the father) knew that Jesus could handle the reward for sin (death) without facing Him. It was the Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the grave after all (Romans 8:11). God simply refused to look at Jesus hurt Himself. Period. Remember, God can't stand to look at His children hurting, so He simply doesn't do it. God the father, also doesn't pass judgement on His children for the same exact principles. Only Jesus does (John 5:22). This is where Jesus comes in and passes judgement on everyone (this includes disciplining His children).

Anyway, when you die, the Holy Spirit is who resurrects you. However, the Holy Spirit has one rule before He will do such a thing. You have to believe in Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit always testifies about Jesus Christ (John 15:26). To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to say He's wrong. Only way you can do that is to deny His testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

Good post, but I would only like to add: Sin is not based on what would hurt us, but what goes against what God has said. Consequently, what goes against God does hurt us, but it is still based on what is against God, not what hurts us. God is against sin because we are rejecting Him, and he loves us too much to let us be separated from Him, because He knows we will fail on our own.

Just adding to what you said. Great post.

 

So as far as you're concerned, Jesus was an immoral man. Right?

 

No. Not quite. If this were the case, then God wouldn't be able to face Abraham or his wife because he'd be "rejecting Him". Understand that Abraham lied a lot. Abraham's wife also lied, and directly to God's face.

Genesis 18:12-15 says, "Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed [o]bear a child, when I am so old?’ Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”"

If God was against sin just because its us rejecting Him, then what was the point of God's grace for Abraham? If God can wipe away transgressions and completely forget sins (Isaiah 43:25), then that
goes to show that its not sin itself that God doesn't like. It's what sin does to mankind that God doesn't like.

 

All this does is talk about majority Christian attitudes and their rising popularity at the time . . . that's it. Your quote does not say that the human body wasn't sculpted and drawn during this time period (which would be false), it doesn't say sexual promiscuity ceased to exist (which would be false), it doesn't say paganism was eliminated (which would be false), it doesn't say abortion drugs ceased (which would be false), it doesn't say that illegitimate children ceased (which would be false), etc.

Abbeys at the time contained sculpted frescos and statuary as well as illustrations, sexual promiscuity still existed, pagans held majority rule in places like Denmark and Norway (and, of course, most of the rest of the world), etc.

 

Would you like to answer the question then?

 

Okay - cool.

I can accept that, but only in my own way.

Cheers to me.

Anyone can be special if they too try and seek out the truth, and I highly recommend it to all.

 

Maybe you can explain, if sin didn't exist before eating the apple and did after eating the apple, how did it enter the world? If not created by God.

 

It has been answered. With the best answer possible.

 

I wasn't talking to you, Dairyair. You don't like answering questions. The only person who does is Trevor. He has my up most respect.

 

This is another situation where you need to make up your mind. You've claimed to be able to demonstrate the existence of God through the existence of evil, but you say we can't recognize evil except through your worldview. So evil proves that God exists but you can't notice that evil exists until you presuppose that God exists?

Your Bible says that man has become "like [God], knowing good from evil". Sorry, but there is nothing a single human being can do that could be called "evil" if God's mass murderers, infanticide, genocide and slavery can also be called evil.

 

You asked someone for an answer and two other people gave you an answer, but you don't want their answers because the people who gave the answers "don't like answering questions" and you only want answers from the person who hasn't provided an answer?

 

So what. Then go to private message and stay off the public forum if you don't like answered questions in public.
What questions haven't I answered? Besides one's that are truly meaningless.

 

PS - how could Satan have fallen, sinned/did evil, if it wasn't created already.

 

The "Question" was not asked of me....I take it this would be yet another attempted sideline to avoid uncomfortable truths. Still, I will not do as you do and actually answer:

Thing is....Atheism is not something one can explain in group thought, as it is as individual as the people who define themselves as such. Thus while my answers are accurate for myself, they cannot reflect the Atheist mindset.

 

Understandable.
I wish the other guy would answer the question like you have.

 

Earlier I said that atheists are going to differ on these issues, just like theists do. Dairyair eluded to the same answer saying "It has been answered. With the best answer possible." You told Dairyair that you didn't want his answer, which is essentially the same as my answer, which is essentially the same as Tecoyah's answer. Now you are saying you wish that he would answer (what changed?) and that he would answer the question like Tecoyah has . . . despite the fact that he has already eluded to the same answer. I'm a little amazed to find that level of contradiction in a single sentence.

 

And I simply wish YOU would answer at all....so, do you agree that whale evolution makes more sense than God deciding to plant the fossils that clearly lead up to todays creatures?