Why Would a Good God Create a World That Has So Much Evil? — Stand to Reason Podcast
Greg answers questions about why God would create a world that has so much evil in it, how a book written by men could be the divine word of God, and more.
0:00 Why would a good God create a world that has so much evil in it?
16:12 How could a centuries-old book written by men be the divine word of God?
22:28 How do you respond to the agnostic statement that there is a God, but we don’t know who that being is?
29:33 Is it okay to date a Christian who thinks homosexuality is not a sin?
46:22 Why believe in a creationist worldview now that we have the theory of evolution?
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This gentelman is flat out wrong, years ago it was shown that there is a direct link between biology and homosexuality. This person is lying or ignorant. He has a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics. I'm not homosexual, but this gentleman doesn't know the science.
The author of Job tried to deal with the theodicy problem and couldn't get it done. Yahweh's rant from the cloud looks more and more pitiful with each new gain in scientific understanding. Eratosthenes figured out the circumference of the earth only a few hundred years after the book of Job was written, using geometry to answer this supposedly unanswerable question.
Why would a good god create a world that has so much evil? First it needs to be proven that a god exists in the first place. Let alone assume that 'god' is good. The question leads me to conclude that god either does not exist or god is evil.
The first question is easy. I just respond to the person with, why would God make me enjoy pornography but then not let me use pornography? Just play the question right back to them just be honest. Don't we all have things that we really enjoy doing that we can't live without and they are not good for us based on a moral code which you can believe in or choose not to believe in at your own will.
Greg’s EXACTLY RIGHT about the fossil “record”!
Expert paleontologist, dr GUNTER BECKLEY says the modern synthesis (NEO-Darwinian Evolution) = LACKS THE MEANS to produce all the life we see.
There are over 17 DISCONTINUITIES in the fossil record!
YouTube SEARCH “Dr James Tour”
A brilliant biochemist, who shows the IMPOSSIBILITY of Abiogenesis!
And dr Mark Armitage : who specializes in DINOSAUR SOFT-TISSUES.
There are now over 17+ types of intact bio molecules, INCLUDING NEEVE CELLS, and FATTY LIPIDS DRIPPING OUT OF A 300 MILLION YEAR OLD NERVE CELL !
This EARTH, and the BILLIONS of dead things fossilized all over this planet = are YOUNG!
Thousands, NOT MILLIONS!
Pain and suffering is part of life – and I guess that's also when you are as close as you can be to god as a mortal being but evil is mainly a human choice and outcome. Some consider God in the bible to be evil but I don't. I consider him to be right and just.
Bunch of bigots.
I agree with Dr. Koukl in regards to this young man who is at odds with his girlfriend over homosexuality but I do think it would be a sin for him to marry her. She is looking at God and His Word very dangerously and she needs to repent and turn from her rebellious attitude towards Him and His Word. Otherwise, it will be a huge problem going forward in their relationship.
The problem is that people are misunderstanding how "darkness" is created:
Darkness is not the Opposite of Light;
it is the Absence of Light
Death is not the Opposite of Life;
it is the Absence of Life
Lying is not the Opposite of Truth;
it is the Absence of Truth
Evil is not the Opposite of Good;
it is the Absence of Good
Hate is not the Opposite of Love;
it is the Absence of Love
Dry is not the Opposite of Wet;
it is the Absence of Water
If a scale has one of each item on opposing sides, one side has substance and weight, the other side is empty.
The "power of darkness" is an oxymoron. It has neither power nor substance. It is a void, defined by the Absence of matter. You can say that you have a "hole" in your yard, and speak of it as a tangible "thing" that exists; but in reality it is simply a part of your yard that is missing.
When it says "God created darkness" it is referring to the ancillary result of God creating Light. Darkness is a side effect, not the main part of the creation. The Fall did not create Darkness, eating the fruit Exposed Darkness. That is a big difference.
God Bless You.
Did God create evolution? Do things ever change? A log burns in a fireplace, turning to ash. A star burns up its fuel and ends up becoming a white dwarf. Earth shows signs of continental collision and separation on the scale of billions of years. And life shows signs of evolution which defy the materialistic scientists who pose lame solutions of "random mutation," rather than the Design by God Almighty. The work of Christian chemist, Dr. James Tour, shows that the atheistic scientists are nowhere near creating life in the laboratory. And he does an excellent job explaining why. It seems that nature alone cannot create life. It needs spirit as an organizing force. And spirit is involved in evolution, solving threats to survival by intentional reprogramming life's DNA. Creationism PLUS Evolution! There is no incompatibility if you have the humility to see as spirit.
I love how you use Logic and knowledge of Logical Fallacies to analyze the views of others. This is an art so very much missing from our educations. Students should, by junior high school, be capable of recognizing accurately all manner of logical fallacies and returning any conversation back to the topic at hand.
God created a "good" universe, but "good" from His perspective. In other words, it was good for God's purpose! God needed to purify man! The only way to do this was to have man choose whether or not to follow evil or to follow God. Thus, God created evil so that man would have choice! Too many humans try to force upon God their own views and beliefs. They miss Truth by assuming things not in evidence.
What is God's definition of "good?" What is a human's definition of "good?" They are not necessarily the same thing. Remember Noah's Flood? God created death and destruction which was "good" from His viewpoint. Remember, man was created twice — once in God's image (spirit) and once from the dust (chemicals; not spirit). During Noah's Flood, God's children were never harmed because spirit was already dead (Genesis 3), and only through Christ can we reawaken the spirit sufficiently to return to Heaven (John 3).
God gives us challenges right from the start! What we do with those challenges determines whether or not we make it. When we become grateful for all of the challenges, we can then start to take responsibility outside of our physical selves, thus invoking the Holy Spirit.
Disagree! God DID create a universe with evil in it. God created evil. He created the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The core of evil is Ego (the heart of selfishness). This is the very essence of this dichotomous (action-reaction, good-evil, right-wrong, compassion-indifference, wisdom-stupidity, confidence-doubt, etc.) universe. God created free will and a universe to test that free will. Evil attracts those who wish to remain receivers, while Heaven attracts those who wish to become givers. Simple!
Homosexuality, for instance, is evil because it is selfish; the individual will do what is unnatural in order to receive the pleasure of what is unnatural.
Dr Koukl listen to this craziness which is a perfect example of people who have accepted Jesus as their savior but could possibly be one of those people whom Jesus tells "depart from me I never knew you". Growing up Catholic, I accepted Jesus as my savior, but I actually believed that because I had the Holy Spirit inside of me that all of my feelings and desires were kind of ordained and approved by God. 🫢
Not till many years later, when my son started to attend a small evangelical school in 6th grade (because the Catholic schools were way too expensive) did I begin to truly understand God's word. I discovered that satan can influence our thoughts and our feelings even though we have accepted Jesus and we have the Holy Spirit in us. I was in such shock because I thought satan could influence things around us and work through other unsaved people but as far as a Christian I thought there's no way that satan could influence our thoughts and our feelings.
I've come A LONG LONG way from being so deceived.
"Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone".
"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
There ya go – Jesus is God and unregenerate people are the evil dead. You're welcome.
I always thought the thinking that Christians shouldn’t suffer was from reading the OT especially in the Psalms and Proverbs it says God’s people will be protected by him and be blessed and maybe that means you will not suffer or have problems.
A cursory reading of David’s or Job would militate against that idea. Job’s friends were pounding him with the idea he must have done something horrific but we have the whole scripture to see that wasn’t the case.
I’m sure pagans through history believed this false notion of suffering and that’s why they sacrificed their children to their gods to appease them.
Anyway the question really is why do good things happen to rebellious sinners? There is no one who does good, no not one.
Because of God’s common grace for this world people take it for granted there should be no evil or suffering. Romans 3:23-24