Bad People...

[jazzytakara]

I was asked to move this to a thread where more people would be able to comment on it:

 

A question came to mind with the recent tragedies, its sort of a 'why does God allow bad people' question. I know there is the notion of freewill and that God wants us to freely choose Him, but with so many horrible things happening in our world, would it not be better to not have bad people in it? Does that make God selfish for allowing bad people to horrific things, so that others can freely choose to love Him? I don't think this is the case, but its hard to understand when you see what's on the news these days or how people act in everyday life? Can anyone help?

 

[PhuturePriest]

People often say, "If I were God, there would be no bad in the world." But the problem in that sentence is right at the beginning: I. God is much smarter than any one of us, I assure you. As such, he does things we don't and will never understand until we are in heaven. So although we may question why God allows bad in the world, he is smarter than us. Let's face it: If things were up to humans, the earth would have exploded thousands of years ago. I'd rather trust the being that made this beautiful world and all that is in it and that has loved me unconditionally than go by my intellect.

[jazzytakara]

That's what I believe as well, but how do you answer that when someone without faith questions God, using examples of children dying, etc? Atheist pages on facebook lately are rather hateful; some statements are just misconceptions, easy enough to refute, but others not so much. I know it isn't my job to explain everything, but I feel as though I must. My boyfriend is also Agnostic and has had severe illness in his family, so he asks those questions, and I never know how to answer. I usually try to have good answers, as social anxiety throughout childhood has left me timid and passive communicator/negotiator; thus, having solid answers helps a lot.  I much prefer writing...

[Chestertonian]

I think what you're referring to is what philosophers call "the problem of evil," and It's probably the single biggest stumbling block to faith for non-believers. It's usually posed like this: 1. God created everything. 2. Evil is a thing. 3. Therefore God created evil.

 

Saint Augustine's answer to this is essentially posed this way: 1. All things God created are good 2. Evil is the opposite of good 3. Therefore evil is not a thing. In other words, evil is simply the absence of God.

 

Check out this lecture by Peter Kreeft (my favorite Catholic philosopher) on the Problem of Evil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdbrkL6eHPw

 

[CatholicsAreKewl]

I think what you're referring to is what philosophers call "the problem of evil," and It's probably the single biggest stumbling block to faith for non-believers. It's usually posed like this: 1. God created everything. 2. Evil is a thing. 3. Therefore God created evil.

 

Saint Augustine's answer to this is essentially posed this way: 1. All things God created are good 2. Evil is the opposite of good 3. Therefore evil is not a thing. In other words, evil is simply the absence of God.

 

Check out this lecture by Peter Kreeft (my favorite Catholic philosopher) on the Problem of Evil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdbrkL6eHPw

 

Wait, that's confusing. Why does the opposite of a thing have to be nothing? The opposite of x is not 0 (unless x is 0). By saying God only created good things, aren't we ignoring the fact that God created some people as psychopaths? Isn't the idea that God created the possibility of being a psychopath strange in itself? I understand that people have their crosses but I can't imagine how a lack of empathy or concern for other people can be in that category. How about people with low blood sugar or glucose intolerance? Studies have shown that these people are more likely to do drugs, to act aggressively, to engage in criminal behavior, to cheat on their spouses, to smoke cigarettes, along with a wide range of bad habits. Why would God create people predisposed to evil? Why would he even allow some people to be more likely to sin than others? How is that fair? In fact, the whole notion of what is evil comes into question when we realize that everyone has the capability to become evil when put in the right setting. Search the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiment. Evil might be the absence of God, true. But I don't know if it's fair to say that's a sufficient enough answer.
 

Edited April 20, 2013 by CatholicsAreKewl

[Chestertonian]

Wait, that's confusing. Why does the opposite of a thing have to be nothing? The opposite of x is not 0 (unless x is 0). By saying God only created good things, aren't we ignoring the fact that God created some people as psychopaths? Isn't the idea that God created the possibility of being a psychopath strange in itself? I understand that people have their crosses but I can't imagine how a lack of empathy or concern for other people can be in that category. How about people with low blood sugar or glucose intolerance? Studies have shown that these people are more likely to do drugs, to act aggressively, to engage in criminal behavior, to cheat on their spouses, to smoke cigarettes, along with a wide range of bad habits. Why would God create people predisposed to evil? Why would he even allow some people to be more likely to sin than others? How is that fair? In fact, the whole notion of what is evil comes into question when we realize that everyone has the capability to become evil when put in the right setting. Search the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiment. Evil might be the absence of God, true. But I don't know if it's fair to say that's a sufficient enough answer.
 

 

"evil is not good" is what I meant to say. You might check out that video. Kreeft is an actual philosopher and can explain this a lot better than I can.
 

[Slappo]

1. God created all things
2. Everything God created is good
3. Therefore all things are good

1. Evil is the opposite of good
2. All things are good
3. Therefore evil is the opposite of all things

[Socrates]

I was asked to move this to a thread where more people would be able to comment on it:

 

A question came to mind with the recent tragedies, its sort of a 'why does God allow bad people' question. I know there is the notion of freewill and that God wants us to freely choose Him, but with so many horrible things happening in our world, would it not be better to not have bad people in it? Does that make God selfish for allowing bad people to horrific things, so that others can freely choose to love Him? I don't think this is the case, but its hard to understand when you see what's on the news these days or how people act in everyday life? Can anyone help?

 

As we are all sinners, if God were to suddenly eliminate all "bad people," He would have to destroy all of us.

 

After all, the Faith teaches us that any moral evil, even the smallest venial sin, is objectively a greater evil than the destruction of the entire physical universe.

 

Yeah, free will can be a real bear sometimes.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Socrates

[CatholicsAreKewl]

"evil is not good" is what I meant to say. You might check out that video. Kreeft is an actual philosopher and can explain this a lot better than I can.
 

I like listening to Kreeft. I'll check it out later.