{"id":591,"date":"2009-06-11T00:47:04","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T07:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=591"},"modified":"2009-06-11T00:47:04","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T07:47:04","slug":"on-good-and-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=591","title":{"rendered":"ON GOOD AND EVIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a talk on Good and Evil<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

by Willie Weidemann\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

from the Madison Fellowship of the Spirit <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Annual Conclave <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

May 2009<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If God is all-good and all-powerful, why does He allow evil to exist in the world?\u00a0 <\/span>This is a question that has baffled many people throughout history.\u00a0 <\/span>Some people attempt to solve this problem with Atheism; the belief that there is no God.\u00a0 <\/span>Others believe God exists, but there is no evil.\u00a0 <\/span>Still others think that God\u2019s power is limited and all the evil things that happen are steps in God\u2019s development.\u00a0 <\/span>However, I don\u2019t believe any of these proposed solutions are correct.\u00a0 <\/span>I will argue in favor of a fourth possible answer to the question of evil called the Free-Will solution.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>One of the main claims of this solution is that God has created humans with free will. We have the freedom to choose what we want.\u00a0 <\/span>In most cases this is true.\u00a0 <\/span>An example of free will would be Gandhi fasting because he wanted to save <\/span>India<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span>He had the ability to choose if he wanted to fast or not.\u00a0 <\/span>However, in certain unique circumstances, a person does not have free will.\u00a0 <\/span>An example of such an instance would be somebody fasting because they are in the desert and there is no food.\u00a0 <\/span>In this situation, a person\u2019s only option is fasting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>While the Free-Will solution holds that there is a God, it still maintains that there is evil in the world as well.\u00a0 <\/span>Humans are responsible for the evil that is in the world.\u00a0 <\/span>We have free will to choose whether to do good things or bad things.\u00a0 <\/span>At this point, one might inquire as to why God did not create us as more intelligent beings and less prone to doing bad things.\u00a0 <\/span>Those who believe in the Free-Will solution might respond by saying the following:\u00a0 <\/span>When we get tempted by bad things, God is not tempting us.\u00a0 <\/span>God does not tempt anyone.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, the temptations come from our own minds.\u00a0 <\/span>God gave us free will so that we may learn through experience and find the truth.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What happens to us as a result of resisting or succumbing to these temptations is called the principle of cause and effect.\u00a0 <\/span>An important saying for believers of the Free-Will solution is a Bible verse from Paul\u2019s letter to the Galatians.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cDo not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap\u201d (Galatians 6:7).\u00a0 <\/span>In other words, everything is an effect of a previous cause.\u00a0 <\/span>All things happen because of something we have done or have not done in the past.\u00a0 <\/span>At this point, one may find several flaws in these claims.\u00a0 <\/span>These flaws could raise the following questions: \u00a0<\/span>If it is true that one reaps what one sows, then one might ask what happens is this situation: A person plants some beans and a fire comes across their land, destroying the crop.\u00a0 <\/span>In this situation the person can\u2019t reap what he sows.\u00a0 <\/span>How can everything be the result of our own actions?\u00a0 <\/span>How does one explain innocent people dying in a car accident or a natural disaster?\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are some people who find the answer to these questions in the concept of reincarnation.\u00a0 <\/span>They believe that if a person just dies and turns into ashes, they cannot reap what they have sown in their life.\u00a0 <\/span>As such, it is believed that the spirit continues to exist after the body has died.\u00a0 <\/span>In addition, believers in reincarnation say that the spirit retains all our skills and talents that we have accumulated during our life.\u00a0 <\/span>The purpose for this is so that when people are reborn, they can continue developing and perfecting what they started in their past life.\u00a0 <\/span>Thus, people are able to reap what they have sown in a previous existence.\u00a0 <\/span>Believers in reincarnation have a similar explanation for what takes place when an individual dies in a car accident or natural disaster.\u00a0 <\/span>They say this seemingly unfortunate event was caused by something the individual did or did not do in a previous existence.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result of these past actions, the individual or his family had to learn something by experiencing a horrific death.\u00a0 <\/span>Another explanation of this is that, at the time of the incident, the individual had learned all he needed to learn from this life experience.\u00a0 <\/span>Thus, he or she was ready to move on.\u00a0 <\/span>However, many people may find it hard to grasp this concept of cause and consequence through reincarnation.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWith their own limited vision, people cannot see when or how the Law of Sowing and Reaping operates, and so they conclude that it must not be true\u201d (Elsa Glover, Rays from the Rose Cross 1986 p 443).\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In summary, there have been several proposed solutions to the problem of evil.\u00a0 <\/span>I have argued that the Free-Will solution is the most accurate and most plausible of them.\u00a0 <\/span>God does not give us free will knowing that we will make bad decisions and cause suffering.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, God gives us the opportunity to learn what is right through our worldly experiences.\u00a0 <\/span>In addition, the Free-Will solution gives up neither God (good) nor evil.\u00a0 <\/span>It maintains that they both exist.\u00a0 <\/span>If there was no evil in the world, then there would be no free will.\u00a0 <\/span>People would not have to choose right from wrong and good from bad because everything would be good.\u00a0 <\/span>Accordingly, both good and evil are necessary in the world in which we live.\u00a0 <\/span>In the words of Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, \u201c\u2026good and evil being contrary, both are necessary since each sustains the other\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a talk on Good and Evil by Willie Weidemann\u00a0 from the Madison Fellowship of the Spirit Annual Conclave May 2009 \u00a0 If God is all-good and all-powerful, why does He allow evil to exist in the world?\u00a0 This is a question that has baffled many people throughout history.\u00a0 Some people attempt to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy","tag-good-and-evil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}