But I figured I'd save this this I posted on the other blog, as I spent too much time writing it to give it up. So here ya go:
The famous quote from the philosopher Epicurus reads "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" Many Christians have read that and thought "no, that's not how it works." From what I hear, Christians seem to think that of course God was good to do this because free will is required to make friends with God.
Fair enough. But does the ends justify the means? And is free will really worth it?
This is an argument I posted somewhere once. I typed this up myself, I did not copy it from anywhere:
I'm going to acknowledge some of your premises for the moment:
God exists.
He is the creator of everything that exists, besides himself (he is all present and therefore does not need creating).
The Bible is the infallible word of God.
Now, on to the Garden of Eden. God created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as he is the creator of everything that exists, correct? Now, I've heard the argument that the tree itself is not inherently evil, it's the fact that God commanded not to eat from its fruit. He said that his creation was “very good” and he had created Adam and Eve in his image. Adam and Eve were not evil, and evil, in the Christian definition, is to be against God.
Now we move on to the devil. He came to Eve in serpent form, and tempted her with the fruit. As Eve was not created evil, and anything against God is evil, and eating of the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is against God: he commanded not to eat of it. Therefore, Eve was corrupted by this serpent. Evil entered her like a contagious disease from the serpent: there is no other way she could have had it, as she was created not evil.
God let the devil corrupt her. The devil first became corrupt in heaven and was kicked out. What caused the devil to be evil? He was originally not evil. The only influence that could have done it is God, as no other factors in heaven are created evil unless God created them so: in the end, God made the devil evil.
Now, the devil was cast to earth. Not hell, earth. With all his visions of grandeur as described in the Psalms, God still sent him to earth instead of hell. So God has just fired a live round he created at Eve.
CONCLUSION ONE: God made the devil evil and then sent him to where he could corrupt Eve: a highly predictable situation.
So the devil corrupted Eve, she ate of the apple, and then she lost her innocence: now her very nature is evil. Same thing happened with Adam. God then cursed them: God just punished the “apple of his eye” for the evil that God himself gave them through the devil: remember, in order to make the choice to eat the apple, they had to be turned evil first to be capable. The devil was the evil that God sent from heaven to earth, and he gave it to her like a disease.
Now the whole universe is evil, as destruction and pain are against God, unless you want to say that it is his will to have destruction and pain, which says he's malevolent. So, in this case, that leaves three evil beings on the earth: the devil, Adam, and Eve (remember that they are against God and thus evil). Which of them corrupted the whole universe? As Adam and Eve seem to be incapable of that, the devil must have done it.
So here we go: God made the devil evil. He then sent him to earth, where he made Eve evil. As a result of this, the whole universe was corrupted. That means that God either directly cursed the whole universe because of something he himself did, or he indirectly caused it by making the devil evil and sending him to earth.
CONCLUSION 2: God is the ultimate cause of all evil.
So God is the ultimate cause of all evil. You may say that free will is so precious to God that he should be willing to allow evil to continue for the sake of giving people the choice. Right?
Because of "evil," many people have been raped, tortured, murdered, etc. People have been sent to hell (supposedly) and many are yet to go (again, supposedly). Every broken heart, every hurt, every pain, every case of torture, every case of lying, every case of stealing, every case of murder, is supposedly a direct result of this choice God supposedly made.
Now, what was God's reason again for making free will? So that his relationships with people were a bit more meaningful. Is that worth it?
Lets just say God were *cough* all powerful. Could he have made a way that didn't involve pain, suffering, and agony? Didn't God design how relationships work, anyway? Christians seem to make him very confined to human reasoning.
Epicurus' challenge stands.
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