Free At Last

Epicurus is generally credited with first expounding the problem of evil, and it is sometimes called "the Epicurean paradox" or "the riddle of Epicurus."

"Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" — Epicurus, as quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief

Free will

The free will argument is as follows: God's creation of persons with morally significant free will is something of tremendous value. God could not eliminate evil and suffering without thereby eliminating the greater good of having created persons with free will and who can make moral choices.

One problem Christians like to ignore in the problem of Evil is this.. Does God have freewill? Because if God has freewill how can he be all good? Does God make moral choices? Can God choose to do Evil if he wants? If he can not choose then how can he have freewill?

If it is possible to have freewill and be all good then it stands to reason that not only would an all powerful God be able to create man in his image being both free and all good but he would by his nature have to so or he wouldn't be all good.

 Of course if God can not go against his own nature of goodness then God himself does not have freewill. This paradox is resolved by the same reasoning the Christian uses on us. That it is obvious that God is capable of Evil and given the type of freewill he has chosen to give us is a demonstration of the Evil nature of God.

 Of course if by good we mean anything that God wills then since according to Isiah there is nothing that is not done by God's will there is no such thing as Evil anyway.Let me emphasis in case it is not clear to you from the outset the arguments I am making proves that there is no God by definition only if we accept the Biblical concepts of God.

There are many other concepts of God and views on God that Christians refuse to acknowledge as valid. This is ironic considering how important it is to the religious person to establish that God is self evident. If we are to come anywhere close to reasoning to evidence for a self evident God than we must abandon the Biblical concept of God for it's inherent contradictions. To do so we must acknowledge 3  things Christians do not want you to know.

1.There are other understandings of God besides the Biblical one
2.The Bible as it is today was not always accepted as truth by all Christians and is actually missing 70% of the scriptures written exclusively for it
3The majority of Christianity is based on pagan teachings and mythology including virgin birth (Which was mistranslated from "A woman shall bear a child not virgin:) and resurrection.

Finally it must be noted that the Jewish religion that is the root of Christianity stole a lot of ideas including the 10 commandments (Hammurabi's Code:Babylonian ) Monotheism (Aten Ra:Egyptian)
Satan(Set:Egyptian) Hell (Hades : Greek) Elohim (The council of the Gods:Greek... often used to refer to the alleged one God ) A lot  of mythology was probably taken from the Assyrians and Persians as well the Canaanites.And even ignoring all this we are still left with a debate between Polytheism and Monotheism.Since this is all pagan based in Genesis God often refers to "us" which makes sense given the Hebrews called God Elohim which means Gods.

Also considering any argument that can be made for a creator can be used to prove equally that there are many Gods.If there are no other Gods than how could the Hebrew God get jealous of them. Why does he refer to himself as "us"? Why is the Hebrew word translated as God Elohim which means Gods? Isn't this proof that the arrogant priest that kept the knowledge or reading from the peasants basically copied pagan teachings ? Basically there isn't one original non pagan word let alone...
non pagan  idea in the Torah or The Bible.


But even in Isiah the Bible/Torah admits that there is Evil and God wills it. This solves both the problem of freewill and evil. Christians do not want to accept the conclusions of their own book. Only God has freewill and therefor only God is responsible for Evil.

Isiah
5I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

6That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Consequences of sin

Another possible answer is that the world is corrupted due to the sin of mankind (like the original sin). Some argue that because of sin, the world has fallen from the grace of God, and is not perfect.

But according to Isiah nothing is done that is not God's will. So to take this seriously we must again ask what is the nature of man and what is the nature of God?  If the nature of God is good than any being God creates would have this good nature. The argument of the alleged fall is based on obedience. God told man to obey and man chose not to. If man can only be good by obeying than who or what is God obeying? And how can man be said to be free?

If God is only obeying his own nature of being good than obey simply means to follow ones own good nature. In other words if there are infinite choices then the good choices are half of infinite and therefore more than enough choice even with the absence of Evil in the world. So we are still left with the problem of Evil  even with the arguments of freewill.Therefore using freewill as the solution to the problem of Evil is both false and disingenuous. That is to say ... it is both deceptive and inadequate.

Does God need to learn by moral choice? Can God only become all an all loving being by choosing Evil and paying the consequences? Is God growing to learn through his interaction with man what is good? If God starts off Evil but chooses to love man in order to learn what is good than the Bible makes sense. Of course then God is not only not all good but doesn't even know what is good yet. Then God is not all knowing either. This brings into question the whole divine plan.

If God is not all good or all knowing than what plan could he make that is worth pursing? It sure wouldn't be a divine one. So this leaves us with the possibility of an all good God who is all knowing but is not all powerful. The truth is if man has any freewill at all then this is a limit on Gods' power.  God had to actually give his power of will to man. To the extent that man's will is actually free God's will must thus be limited. Of course if God is not all powerful than he can not be all knowing either.

For one thing God can not know before hand what any given man will do in any given situation. If God knows what you will do then your will is not free. If there is a plan and God knows what all men will do in all situations then it is true that God is all powerful and all knowing but it is not true that man is free. Since man is obeying God's will not being free to choose then not only is man not responsible for Evil in the world but if there is Evil once again this must be part of God's plan. Evil must be caused by God himself. So that being the case God could not be all good.

Mankind's limited knowledge

One argument is that, due to mankind's limited knowledge, humans cannot expect to understand God or God's ultimate plan. When a parent takes an infant to the doctor for a regular vaccination to prevent some childhood disease, it's because the parent cares for and loves that child. The young child however will almost always see things very differently. It is argued that just as an infant cannot possibly understand the motives of its parent while it is still only a child, people cannot comprehend God's will in their current physical and earthly state.

I think I have addressed most the points in this assumption but I will clarify. For one thing if we are to accept the Biblical God then seeking this knowledge was what Christians consider the fall of man. In other words we ate from The Tree of Knowledge and it thus that we were given freewill in the first place. If man can not comprehend God's plan or why there is Evil or suffering then man's knowledge is severely limited as to make his freewill superfluous.

Given enough knowledge would man like God automatically make all the right choices that ended up in good and the end of suffering? Then why doesn't the all knowing God simply create man with this knowledge from the beginning?    If this knowledge must be earned from free choices and learning how long would such learning take? How long before man would benefit enough to be able to eliminate suffering in his world and know better than allowing Evil to persist? Can man given enough time create a world with little or no Evil?

If so would this take all of our history to accomplish? If so why do we not have the perfect society yet? Do we need more time? If our entire history still isn't sufficient then how long will it take given our desire to be without suffering and given that we supposedly have an all powerful God that is all good on our side? If given all this it will probably still take thousands of years to eliminate Evil then how are we responsible for Evil up until now?

Freewill or not we are by nature not all good but this nature is part of God's design. Is this design by nature good? If an all powerful God is free to choose by his own nature what kind of world to create then an all good design would automatically be a design with no Evil. The world we live in is obviously full  of Evil. So either this world we live in either is not designed or is not designed by God.

If this world has no evidence of design by God then there is no evidence of God. If God does exist but did not design our world then we have freewill but this is precisely because there is no divine plan. The only conclusion that can be drawn is if God exist then God can not be the one described by the Bible.This takes both our freewill and God as defined as Love into account.


If God is love then love does not kill or suicide. Love does not create Hell to punish freewill. Love is all merciful and forgives all. Love does not demand obedience but instead inspires and promotes spiritual growth. This connection to the source of all life is what allows man to both have freewill and to desire the end of all suffering. But it is love itself not desire that will free mankind. There is no sin only growth.

When man finally outgrows the need for both religion and government only then will man end suffering and connect completely back to "The Source" that is God. And only then will man be truly free. To be free one must not only be free to choose but free from suffering that comes from knowing love. The desire to follow or achieve power for one or many will no longer be necessary and we will finally be free from all suffering. And everywhere will man be rejoicing in his soul we are free at last!