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To: RnMomof7
Darkness is the absence of light, cold the absence of heat and evil the absence of good. God ordained ‘good’, it is man shunning it that leaves evil. God has nothing to do with evil.
6 posted on 03/07/2011 11:27:47 AM PST by JPG (May the WI GOP stay united and strong.)
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To: JPG

You make the same point as did Thomas Aquinas. It won’t wash. Evil exists, and therefore is part of creation. However, while this clearly indicates that God planned to incorporate evil into Creation, it suggests that we may misunderstand both evil and His divine intentions.

What kind of loving Creator would consider condemning any being to an eternity of suffering? No matter what evil an incarnate being may have willed, the idea of hell as a punishment seems absurdly excessive and absent of wisdom.

Alternatively, evil may be considered to be nothing more than one of His teaching instruments. This becomes a particularly appealing solution for the problem of evil if reincarnation permits souls to learn and to grow. In this manner, a truly loving God could permit all to justly earn their redemption.

This is my current hypothesis for the problem of theodicy. Facing the issue drove me out of the Catholic Church at the age of thirteen. In the six decades since, I’ve migrated through a brief spell of atheism, a long turn as an agnostic, and have finally returned to my love for Christ and the merits of his teachings.

I therefore presently regard myself as a Gnostic Christian. As a self-professed heretic, I’m really immune to the imprecations of those who cite Biblical scripture to fend off demons like me.

The exercise of my capacity for reasoning, coupled with the testimony of those who’ve had a wide variety of unconventional experiences (NDEs, OOBEs, hypnotic regressions and more), have led to my somewhat unconventional views.


30 posted on 03/07/2011 12:34:57 PM PST by earglasses (I was blind, and now I hear...)
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