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It’s the LEVEL of evil and suffering on this planet that keeps me struggling with the image of a loving God.
Yes, it’s easy to see the weaknesses in mankind that have caused wars, suffering,and genocide, but I just can’t buy the story that it’s man’s fault for this level of suffering because the bucks stops with God, as the original creator of EVERYTHING.
Watch how a cat enjoys the suffering of a mouse it’s caught as it pulls off a limb and then lets the mouse go so it can have the fun of catching and torturing it again as it tries to hobble away terrified. That level of evil was not caused by man’s sinning or disobedience to God. GOD CREATED EVERYTHING, EVEN THAT— where’s the love in that?
Look at the twisted deformed suffering of little newborn babies that are born with such painful maladies and have not even had a chance to even sin yet.
I do believe there is an intelligent creator behind all this amazing universe, but I stumble with trusting in the LOVING image.
Yes, there is love and poignant goodness along with the evil. But it’s the LEVEL of evil that gets me. I don’t see it as just for our teaching — hey, slap me in the face and I’ve got the teaching how bad violence is — I don’t need to see a young girl gang raped by ten men and left to die in a gutter......it’s the LEVEL.
OK, no one has spoken of pure non-duality.
Where there is this, so-called 'evil'....there is a so-callled 'good'
Yet, does this God dwell in a good and evil space and time?
Is a leopard going after an antelope kill....evil?
Sorry, is this the hair in the dualistic logical mind's ointment?
OK, no one has spoken of pure non-duality.
Where there is this, so-called 'evil'....there is a so-callled 'good'
Yet, does this God dwell in a good and evil space and time? Is a leopard going after an antelope kill....evil?
Sorry, is this the hair in the dualistic logical mind's ointment?
But SOMETHING (I call it God) created the ability, created the possibility, created the energetic impulse to choose evil.
The buck stops there for me — why create such a horrific LEVEL of suffering and evilness to even be available on this planet?
Many of the religions and belief systems say it’s here for our teaching, our evolving — how we respond to the suffering. I just find the need to create this LEVEL of suffering as some type of spiritual teaching to be quite spiritually confusing and disheartening .....
The Buddha spent his whole teaching on how to escape the suffering, so did Christ, so did the Advaita teachers.
I don’t see why the level of evilness and suffering has to be so EXTREME in the first place on this planet just for a teaching if there’s a loving God behind it.
Hmm....yes...the ability to chose evil....and THEN this God gave us the ability to rise above this so-called evil.
Perhaps the teaching is for us to see nothing is real?
Aka, a yogi laying on a bed of nails?
A man rising from death?
A man healing the blind
A man walking on water.
What is the message?
Nothing here is real.
There is never a night..there is never a day.
There is no such thing as up ....there is no such thing as down...
You see? We are thinking in dualism...yet, there is none.
Aw, how fun....we finally got there?
(After only 7 pages!!)
But most non dualism belief systems don’t believe in a god or a creator, correct?
So their answer to evil or suffering is it’s all an illusion, an illusion of the self, an illusion of any form of separation. Nothing is real — Just oneness and unity or the dream state. There’s just the “appearance “ of suffering and evil.
Is that what you are getting at when you say, “so-called” evil?
But most non dualism belief systems don’t believe in a god or a creator, correct?
So their answer to evil or suffering is it’s all an illusion, an illusion of the self, an illusion of any form of separation. Nothing is real — Just oneness and unity or the dream state. There’s just the “appearance “ of suffering and evil.
Is that what you are getting at when you say, “so-called” evil?
Well....thank you...
In Pure Non-dualism....there is nothing but God.
God is....nothing else is...yes!
And that's why it's good we're not in the Christianity section...That belief system is based on separation....
'God and sinner me'. The forgiver and the forgiven. And so on.
There is no problem with evil and suffering. The problem is with how people think about and define those concepts. Our lives are all about getting what we consider to be "good" and avoiding what we consider to be "evil." That is the story of all life on earth.
There has to be suffering, because that is what tells us something is bad and we should avoid it.
We don't know why or how the world is the way it is. We are not capable of knowing all that much. And we are definitely not qualified to judge it as not being good enough, not being how we like it.
Pain and pleasure, good and evil are relative and the positive can't exist without the negative also existing.
I have trouble explaining it, but I do know there is no problem of evil. It is our human limitations that make it seem like a problem. If we acknowledge the limitations of our intelligence, the problem just goes away.
And people are starving because they don't have an ecological niche. We are completely out of balance with nature, thanks to our cleverness. Giving everyone food would not get rid of starvation. Food can't be distributed fairly and efficiently unless it happens according to normal economic principles. Engineered economic systems have all failed, and always will fail.
There is no problem with evil and suffering. The problem is with how people think about and define those concepts. Our lives are all about getting what we consider to be "good" and avoiding what we consider to be "evil." That is the story of all life on earth.
There has to be suffering, because that is what tells us something is bad and we should avoid it.
We don't know why or how the world is the way it is. We are not capable of knowing all that much. And we are definitely not qualified to judge it as not being good enough, not being how we like it.
Pain and pleasure, good and evil are relative and the positive can't exist without the negative also existing.
I have trouble explaining it, but I do know there is no problem of evil. It is our human limitations that make it seem like a problem. If we acknowledge the limitations of our intelligence, the problem just goes away.
Whoa, impressive post.
Thank you...for trying to explain something very difficult to do.
Whoa, impressive post.
Thank you...for trying to explain something very difficult to do.
Yes, trying ... I just added another post trying to explain it some more.
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