Where does evil come from?

Where does evil come from?

I went to sunday school, and there were talking about evil as their topic. Found it very interesting.

They say evil comes from Free will.

What I mean is the god created us, and he gave us free will.

Since he gave us free will, some of us made some really bad choices which made evil.

The only way god could make evil go away is by giving up our free will. Then we would not be able to really love god, or anything else because love is a choice. Making someone do it is not love.

What do you think?

Makes sense to me...Free Will is free to do what ever it wants.

Sure, it sort of makes sense....

Except that, although, yes, God gave us free will, God did not in turn create evil. We did. By eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Hence, original sin.

evil comes from the devil- he started all this crap called sin; and he tries to influence our free will to do bad things- i dont think free will is bad because if we didn't have it we would be robots and wouldn't have any real "life" to choose to do good or bad

If God could not forsee that free will would bring about evil, He is not omniscient. If God can not elimminate evil without taking away free will, He is not omnipotent. In this sense, it would seem that God is very limited.

You said you were Buddhist ^ Does that mean that you don't believe in anything except spirit? And if you do, couldn't that spirit be all connected to lets say a "Grand Consciousness?"

Originally posted by debbiejo
You said you were Buddhist ^ Does that mean that you don't believe in anything except spirit? And if you do, couldn't that spirit be all connected to lets say a "Grand Consciousness?"

Yes, I am Buddhist. No, I do not believe in a transmaterial soul or spirit.

I believe that we may be influnced to do things, but mainly we bring it upon ourselves.

Originally posted by vaya_the_elf
Where does evil come from?

It springs from three main roots - Greed, hatred, and delusion.

I'm a Wiccan and my people belive that evil is based on free will but it was not given it was created.See God had a plan for this world to saport life and he being the ruler. He created his 2 ideal people to start his world.they were ment to do one thing and that was not to eat the forbidden fruit and the devil lead eve into temptation SHE decided to eat the fruit and god didnt alow her to. she gave herself the free will and god did not give it to her she created it from temptation so it was started by eve and not god that is why she and adam were punished. if god is against sin he is a sinner himself because he handed us free will wich was handing us sin itself.

Evil comes from human nature, apathy.

Originally posted by lil bitchiness
It springs from three main roots - Greed, hatred, and delusion.

Oh, snap! Don't forget ignorance, though...

Although, I'm not sure I would agree to 'delusion' as a root...as a delusion can be benign, whereas greed and hatred are always malignant.

Evil is a joke in the eyes of the wise...

Evil, was never created, humanity always had free will, so they always have the opportunity to commit acts that would condemn them as evil, but evil is only a concept that humanity hold to keep its race that is continuously straying together, so I conclude that there is no evil just free will.

Isnt it already kinda proven that as long as god exists, man can not have free will, only if he does not exist can man have free will.

anyway, most things we judge are reletive to something else, if there was no evil and everyone was good, then no one would be considered good, similarly if everyone was evil than no one would be considered evil.{this is neither justification, nor speculation, merely a fact}

in my eyes, if god exists then he is the one who created evil, if he doesnt then well i suppose its the darkness in human hearts that we are born with and is in our nature.

That's true, if everyone was good, then no one would know what good was because there is nothing to compare it with...So good and evil comes from man. I do think that depending on what you think God is, would infact still be relevant to Him existing.

Yes.. very true... Evil and Good, or Rich and Poor can only exist if there is a comparison... We shouldn't blame God for anything because what we know now is just by mere assumption, and might not be true after all... as this is just another assumption where misunderstanding takes place quite often...

The devil!jm

Originally posted by Ou Be Low hoo
Oh, snap! Don't forget ignorance, though...

Although, I'm not sure I would agree to 'delusion' as a root...as a delusion can be benign, whereas greed and hatred are always malignant.

Anyway, yeah - ignorance, hate and greed.

Evil is a result of people's desires, which (directly or indirectly) results in the suffering of others.

Ignorance can't directly be evil, for if someone is not aware of the consequences of their actions they are not evil themselves - just unknowingly causing suffering.