I'll be making more comments later, assuming I can consume enough Energon cubes, but to start- Evil is not the *absence* of Good. Evil is the *Corruption* of Good. The best physical example is Cancer. A healthy body can exist perfectly fine without a Cancer. The Cancer cannot exist without a healthy body to dwell in. If the Cancer is not stopped, it will eventually kill the body it is in, thus killing itself.
Cancer is Madness. Evil is Madness & though God can & does foil Evil, He is not the Author of it.
When you say "explain" and "explanation", are you using these terms the way metaphysicians (and other philosophers) use them?
I did not get that impression; rather you seem to be using them in a way that is more first-person oriented. See, here's the thing:
There is no "Problem" per se with regard to Evil; because Theodicies have resolved them with regard to the Metaphysics of the matter.
The "Problem" is more with regard to how each individual (given the coming Nuclear Holocaust and Cannibalism, Necrophilia, etc) has been primed subconsciously by their Handlers, "Leaders", Taskmasters, etc to ask "Why did this happen TO ME?"
This might seem controversial to say: But such a question was never even contemplated up until recently. And even then, this is only a "Western problem" (I.e. something which involves at most 800 million to 1 billion poor souls out of the 8 billion currently on the planet).
The root of the matter lies in the formulation of that question. It is a malformed question which (if taken to its emotively salient conclusion) will lead to nothing but 'Fear and Trembling under the Open Sky' (a la Kierkegardian angst)
Man has Choice, but he has no power over Creation. He chooses, then he Acquires what he Deserves (which is always Created by his Lord Most High). Choice comes first, then the Creation and then the Acquisition.
"Why did this happen TO ME?" is therefore poorly formed because what was Created for your acquisition is precisely that which you Deserve. There is no "Why?" thus, because the most Optimal outcome (namely 'getting what you Deserve') is always the end result.
Aug 19, 2022·edited Aug 19, 2022Liked by Tree of Woe
>If traditional Christianity is correct that God created everything from nothing, and that evil is the absence of good, then by logical syllogism we can demonstrate that God created the universe from evil.
Creating something from nothing while there is nothing that is void of God's presence is what the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum - https://infogalactic.com/info/Tzimtzum - is trying to solve.
At least one of the approaches to the idea of Tzimtzum is that the "nothing" from which the world is created is called such because it's nothing in comparison to God's essence.
Another approach that the process of creation is started by the Tzimtzum which is "the act" of God's essence, which is called "nothing" from the point of view of the creation which can't grasp or relate to it at all.
Evil, on the other hand, has its ultimate root in the free will, which originates with the "Empty Space" that is the result of the Tzimtzum.
Oh, and almost forgot, though this should be a separate post anyway.
Most people also have a fundamental misunderstanding of the seduction of Eve by the Serpent in the book of Genesis.
When the Serpent told Eve, "You shall be like God, Knowing Good & Evil." he did not mean the simple knowledge required to differentiate between right & wrong, which is what most assume. The Hebrew word used for 'Know', is in the Marital Sense, that of a Husband 'Knowing' his Wife. It literally means, "To Take Possession of."
So what the Serpent actually said was, "You shall be like God, DECIDING what is Good & Evil."
Isn't it interesting that Relativism & Postmodernism, the fashionable ideologies of today, which deny objective truth, are essentially founded on that idea, that we can decide right & wrong for ourselves?
So... why *does* Evil exist? Why does God allow Evil? Well, in short, because God is a Perfect judge & He lets everyone get as much rope as they need to hang themselves. However, for Humanity at least, His Mercy exceeds His Judgement & anyone who wants to be forgiven for his crimes can be. Of course, one has to *admit* they are a criminal & THAT is where most stumble.
Ultimately, God will give everyone what they want. Those who want to be forgiven, will be. Those who want nothing to do with Him, He will leave them to their own devices.
The problem with that, is that we really have no conception of how little is actually 'ours'. The Bible says that, "God causes the rain to fall on the Just & Unjust alike." That's an illustration that we depend on this world to such a degree it's hard to fathom.
I am reminded of a joke I first heard decades ago: A Scientist challenges God, saying that he can make a better Man than God can. God accepts the challenge, but as the Scientist bends down to pick up a handful of Earth, God shakes His finger at him, saying, "No, no. Get your own dirt."
Forgive the arrogance in making such a claim here, but I wonder if i haven’t stumbled on a new theodicy? My worldview was heavily shaped by the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. I spent years basically assuming god didn’t exist, because I couldn’t solve theodicy, and then spent a few years living miserably, making bad choices, and struggling to reason my way towards making better choices. This way of acting seemed to be incompatible with determinism, and I found my way to the many worlds interpretation primarily through the music of Mark Oliver Everett, the son of the physicist Hugh Everette who developed the theory. As an aside, themusic of the eels (Mark’s band) sounds to me like a music attempt to construct an enduring theodicy.
What I believe goes something like this:
The physical universe is something like a choose-your-own adventure book. Each page is indeed authored by god, but the path we take through the book is up to us. God made this world with the ultimate goal of creating more good life, and this process can’t be automated. It requires conscious choice. So what happens materially is really just which page a given observer happens to be on. You and I have some experiences which are unique to us, and some which we share because we are like different branches on the same tree. A baby that is born and dies within days is only a separate being from me in the sense that two leaves on a tree are different extensions of the same underlying physiology.
I don’t really know how it all ends or plays out, as my belief keeps pointing more in the direction of trying to appreciate what is, while striving to grow by better understanding myself and then trusting my physiology to regulate itself. If each page was constructed and hand written by god, we might see then laws of physics as being something like a compression algorithm on the whole book.
I will happily unpack this further if you’d like to hear more!
1. The ancient concept of chaos was more like maximum entropy than nothingness. At least that was the case in Ovid's Metamorphoses -- which starts with a universe of everything blended together. (And the Biblical creation story also begins not with nothingness, but by a world covered with ocean.)
2. Kosmos as government might be relevant from the Christian view as well. Throughout the Bible, God often acts through angels. Now consider that angels might need to be more than automatons in order to carry out certain tasks; i.e., have free will. A powerful angel with free will is thus quite dangerous.
3. So how does one create free willed beings which can be relied upon? How about creating a large number of free willed beings with limited power and responsibility and selecting those which prove to be good, to be given more power and responsibilities later.
Taking 3 into account, notice how many parables deal with servants being left on their own, with those who prove faithful given additional responsibilities -- not a cloudy retirement. Do a New Testament word search on "crown". Saintly actions earn crowns. Note how St. Paul says his audience will "judge angels" in 1 Corinthians 6. And note that the First Resurrection is not saints going to Heaven, but Jesus coming down from Heaven to meet the resurrected saints in the clouds, in preparation to take over this Earth to begin the Millenium.
I'll be making more comments later, assuming I can consume enough Energon cubes, but to start- Evil is not the *absence* of Good. Evil is the *Corruption* of Good. The best physical example is Cancer. A healthy body can exist perfectly fine without a Cancer. The Cancer cannot exist without a healthy body to dwell in. If the Cancer is not stopped, it will eventually kill the body it is in, thus killing itself.
Cancer is Madness. Evil is Madness & though God can & does foil Evil, He is not the Author of it.
Interesting Analysis!
When you say "explain" and "explanation", are you using these terms the way metaphysicians (and other philosophers) use them?
I did not get that impression; rather you seem to be using them in a way that is more first-person oriented. See, here's the thing:
There is no "Problem" per se with regard to Evil; because Theodicies have resolved them with regard to the Metaphysics of the matter.
The "Problem" is more with regard to how each individual (given the coming Nuclear Holocaust and Cannibalism, Necrophilia, etc) has been primed subconsciously by their Handlers, "Leaders", Taskmasters, etc to ask "Why did this happen TO ME?"
This might seem controversial to say: But such a question was never even contemplated up until recently. And even then, this is only a "Western problem" (I.e. something which involves at most 800 million to 1 billion poor souls out of the 8 billion currently on the planet).
The root of the matter lies in the formulation of that question. It is a malformed question which (if taken to its emotively salient conclusion) will lead to nothing but 'Fear and Trembling under the Open Sky' (a la Kierkegardian angst)
Man has Choice, but he has no power over Creation. He chooses, then he Acquires what he Deserves (which is always Created by his Lord Most High). Choice comes first, then the Creation and then the Acquisition.
"Why did this happen TO ME?" is therefore poorly formed because what was Created for your acquisition is precisely that which you Deserve. There is no "Why?" thus, because the most Optimal outcome (namely 'getting what you Deserve') is always the end result.
>If traditional Christianity is correct that God created everything from nothing, and that evil is the absence of good, then by logical syllogism we can demonstrate that God created the universe from evil.
Creating something from nothing while there is nothing that is void of God's presence is what the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum - https://infogalactic.com/info/Tzimtzum - is trying to solve.
At least one of the approaches to the idea of Tzimtzum is that the "nothing" from which the world is created is called such because it's nothing in comparison to God's essence.
Another approach that the process of creation is started by the Tzimtzum which is "the act" of God's essence, which is called "nothing" from the point of view of the creation which can't grasp or relate to it at all.
Evil, on the other hand, has its ultimate root in the free will, which originates with the "Empty Space" that is the result of the Tzimtzum.
Oh, and almost forgot, though this should be a separate post anyway.
Most people also have a fundamental misunderstanding of the seduction of Eve by the Serpent in the book of Genesis.
When the Serpent told Eve, "You shall be like God, Knowing Good & Evil." he did not mean the simple knowledge required to differentiate between right & wrong, which is what most assume. The Hebrew word used for 'Know', is in the Marital Sense, that of a Husband 'Knowing' his Wife. It literally means, "To Take Possession of."
So what the Serpent actually said was, "You shall be like God, DECIDING what is Good & Evil."
Isn't it interesting that Relativism & Postmodernism, the fashionable ideologies of today, which deny objective truth, are essentially founded on that idea, that we can decide right & wrong for ourselves?
I'm sure it's just a coincidence though.
So... why *does* Evil exist? Why does God allow Evil? Well, in short, because God is a Perfect judge & He lets everyone get as much rope as they need to hang themselves. However, for Humanity at least, His Mercy exceeds His Judgement & anyone who wants to be forgiven for his crimes can be. Of course, one has to *admit* they are a criminal & THAT is where most stumble.
Ultimately, God will give everyone what they want. Those who want to be forgiven, will be. Those who want nothing to do with Him, He will leave them to their own devices.
The problem with that, is that we really have no conception of how little is actually 'ours'. The Bible says that, "God causes the rain to fall on the Just & Unjust alike." That's an illustration that we depend on this world to such a degree it's hard to fathom.
I am reminded of a joke I first heard decades ago: A Scientist challenges God, saying that he can make a better Man than God can. God accepts the challenge, but as the Scientist bends down to pick up a handful of Earth, God shakes His finger at him, saying, "No, no. Get your own dirt."
Forgive the arrogance in making such a claim here, but I wonder if i haven’t stumbled on a new theodicy? My worldview was heavily shaped by the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. I spent years basically assuming god didn’t exist, because I couldn’t solve theodicy, and then spent a few years living miserably, making bad choices, and struggling to reason my way towards making better choices. This way of acting seemed to be incompatible with determinism, and I found my way to the many worlds interpretation primarily through the music of Mark Oliver Everett, the son of the physicist Hugh Everette who developed the theory. As an aside, themusic of the eels (Mark’s band) sounds to me like a music attempt to construct an enduring theodicy.
What I believe goes something like this:
The physical universe is something like a choose-your-own adventure book. Each page is indeed authored by god, but the path we take through the book is up to us. God made this world with the ultimate goal of creating more good life, and this process can’t be automated. It requires conscious choice. So what happens materially is really just which page a given observer happens to be on. You and I have some experiences which are unique to us, and some which we share because we are like different branches on the same tree. A baby that is born and dies within days is only a separate being from me in the sense that two leaves on a tree are different extensions of the same underlying physiology.
I don’t really know how it all ends or plays out, as my belief keeps pointing more in the direction of trying to appreciate what is, while striving to grow by better understanding myself and then trusting my physiology to regulate itself. If each page was constructed and hand written by god, we might see then laws of physics as being something like a compression algorithm on the whole book.
I will happily unpack this further if you’d like to hear more!
Very interesting! A few notes:
1. The ancient concept of chaos was more like maximum entropy than nothingness. At least that was the case in Ovid's Metamorphoses -- which starts with a universe of everything blended together. (And the Biblical creation story also begins not with nothingness, but by a world covered with ocean.)
2. Kosmos as government might be relevant from the Christian view as well. Throughout the Bible, God often acts through angels. Now consider that angels might need to be more than automatons in order to carry out certain tasks; i.e., have free will. A powerful angel with free will is thus quite dangerous.
3. So how does one create free willed beings which can be relied upon? How about creating a large number of free willed beings with limited power and responsibility and selecting those which prove to be good, to be given more power and responsibilities later.
Taking 3 into account, notice how many parables deal with servants being left on their own, with those who prove faithful given additional responsibilities -- not a cloudy retirement. Do a New Testament word search on "crown". Saintly actions earn crowns. Note how St. Paul says his audience will "judge angels" in 1 Corinthians 6. And note that the First Resurrection is not saints going to Heaven, but Jesus coming down from Heaven to meet the resurrected saints in the clouds, in preparation to take over this Earth to begin the Millenium.