Jun 13, 2012 -- 10:11AM, Kemmer wrote:

So even in Heaven Evil is needed?

Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Care to offer a translation?

Jun 13, 2012 -- 7:05AM, Adelphe wrote:

...(with a nod to Paladin), was coined by Gottfried Leibniz (German polymath and Christian) in his attempt to solve the problem of evil.

"...For Leibniz, an additional central concern is the matter of reconciling human freedom (indeed, God's own freedom) with the determinism inherent in his own theory of the universe. Leibniz' solution casts God as a kind of "optimizer" of the collection of all original possibilities: Since He is good and omnipotent, and since He chose this world out of all possibilities, this world must be good—in fact, this world is the best of all possible worlds.

On the one hand, this view might help us rationalize some of what we experience: Imagine that all the world is made of good and evil. The best possible world would have the most good and the least evil. Courage is better than no courage. It might be observed, then, that without evil to challenge us, there can be no courage. Since evil brings out the best aspects of humanity, evil is regarded as necessary. So in creating this world God made some evil to make the best of all possible worlds. On the other hand, the theory explains evil not by denying it or even rationalizing it—but simply by declaring it to be part of the optimum combination of elements that comprise the best possible Godly choice. Leibniz thus does not claim that the world is overall very good, but that because of the necessary interconnections of goods and evils, God, though omnipotent, could not improve it in one way without making it worse in some other way.^[1](wiki)

Thoughts?

I don't think this world is better than the after life we hope for with God.  I agree this world may be the best of all possible worlds for separating the sheep from the goats--determining who the citicizens of the next world will be and preparing them for it.  I certainly disagree that God is the source of evil or that evil will be required in the next realm.

Isaiah 45

7 I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things.

There you have it from the horse's mouth.

And if you're a monotheist, then it HAS to be right.

Jun 13, 2012 -- 11:15PM, Blü wrote:

Isaiah 45

7 I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things.

There you have it from the horse's mouth.

And if you're a monotheist, then it HAS to be right.

evil (ra) better translated as "misery" or "woe"....

Yep, the Lord will sure hit you in the head with a pipe.

Hint:  the word needs to be the opposite of peace. 

Jun 13, 2012 -- 11:28PM, Blü wrote:

Ed

evil (ra) better translated as "misery" or "woe"....

Hebrew ra' is translated as 'evil' in 442 of the 663 times it occurs in the bible, Blue Letter Bible tells me.

If it means anything, it means 'evil'.

And yes, for a monotheist, Yahweh must always be the source of misery and woe as well.

So?  I personally don't attribute calamity to Satan.  Satan is just a tempter he has no power.  You'd make a good fundie, Blu.