WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EVIL IN THE WORLD IF GOD IS GOOD? - A RANDOM RAMBLE FROM PAPA-PEPPER
This is a common question out there in the world today.
While @papa-pepper will in no way even pretend to know everything or be an expert on every subject, I do have my beliefs and ways that I view the world around me. In attempting to answer this question, many people have arrived at many different conclusions. All that I can do is to offer up my own current conclusion at the moment.
Please excuse the fact that the video is a little blurry. I am still figuring out how to use my new camera. Hopefully, it will not distract you from the words that I share.
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EVIL IN THE WORLD IF GOD IS GOOD?
I appreciate and respect the opportunity that you have all given me by allowing me to share my sincere thoughts about such a touchy subject. I have at least one more vlog I plan on recording dealing with a similar issue, so I'll try to get it out in the near future.
For those of you awaiting the next post in my "End-Times" series, we will try to have that out for you tomorrow. I'll be heading to bed shortly, but I'll try to reply to the comments that you may leave here eventually. Thank you.
Until next time…
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I'm a firm believer that God is good and we are not! We are naturally inclined to sin and God doesn't want little robots that do his bidding because they have no choice, he wants us to want him....to choose him. As such he gave us free will and most people use that freedom to fullfill their own selfish desires rather than follow God.
Well said, thank you for chiming in!
Thank you.
Very true!
I really like your analogy of using the chain. It does make sense to what you are saying. Committing one sin has just the same weight as committing four sins.
I think that the reason there is so much evil in the world is because it is publicized...it makes the news...it draws in more of a response for the public. How often do we hear of good things being broadcasted? Not much.
We have a GREAT and LOVING GOD! We read in Genesis, when sin first occurred, our God is a loving and forgiving God. You would think that we (humans) would have learned the first time and not disobey the Lord, but once again sin crept back in and he was patient, very patient. Still we did not learn. Then after the entire world was fill with sin; except for Noah he took action. After wiping out the Earth it was up to Noah, his three sons and their wives to repopulate the Earth once more. Still we have sinned again. And it keeps happening over and over again.
I think this is a test. A very long test. God is giving us the choice to establish that relationship with him. He wants that from us, and we should want that personal relationship as well. He is always there with a loving heart and an open ear. When we establish that relationship and we know that it is good, it is our jobs to spread the word, bringing more people closer to God. It is our job to set the example. Maybe if there were more followers of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, maybe the amount of evil and sin that we see is reduced. We have ALL fallen short of his glory, we have all sinned, but he also forgives us and sets us on the right path to be closer to him, to be an example of what we should be doing to and for one another; TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER and GLORIFY HIM!!
I am hoping that in our lifetime the amount of sin and evil is drastically reduced. I would hate to see what our future hold for my children if sin and evil is left unchecked by us.
After the flood God made the promise to never harm us again and God's word is unwavering and steadfast, so it is up to us, up to us all to be the example and spread The Good News!
Thank you for sharing and posting @papa-pepper. It is always enjoyable to review, read and watch your post. God Bless!
Kenny
Pfeiler Family Farm
i guess you are right on this,a sin is a sin no degrees to it, the way man thinks isnt the way God minds work,looking forward to the end time series post
Thanks! We will try to get it out tomorrow!
Also, I would like so share a story about a believer boy and and unbeliever barber. This is story is like an answer to the questions "If God does exist and if He truly is Almighty, then why is there so many suffering in this world which He created?". The story goes like this:
One day a boy went to a barber shop to get a hair cut, he sat on a chair and the barber prepared to start, with a sigh the barber started "boy, do you believe in God?", the boy politely answered "yes sir.", "Then tell me", the barber continued, "If God does exist, then why are there so many people suffering? Didn't He created man in His own image, then let his own image suffer?". The boy looked in a far distance, a moment of silence, then the boy asked, "Sir do you believe barbers exists?". Dumbfounded and confused, the barber almost gave a loud laugh, "What do you think I am kid? The candy man? Of course barbers do exists, I'm right in front of you am I not!?". The boy then asked, "Sir, if barbers do really exist, then why does that old man over there from a distance have very long untidy hair and untrimmed beard?". The barber confused again, and said with confidence, "Well it's his choice, if he decides to come to this barber shop and have a haircut and have his beard trimmed he won't look untidy, right?". The boy then smiled, "It's the same with God sir, all of us who are suffering and all of us sinners, should learn to build a communication with God, we should learn to visit Him once in a while, and build a strong relationship with Him, and I am sure, there will be less suffering and all sins will be forgiven".
I've seen this story a long time ago, I think when I was still in high school, and it really gave me a real eye opener. I hope someone gets to see this and have their eyes opened as well, as it did mine.
Wow!
What a marvelous way to explain the key concept of a loving God! Thank you so much for posting this!
there is a negative as well as positive side to give more value to to positive there is negative people should follow the right path so god had given him the choice to choose between right and wrong.
If God had created the universe perfect, you would have nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nowhere to avoid going.
As it is, God created an imperfect world, so you can have the ability to be a good person, looking towards an eternity with all the other good out there, avoiding an eternity of nothing but death and suffering.
If we go as per brahmakumaris spiritual organization we are in kaliyuga or a period of time before the end of the universe so after this end then again new period starts called satyayuga. There is no evil only goodness and piece. In present period population is also high so more struggles for existance.
I think we are making it all up. All of it. But the start of it, we made the Law of Attraction, and it drives the world. Problem be, so many mistaken wanting for having. Or fear for love. They worry. There is a reason to live on the sunny side of the road. Feels better ; )
Once you see God everywhere, then you know, your not alone, and nothing happens outside of this. I've come to see it as my bubble of influence, not that there aren't things that enter a bit unexpected, life will always be until the end.
Why do bad things happen to good people? because they spent to much time believing in the horrors of the world. we are literally programming our minds with doomsday, then wonder why we find it?
think it would be better to dream what we want to see happen in the world..
I like your chain analogy. That works. ;-)
But I have a different view of how God works.
God judges you on your DEEDS (and God is the only one who can) not on what you say or how many times you go to church.
If you live your life true to YOURSELF, you are doing what was destined for you. It may be that you task, your mission, is to make life difficult for others so they can grow and learn. if that is your mission, given to you by God and you do it true to yourself, then you are not in fact sinning, you are following God's will for you.
It is not up to us to decide what is sin and what is not. That's is God's job. it is up to us to live our lives in a way that makes sense you US as individuals.
And you can see for yourself what happens when you commit yourself to living the way God intended you to live. You get blessed with a beautiful family, and a wonderful life. (long may that continue)
I live my life in a way that is true to my nature. It annoys the crap out of some people. But that's just the way it is.
I don't go to church or rely on someone else to tell me how to live. I do what feel TRUE to me.
And God will judge me for it.
Seems somewhat contradictory:
"It is up to us to live our lives in a way that makes sense to US as individuals. And you can see for yourself what happens when you commit yourself to living the way God intended you to live."
I agree that you that mouthing pieties and attending church regularly has little to do with "living the way God intended you to live". Deeds are what counts, but how do we decide which deeds are OK? It is extremely easy to convince ourselves that our actions are ethical: our "feelings" can easily mislead us.
How do you decide?
It's not a clear cut thing. There is lots of ambiguity in life. Often I won't know it's the right thing until after I do it.
But when i do the right thing, I get a feeling within that I have indeed done the right thing.
It's hard to describe.
I don't convince myself to do the right thing. If I have to do that then it is probably the wrong thing :-)
What makes me feel good, what make me feel right, is helping people. The action itself is the reward. That's what makes me feel that it is right.
I'm sorry. I can't articulate it better right now. I think if you are being true to your nature, the things that are true to your nature come easily to you. They are effortless. And in that space the world just feels right to you.
I probably need beer before I can really explain it ;-)
I understand what you're saying, but we should remember that (for example) Germans who helped murder Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and mentally retarded people also had “warm fuzzy feelings” fostered by a daily, unrelenting diet of government-sanctioned “information” and social approval that convinced them that they were doing “the right thing” to help others and make the Third Reich strong.
Vague “feelings” are comforting, but they can easily mislead. Study of moral literature (especially the Bible), unremitting introspection, and constant questioning of one's motives are ways to strengthen one's sense of ethics.
On one hand you have human nature, descending from hundreds of thousands of years of "evolution". The instinct to hunt and kill is hard to control. On the other hand, you have religion and God, two notions that try to control that instinct and incite goodness in people. But you don't need God to realize the universal value of species self-preservation. In other words, an animal is not inclined to kill its own, unless there's fierce competition and fighting to procreate or defend its turf. On a large scale, when humans were scarcely spread across the globe, that wasn't much of an issue, but with an overpopulated planet, this primal instinct to defend or even conquer breaks the moral compass. And that's why humans kill each other for oil, resources and land, to create more turf and defend it at all cost. Sadly, I think Evil will keep the upper hand in this overcrowded planet, whether God likes it or not.
We can certainly see a lot of evidence for that! Thanks for sharing @drakos.
We like to think that humans are uniquely evil ("An animal is not inclined to kill its own"), but this is not true. Many animals, even primates (gorillas, chimpanzees etc.) kill and sometimes eat their babies:
Why Do Animals Sometimes Kill Their Babies?
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140328-sloth-bear-zoo-infanticide-chimps-bonobos-animals/
Indeed animals exceptionally do that by instinct, whether it's survival or competition, but not as much as humans. Animals do not prep us for wars and gang up against weaker ones of their own. Humans do. They kill each other by the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions. And they don't do is by necessity, but more because of ideology, which led many times to ethnic cleansing and genocides. Our history is bloodied by wars for millennia. Animals do not do that, savages do.
I don't want to turn this into a “yes … but” war (this is, after all, @papa-pepper's blog) but human beings are not uniquely violent.
Ethologists have found that chimpanzees, for example, do "gang up against weaker ones of their own" and do engage in "ethnic cleansing and genocide" (cf. Jane Goodall's decades-long observations).
We humans are too smart and devious for our own good: we are adept at finding ingenious ways to quickly and easily harm large numbers of other humans. Luckily, we also have ways to tone down or channel our evil impulses into productive endeavours that benefit others.