First off, I am not religious. Ihave never read either the talmud, quran or bible so all my knowledge of religious texts is second hand.

That not withstanding, I have a question.

First some background info.

When monotheism became the prime form of religion for jews, the concept of god as we know it now, personal and omnipotent started to emerge.
However, at the time he was responsible for both all things good in the world and all things bad. What I gleamed from several conversations with different people of faith is that to people of the time the idea of giving thanks to a deity that was also responsible for their suffering led to some unease and that it is here that we first see the emergence of an adversary of god, namely satan. This made it possible to worship a purely 'good' deity as opposed to a flawed one.

To the best of my knowledge, according to religious texts, god created the universe, so the assumption that he created the adversary (originally lucifer, correct me if I'm wrong) is a valid one.
God, being omniscient aswell, must have known that he would turn out to become a tester of mankind's faith and his foil in every way.

My problem is now this. God went from a deity that encompassed 'everything' (including evil), to a god of good opposed by a being that gradually fell from grace to eventually represent evil, essentially cutting out the consequences of the blame of evil that should befall to him. In the end, all that has changed is that he is not directly responsible for 'evil', but indirectly.

The point is this, by making the personal god what he is in the new testament, doesn't that make the devil redundant in his original task?

nb; any and all explanations are welcome, if I've made any mistakes or gross generelisations, please correct me. I always value differnt inputs and opinions.

Thanks in advance.

true freedom that we humans have bin granted comes with a price of knowing

being able of judging,, choises,, greed,lust,jellosy,anger all normel by all

some more then others

*The Origin Of Evil*

non

good or evil? which is what? what do they even mean? world needs balance in order for it to work out

Ok, but my question wasn't so much "what" is good or evil but wether god is directly or indirectly responsible for it.

They say Satan has no power on Earth except that which God grants him. So from that we can ascertain that when God allows Satan to perform an action, it is actually a part of God's divine plan. If God wills the action to take place, then either the action that Satan takes is not evil, or God is not omnibenevolent.

That does conveniently cover the spectrum of it being god's plan but that also implies that it IS in fact god who allows evil to happen.

Evil is outside, the life of God.

Man and Lucifer were created with no evil in them.

according to christianity, evil is the lack of good.
Origin of it don't know. Maybe because not enough good has been produced so there is a lack of it??

This post was edited by White_Light on Jan 16 2011 08:20am

thats a good thing ur not religious.

keep your mind free ! (:

Well, you see, I believe that if any form of Christianity is right it is Gnosticism. The Gnosticism I would adhere to if I were one would be one version that believes that the creator is Evil. That means that Yahweh, the God of the three major religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, is evil. This is the origin of evil and suffering and all that is bad in this universe, as Yahweh created it. Additionally, Yahweh is not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnibenevolent. Especially not omnibenevolent. The origin of Yahweh (aka Yaltabaoth) is from the last emanation of god, Sophia (which means "Wisdom" in Greek), attempting to create without her partner Aeon. This created an imperfect and unpure being that was not of God. The true god that all of mainstream Christanity ignores (they worship Yahweh) is a god that is incomprehensible and, I believe, similar to a force of nature. This emanation process that he went through is simply a natural progression from immateriality and perfection into a more gross and materialistic form until the God of Materiality, Yahweh, was formed.

Yes, yes it does. Just look at everything that God allows Satan to do to Job for prime example.