Good and Evil ...

[stranger2]

God is indeed creator of good and evil :-

Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

God creates Satan :-

Ezekiel 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

So what are good and evil?

We know from biology that life is destructive, that it of itself degrades energy and guarantees its own eventual end that way IF the universe were closed, so what is 'wrong' with evil , what is the differenece, how was evil recognised ni the perfect being [covering cherub at the throne of God [as Ezekiel 28 says] so that he becaame the adversay ['Satan' in Hebrew] and started saying there is another way than love ...

the distinction seems to me to be simply that evil is MORE destructive than good , love is simply the least destructive way of physical life, most LIKE the non-destructive, non-destructible 'spirit' that is God ...

So that is all, Satan chose to lead the world in more destructive ways and God said OK then lets see what you can do as god of this world, see if your destructive ways don't destroy the world rather quickly and you with it ... and the climax of that we see today as all the 'short-cuts' of short-ter thinking in our modern world finally have consequences and our world falls apart from our living corruption of the best truth available to us

That is all then... it is no big deal that God teaches His prodigal son the truth using our world, just hard for us to see it from our role, indeed remarkable that anyone does so [except that God says a few will and sends Jesus to find these very specific few who will listen to God's words where most will not ...]

 

[Ben Dhyan]

God is indeed creator of good and evil :-

-snip-

So what are good and evil?

The key to this mystery IMO is the Genesis 3 story related to eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is a metaphor for the development of a separate self consciousness apart from the non-dual omniscience of God. The development of self consciousness means that the reference point of perception is no longer only that of the non-dual omnipresence of God, but rather is a secondary differentiation away from the unity of God and forms a split/dualistic way of perception. The "I" ego consciousness becomes the primary center of perception of existence and all outside it becomes "not I", (IOW the unity of God now becomes split into "me" and "not me" or "not God" and "God", eternity now become split into "now" and "not now", and infinity becomes split into "here" and "there".

God is one without a second and the attributes of good and evil are merely abstracted complementary opposite that only exist in relation to each other and in fact it takes one to define the other and vice versa.

Here is verse 2 of the Tao Teh Ching that insightfully reveals the error of the dualistic way of perceiving reality.

2. LETTING GO OF COMPARISONS

We cannot know the Tao itself,
nor see its qualities direct,
but only see by differentiation,
that which it manifests.

Thus, that which is seen as beautiful
is beautiful compared with that
which is seen as lacking beauty;
an action considered skilled
is so considered in comparison
with another, which seems unskilled.

That which a person knows he has
is known to him by that which he does not have,
and that which he considers difficult
seems so because of that which he can do with ease.
One thing seems long by comparison with that
which is, comparatively, short.
One thing is high because another thing is low;
only when sound ceases is quietness known,
and that which leads
is seen to lead only by being followed.

In comparison, the sage,
in harmony with the Tao,
needs no comparisons,
and when he makes them, knows
that comparisons are judgements,
and just as relative to he who makes them,
and to the situation,
as they are to that on which
the judgement has been made.

Through his experience,
the sage becomes aware that all things change,
and that he who seems to lead,
might also, in another situation, follow.
So he does nothing; he neither leads nor follows.
That which he does is neither big nor small;
without intent, it is neither difficult,
nor done with ease.
His task completed, he then lets go of it;
seeking no credit, he cannot be discredited.
Thus, his teaching lasts for ever,
and he is held in high esteem.

So in conclusion, God is ONE and the manifestation of the universe is only conceptually seen as constituted of multiplicity as a result of the dualistic mortal mind's way of perceiving it. When the mind is still and conceptual thinking ceases, all illusions of duality including good and evil no longer obscure the unity of God,.."Be still and know that I am God".

 

[ManTimeForgot]

Some people would suggest that the story genesis is a metaphor for humanity's loss of innocence; that prior to the knowledge of good and evil we were unable to conceive of evil and thus could not do evil.

So I think the better question is: Is a return to innocence possible? Is it possible for humans to be unable to conceive of evil?

MTF

 

[Beta]

I do not think man can go back in the sense we lose experience of evil. God is working an ' ongoing ' process in mankind and obviously we needed to know the state of evil as well as the state of good.
Adam and Eve made a choice from ignorance (as well as temptation to disobey) not knowing what evil was all about. God had told them what choice to make Gen.2v16,17, but the visual material temptation won over (above) their human perception , a case of matter over mind.
Man is still very much in that situation, we have many examples in our own lives how material desires come out mostly tops when choices need to be made.
6000 years of this human experience of evil should have taught man something as well as having help from scripture thus gaining more knowledge. God now grants Grace or pardon for the repentant man/woman to give us a new beginning this time in obedience to God.