Would that make the makers of the atomic bomb just as evil as Hitler? Or perhaps the men who dropped it? Or was it really the person who said to drop it? Are the men who killed those Jews as evil as Hitler? How about the ones who drove the trains to take them to their deaths? Or the brothers and sisters, cousins and uncles and aunts who turned in their family members in order to save themselves? How about the Pope? He has to be just as guilty as Hitler. Or is God evil for letting it all happen?

Amen Heisenberg.

Hawkeye,

No it's not all just crap.  You just have a simple-minded caricature of these denominations.  Most of these traditions respect truth in other traditions.  For example, I'm a United Methodist and our church has no problem accepting invitations to interdenominational functions at our local Catholic church and vice versa.  Both traditions have a profound respect for the truth displayed in our differences.

Don 

Enigma of the existence of evil and the Garden of Eden and “GOD” the Benevolent

I know the story of the Garden and Eden and the fall of man is most likely a mythical account of a people long past in the mists of time

I will try in my own  way to answer this most difficult question.

How can we ever reconcile the fact of evil, suffering and pain, existing side by side with a benevolent holy “GOD” of light?

Let us go back to the story of the Garden of Eden “GOD” says to Adam in Gen,Chap 2 Verse 17 that he may eat of any tree except the “TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL”

Note; The tree of knowledge of Good and evil, so Evil existed before Adam. “Adam” representing an entire people and how they related to “GOD”

However, “GOD” being all-knowing knows before hand that Adam is going to fail the test so why did he give it in the first place? I hear a loud reply from the forum, “because he wanted us to have a free will and not be robots”.

I don’t buy this, completely, as “GOD” could easily have given Adam absolute free and said to him “Adam your can do anything you want without any reservations”

Surely, the above would still have been free will without the “necessity of any test”.

Nevertheless, “GOD” in his infinite wisdom goes ahead and gives Adam (and Eve) a test he “knows they are going to fail, Why? Was this fair seeing the awful consequences for humanity down through the age?

Yes absolutely as I will describe later in this essay

Let us go back to the origin of evil, where did it come from.

Isaiah Chapt. 45 Verse 7 “GOD” says “I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create “evil” I “GOD” do all these things. “GOD” made everything so he must have made evil but why?

Let us go back to Adam and the pampered environment of the Garden of Eden. If Adam and Eve had remained and by obeying God ( as God knew the would not) they would have existed in forever a paradise setting of beauty warmth, comfort, never ever have to toil work just reach out and eat do any thing they want .

This would be wonderful for say a hundred years or a thousand years, but having never ever experienced cold they could not appreciate warmth, never being hungry never appreciate food never being thirsty they would not appreciate the taste and satisfaction of sparking water , never knowing hate the would not know what love was.

They would have existed in a one-sided reality never knowing the opposite. But “GOD” knew that they must know evil, pain and sorrow to become fully functional free thinking beings similar to him in consciousness and indeed co- creators of their own domain and reality

Therefore, after countless years what is paradise to us would become a boring hell to them. Therefore, “GOD” simply had to banish them into the world or toil sorrow and hardship.

So “GOD” being fair and just gave them the test, which they failed and drove them out into the present reality world of thorns, cold, dark, pain, evil etc, etc. This reality is based on a duality we know evil so we know the beauty of goodness; we know truth so we can hate the lie, and we experience the light so that we know dark.

Humanity can look back on a “paradise lost with a longing to for the eternal wonder and beauty of the original Eden, which they would love and rejoice as paradise regained

I do not for one moment believe the nonsense that there is an eternal battle between “GOD” and the Satan and that this being is almost Almighty “GOD”s equal. Satan can only do what God permits him to do as we read in the book of Job.

Good and evil
Light and dark
Truth and lie
Deception and honesty
Love and hate
War and Peace
Positive and negative
Faith and despair
Holiness and depravity
Warm and hot
Life and death

And so on and so on……………………

“GOD” bless

Alan
McDougall

Come on Don. Most religions are based on fear. Fear that if you dont follow their specific rules, your going to hell. I see it as unfortunate that some people who profess themselves as being religious or following the word of Jesus dont have an ability to forgive. Even someone like Hitler. Have you? Has your church? You speak of the acceptance of other religions traditions. What like lighting candles, splashing water of the faces of babies?  But what of their beliefs? What of a church say of Scientology? Or Wicca? Or the belief of Voodoo? Are they as equal in your church?

...sounds like how the earth life system could be....' this could be heaven for everyone ' (Queen).

What a topic and one guaranteed to raise emotions/values. I have been a "seeker" for many, many years as the dogma in religious institutions left me feeling empty. For example, I could never understand how only Baptists could go to heaven, or only Mormons or etc.

As regards the Bible, Torah and the Koran...what is written by man is corrupted by man. My opinion. We see how the churches vie for power in our current time with all the media and other methods of checking on them, How much easier was it to corrupt prophets' messages when only the wealthy and clerics were permitted to learn to read/write?

I believe we all go to God (by whatever name you chose to call him/her/it) regardless of the vehicle we use to get there. Life for each and every person on this planet (disregard other universes etc for now) is a contract made prior to our entry into this plane of existence. Each and everything on this planet is like a cell in the immense body of God.

Now, this brings us to evil. Evil is relative. I think most of us can recognize what we view as evil but I suspect it is more culturally based then we think. I also believe that great evil, which almost no one fails to recognize is an opportunity for humanity to raise its collective consciousness and say "Never again! This will happen never again!" As in Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Kamiruge (not sure the spelling). Dropping an atom bomb. There are so many things we can point to as a people that are no longer acceptable and that we guard against or try to.

The opportunity to raise our collective consciousness is not limited to only man-made atrocities...consider the most recent natural disaster, Haiti. Millions homeless, over 100,000 dead or missing. So much of this misery could have been prevented had it not been for years of corrupt governments raping the country of its assets and leaving the people with absolutely no infrastructure.

I know many people with disagree with me on my opinion regarding "evil" but I believe we all have contracts (and few are major ones, most are small, just to be a comforting shoulder at the right time or mail that 100 to the red cross for Haiti victims, etc) I see every act of hate/chaos as an opportunity to learn to forgive and love more. I am not saying it is easy or comes quickly, but it does come.

I read somewhere long ago.....if there were a heaven, Hitler would be there. His work was as great for humanity as was Jesus, he presented his message differently is all...." quote not verbatim.

The greatest equalizer and the one most difficult to cultivate is love. May humanity one day truly learn that what we do to one, we do to our self also. Bless us all.

Hmm... the more (considered as) evil, the more raising of consciousness?

Spooky