(03-01-2025, 12:04 AM)Ali Imran Wrote: That trilemma wasn't by John Stuart Mill. It is attributed to a Greek philosopher who lived more than 2,000 years before him. We as believers in the one true God should not give any credence or thought to that trilemma, which atheists often quote to discourage the belief in God. And I can see it playing in your head.
Why do you say Adam did evil? I think that is a bit of a stretch. Adam was fooled by satanic deception into breaking God's simple rule, a misdemeanor like the double-yellow line rule on our roads. That's not so evil. It's not like Adam killed Eve.
I cannot believe what you believe bro. I am told our Lord is the most forgiving, most just. What Christianity is saying doesn't gel with that.
According to my source, the dilemma was posed by Mill and others have taken the form of the 'theodicy.' Christian thinkers, students, scholars and some of the keenest minds have wrestled with the question of the theodicy or how a God who is good coexists with a world that's often evil. Christian philosophers Gottfried Leibniz, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and several others had constructed their own theodicies such as "evil is good" theodicy, dualism theodicy and "cop-out" theodicy, to name but a few of the more popular of the myriad of theories that have been offered as possible answers to the enigma of sin.
It's not my intent to provoke discussion or provide the skeptics with more ammunition than they may already have. Though we can't solve the dilemma of evil, I think it's important to recognize other implications of the question that make the burden of the mystery a bit easier to bear. That paradox has not in the tiniest bit triggered my own crisis of faith. In truth, I have an unshakable belief in the Living God who delivered me, transformed my life, and blessed me abundantly after I surrendered my life to Christ.
Ironically, the reality of evil gives indirect evidence for the existence of God. If you had engaged atheists in debate, you'd find them countering by saying they've no problem at all because good and evil are both nonexistent and that all judgements of good and evil are arbitrary and thus ultimately meaningless. They choose thoroughgoing nihilism and make value judgements as if they had meaning. Satan playing on my emotions is just a figment of your imagination. I must impress on you that the evidence for the existence of the good God isn't vitiated by the anomaly of evil.
Although Eve was guilty of disobeying God, her disobedience can be traced back to the deception by the serpent. Paul expands on this in Tim 2"14. Adam's sin, however, was rooted in deliberate defiance of God's clear command, which is why the condemnation of the entire races is traced to Adam, not Eve.
Sin is defined as a lack of conformity to law or failure to be obedient. There's no difference between a slight sin - like a little white lie - and a horrendous sin or crime - like mass murders. Our slightest sins are acts of rebellion against the Creator of heaven and earth, and the wage of sin is death.
But for you, your God is viewed as being so "loving and forgiving." Your law is there to guide you, and if you stumble and fall, your God will merely wink and say, "Boys will be boys." You expect God to look at you - or overlook you - wink, smile tolerantly saying, "Oh well, nobody's perfect."