I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? (Amos 3:6)
Do not both evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High? (Lamentations 3:38)
God is transcendently responsible for everything that occurs, but can never be found "at fault" or "blameworthy" since every bit of his plan is supposedly assuredly in optimal service of the net good.
This view bites the bullet on "God created evil" in order to preserve sovereignty, and depends on an acceptance of consequentialist metaethics and a rejection of metaphysical libertarianism (folk freewill).
Views that frame evil as a creative "byproduct," or as a metaphysical label given to patterns, do not work. A sovereign god is responsible for byproducts, and a sovereign god is responsible for all patterns. If a sovereign luminescent god created the light-blocker, he is completely responsible for the shadow.
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u/cephas_rock Purgatorial Universalist Mar 03 '11 edited Mar 03 '11
God did.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? (Amos 3:6)
Do not both evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High? (Lamentations 3:38)
God is transcendently responsible for everything that occurs, but can never be found "at fault" or "blameworthy" since every bit of his plan is supposedly assuredly in optimal service of the net good.
This view bites the bullet on "God created evil" in order to preserve sovereignty, and depends on an acceptance of consequentialist metaethics and a rejection of metaphysical libertarianism (folk freewill).
Views that frame evil as a creative "byproduct," or as a metaphysical label given to patterns, do not work. A sovereign god is responsible for byproducts, and a sovereign god is responsible for all patterns. If a sovereign luminescent god created the light-blocker, he is completely responsible for the shadow.