Re: problem of evil - to clear things up

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:24:18 GMT, "Damien Stanton"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>"Daniel T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> You accept that evil exists, and explicitly state that God is
>> omnipotent, so you must be denying his benevolence, He refuses to
>> eliminate evil. Or maybe you really are denying omnipotence by saying he
>> is not powerful enough grant us free will and eliminate evil at the same
>time.
>
>
>The idea of free will is that it outweighs the evil is causes, thereby
>resulting in a net gain of good over evil.  Implicit in this that evil can
>be balanced out by good - just like the pain of tooth extraction affords a
>greater good (otherwise why bother?).
>
>God is therefore 'powerful enough to grant free will and eliminate evil'
>because free will results in more good than it causes, thereby eliminating
>evil on the balance.  If you are saying that God should be able to give free
>will and eliminate evil absolutely (not just on the balance) then you are
>expecting God to do something like create a round square, and I don't think
>this represents a lack of power on his part.
>
>
>> In any case, you cannot refute the argument without denying one or more
>> of the premises. Unless you deny logic itself, in which case God can
>> both exist and not exist at the same time...
>
>Well, if you must, the free will defence would deny that evil exists on the
>balance.  It is still there, but it is outweighed by the good of free will.

So I suppose your heaven will be "more good than evil," but evil will
still have to exist there? Or will he dispense with free will instead?

- Sev