For Stak: Why There Is Evil

[_Nightlion]

If ever philosophy was actually about discovering truth more than demonstrating a commanding knowledge of what was meant when who said what perhaps someone might consider this new notion of mine of some worth.

What passes for evil is NOT the opposite of God or goodness. This is what the Lord meant when he said "I would that ye were hot or cold." and why it was the lukewarm that he hates and would spit out of his mouth. It is further demonstrated by Jesus when he told the Jews that IF the mighty works they had seen where done in Sodom and Gomorrah they would have repented.

Hypocrisy is the pure opposite of God and goodness. Ironic when you consider that hypocrisy is pure humanity. Humanity at its finest, most noble, friendliest, greatest community. It is today's Mormonism.

Hence, evil is above hypocrisy on the scale towards godliness. The problem of evil amounts to a necessary step in the elevation of humanity. Not that evil is anything but vile, heaven forbid. It requires forgiveness and mercy and compassion and atonement, even an infinite atonement, because most of those stuck in evil will have to come around again from the Second Death before they can advance. Hell, evil might be the birth place of valiance in the next go round. After obsessing with God for an eternity, evil knows God better somewhat, might even inspire awe and wonder, having paid so much attention to him. Interesting, no?

Hypocrisy does a far superior job of keeping people ignorant, oppressed, and blind from the truth of God and the power of the gospel. Demons can be wicked culprits to be sure. But they can only be a bogeyman. Satan sits in the the hearts of the hypocrite. Hypocrisy is the pretense of righteousness which is pure Satanism. It misleads and misdirects. It also gathers unto men the best of this world. Best fellowship, best self-reliance, best education, best jobs, best skills, best government, best looking, and most important the most money possible. In short it is the ultimate of human pride and why the LDS excel at it better than any other group.

It was in fact the prospect of pure hypocrisy that attracted the most converts early on who craved a solid community above all else and accounts for why most people join the church still. It get precisely in the way of coming unto Christ and prevents it utterly. This is the natural man in his full excellence which IS the enemy of God. No philosopher will say nay to human excellence. Since evil is higher on the scale of desirable traits with God, in that he prefers cold to lukewarm, the problem of evil is a philosophical bugaboo. Insolvable because it is ill defined and completely misunderstood. The folly of man's linear thinking and hierarchical typing without judgment, prudence, or wisdom that only actual experience commands.

When I read Stak's representation of stale philosophical gamesmanship I only slightly desired to answer the problem of evil and placed that notion on the back burner of my heart. When I replied to Sock Puppets thread about the natural man, I elucidated this proposition without realizing what I was saying.
http://mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20997
After sleeping on it and cogitating at work the next day I realized I had answered the problem of evil and showed it both desirable and necessary in the spiritual progress of man and why God would find it agreeable to sacrifice and atone. I am not saying evil is good or that good is evil. I am tweaking the perspectives held by most and am supported by scripture in my conclusion.

Do I need to explain this better? I will give it another go if so.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Nope. God created Evil, and it does His bidding.

Kinda messed up, brah.

[_Drifting]

Nope. God created Evil, and it does His bidding.

Kinda messed up, brah.

Agreed.
For Satan to win, all he need do is remove all temptation from the world. If he provided no alternative to Gods way then God loses.

[_Nightlion]

Nope. God created Evil, and it does His bidding.

Kinda messed up, brah.

My point is that the greatest evil is human pride. How could God create and be responsible for our pride? Satan's pride caused the rebellion in heaven. How did God create Satan's pride? Natural human pride is in opposition to God. This is Babylon The Great wherein all slain upon the earth are accounted for.

Revelation 18:23-24
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

My point is that the greatest evil is human pride.

Who is all-powerful and all-knowing, and who created human beings?

How could God create and be responsible for our pride? Satan's pride caused the rebellion in heaven. How did God create Satan's pride?

Who is all-powerful and all-knowing, created the emotion of Pride, and created Satan?

Natural human pride is in opposition to God.

Who is all-powerful and all-knowing, and who created the conditions which you describe?

[_Gadianton]

Nightlion,

This makes total sense and it lines up with what the LDS Church and virtually every other church teaches.

Evil isn't going around murdering and inflicting suffering on people, while that's all "mmm bad OK", pure evil is embodied by your own church's market competition, for you, this is the LDS Church.

Once you get your call and election in the LDS Church you can go out and murder and that's all good. But if you find yourself an apostate interfering with the Church's market presence even if ultimately you move on to found a puppy farm, you have "blasphemed against the HG" and go to outer darkness.

The same kind of hypocrisy you talk about, Nightlion, is discussed right there in the Book of Revelation. The anti-Christ isn't so bad because he heads out to rape and maim, the scriptorians will tell you that we misunderstand "anti" to mean "against" whereas it really means "like unto", so the anti-Christ is bad because of the "hypocrisy" you are talking about, he sets himself up as a false Christ. He's Christ's market competition. Do not interfere with Jesus trying to make a buck.

What does the false Christ do with his power? The anti-Christ in the Revelation brings world peace and prosperity, puts a 666 on the foreheads of his followers and then kills everyone else. Typical dystopian sci-fi. So how does Jesus fix the problem? Comes down all pissed off in fire and kills everyone who disagrees with him, puts "the seal of the living God" on the foreheads of his cronies, and then establishes peace and prosperity.

All you have to do to figure out what pure evil is for any religion, from Catholicism to Mormonism to born again Christianity is follow the money. Who poses the biggest market threat?

I already knew all this from philosophy, Nightlion, but thank you for affirming that your church sees things the same way every other church does and giving us yet another reason to believe in philosophy and remain atheists.

[_sock puppet]

Nightlion, I think you've been pwned by Dean Gadianton.

[_hugh jass]

My favorite question to ask pesky Xtian coworkers:

Who killed more humans in the Old Testament, God or Satan?

God did. Matter of fact, he killed them all.

Satan killed no one. God killed people who did not understand his narcissistic riddles.

[_MrStakhanovite]

Thanks for post Nightlion, I always enjoy reading your thoughts.

[_Nightlion]

Nightlion, I think you've been pwned by Dean Gadianton.

Nothing that Gad said made the least bit of sense to me. I guess that is a beauty that is lost on me.