what is Hume's argument between the existence of God and presence of evil? is it convincing?
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Hume’s argument:\nEvil exists (Premise 1) \nGod knows it does (Since he knows all) \nHe could prevent it (He can do anything) \nA good being would prevent evil \nIf he could \nSo God cannot be good \nBut if God exists he is good\n\nIt convinces me utterly, along with other aspects of the world and of logic.  I don't mean that god should necessarily prevent every single instance of evil, but thousands of children getting slaughtered (even by god himself as in the OT), misscarriages, stillbirths, anacephalice births, etc... just don't cut it.  Xians either need to accept that he can't possibly have all 3 qualities:\nomniscient\nomnipotent\nomnibenevolent\nor he can't exist at all.  But the trifecta just makes no sense whatsoever.
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Some people believe that God is a being.  And no matter how much they say that He is Omnipresence / Omnipotence, they hold on to that idea.  Other people believe that God is an entity or consciousness.  In my opinion if God is omnipresence and omnipotence, that would include all things in the universe.  Try this idea on for size.. If God is omnipresence then wouldn’t God also exist within things / beings that are considered “evil, ” like a terrorist or murderer?
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What is your justification for stating that God is evil?  I mean examples. . . nothing that I can think of denotes evil
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No one can say for sure, for proving Gods existence would remove the need for faith. Without faith God does not exist.\nThe concept of Gods was created by every culture independent of each other. Can the whole of humanity be wrong?
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I agree completely: This quote sums it up for me:\n‘Nature, you say, is totally inexplicable without a God. That is to say, to explain what you understand very little, you have need of a cause which you understand not at all’  Holbach.\n\nThat's the reason I'm an athiest. And please guys, don't pray for me. Let the "rapture" get me ...
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No - because belief in God is different from proving His existence - Faith allows and encourages belief in the creator without physically dragging God into a room and shouting - Here He is!.\n\nAs a christian, we believe we face evil everyday. It is either natural evil (Natural catastrophes) or evil inflicted on others by man.\n\nEvil exists - we can clearly see it, however this does not necessarily make it necessary to "believe" that there is an entity called "the devil" - however it's easier to believe that he exists than it is to believe that God exists.\n\nChristians believe that God is the Creator -look what he created - this wonderful and beautiful planet, He is the Saviour(and I use this not in the evangelical sense as I am a Catholic - and don't believe that God the Father willed his son to die in an atoning sacrifice.  I don't believe that his blood "had" to be shed for people's redemption - however it was a fact that it did take place - and it allowed the Christian community to accept the validity of Christs death on the cross.\n\nJesus preached forgiveness which was unconditional - the same applies with redemption -I dont believe that God the Father "willed" this to be the way of salvation.  God, being God could have chose another way.  If the forgivness of Jesus was limited to "asking for our own forgivness on the condition that we do the same too - then the same would apply to God the Father as the son of God is equally God in our own human state. \n\nMy rant is now over - I hope that this throws a wee bit more light on what your looking for.
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A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question.       "Did God create everything that exists?"\n\nA student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"\n\n"God created everything?" The professor asked.\n\n"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.\n\nThe professor answered,  "If God created everything; then God created evil.    And, since evil exists, & according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."\n\nThe student became quiet & did not respond to the professor's hypothetical definition.   The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the religious faith was a myth.\n\nAnother student raised his hand & said,  "May I ask you a question, professor?"\n\n"Of course," replied the professor.\n\nThe student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"\n\n"What kind of question is this?  Of course it exists.  Have you never been cold?"\n\nThe other students snickered at the young man's question.   The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist.  According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.\nEverybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, & heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy.   Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; & all matter becomes inert &  incapable of reaction at that temperature.  Cold does not exist.  We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."\n\nThe student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"\n\nThe professor responded, "Of course it does."\n\nThe student replied , "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either.   Darkness is in reality the absence of light.   Light we can study, but not darkness.   In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors & study the various wave lengths of each color.   You cannot measure darkness.   A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness & illuminate it.   How can you know how dark a certain space is? \nYou measure the amount of light present.   Isn't this correct? \nDarkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."\n\nFinally the young man asked the professor,  "Sir, does evil exist?"\n\nNow uncertain, the professor responded,  "Of course, as I have already said.   We see it\neveryday.   It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man.   It is in the multitude of crime & violence everywhere in the world.   These manifestations are nothing else but evil.\n\nTo this the student replied,  "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself.  Evil is simply the absence of God.    It is just like darkness & cold,  a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.\nGod did not create evil.  Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart.    It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness\nthat comes when there is no light."\n\nThe professor sat down.
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No, it makes no sense at all. It is nothing more than an argument from ignorance.\n\nThe most obvious flaw in the argument is that it gives no indication what God or Gods to believe in. Even if we assume the universe is so complicated because of divine involvement why should we accept your God did it? Why not instead assume Satan did it? OR Great Cthulhu? Or Odin? Or the Flying Spaghetti Monster?\n\nYour whole position is can be summed up as nothing more than “We can’t prove God didn’t do it so he must have done it.” That is nonsense. You can’t prove Flying Spaghetti Monster didn’t do it either. Does that mean that you now accept ha he did do it?
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NO,\n\nThe burden of proof is on those who believe in "GOD".\n\nYou can't make up a person and say that if you can't disprove his existance then he must exist.
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Before we ask that question, we need to ask another:  What is the nature of the relationship between good and evil?\n\nHere's my answer:\n\nMost people think of the relationship between good and evil as "one or the other".  I believe it is "presence or absence".  More fully, the relationship bewteen good and evil is the presence of good versus the absence of (or separation from) good.  Evil, therefore (according to this line of thought, which I happen to agree with), is the absence of good or the separation from good.    \n\nThink about light and dark for a moment.  Light is not a counterpart to dark, nor is it the absence of dark.  Light makes dark go away.  Think about that.  Light can't be defined as the absence of dark because it _causes_ the absence of dark.  Darkness only exists if light is taken away, by deactivation of the light source or separation from it (as in closing off a dark room from the light outside).  So it's the other way around: dark is the absence of light or the separation from it.  The relationship between good and evil works very much the same way.\n\nNext, evil is not itself a power.  Rather, it is that the separation of the self from good can have powerful effects.  If one chose to rid oneself of all good, one could accomplish powerfully negative and hurtful things.  So, you can do evil things at will if you really want to, but this is not because evil is powerful; it's because anyone who sets his or her mind to it can accomplish powerful things.  (Turning off the light doesn't make darkness more powerful; it only removes the influence of the light; we don't measure darkness levels, we measure light levels).\n\nPeople who are duped into doing evil, believing they are doing good, end up that way because their belief or faith is blind.  They are unwilling to question the rules and scriptures of their religion or belief system.  As a result of that, they get lost and become separated from good.  So, it doesn't really work to say that it is evil that controls them.  They are controlled by something within, to be sure, but it is their own unwillingness to open their minds and question things that controls them.  This is not evidence of evil, but rather of human weakness and of separation from good -- but the result of that separation from good can certainly be terrible.\n\nCan evil be controlled?  That depends on what you are asking.  If you're asking whether one can control evil within oneself, I believe the answer is yes.  Whether you fill yourself with good or separate yourself from it is a choice, just as you can choose to step into a dark room and close the door.  It's also true that you can end up separated from good inadvertently, but once you realize that you've become separated you can choose to reverse that separation.  I'm not saying it's easy to choose good, because it's not.  It takes a lot of strength and perseverance.  To live a life of good is to know that some others will, at times, take advantage of your goodness and to make one's peace with that.  \n\nIf you're asking whether you can control the evil within another, I think the answer is no.  You can only try to encourage others to change their ways.
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God chose to make it impossible to prove his existence so that he could seperate those with faith from those who cannot believe in things greater than themselves.  Proof of God's existence would eliminate free will and the ability of humankind to become more than it is.  The universe was created by intelligent design so that an alternate explanation for existence was possible so that faith would be possible.  You can believe that God created himself and the universe or you can believe that all of the matter and energy in the universe suddenly created itself but you cannot prove either.  We live in a universe bound by the laws of causality.  Every thing has a beginning and an end and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  There has to be a starting point to causality and you must decide what you believe in based on what you can perceive in the human spirit and the world around you.
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None.  There is no God. \n\nReligion is a primitive attempt at understanding how the world works. It has been completely replaced by the Scientific Method, which is the greatest discovery of all time.\n\nThere is no more evidence for the existence of God than there is for the existence of leprechauns. Better to spend our time enjoying our wonderful world and helping our fellow beings instead of arguing about which brand of imaginary supernatural friend is the "right one".
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Absolute goodness is impossible. Its logical corollary is absolute evil, and if absolute evil existed, these two powers would cancel each other out. (Just like the famous example of the irresistible force and the immovable object).\nThe main philosophical problem here is defining exactly what we mean by 'good' and 'bad'. Sunlight is good - very good, or life on our planet would consist of tube worms and anerobic bacteria. However, too much sun is dehydrating and destroys life. So it is clear that sunlight is morally neutral, or if you please, morally mixed. Gravitation likewise - without it we couldn't walk on the surface of our planet, but when you're in a plane that has dead engines, you might wish that gravity didn't exist. Everything in nature is like this.\nOne of the key errors in theology is asserting that God is beyond nature or outside of it. Since by definition God/dess is omnipresent (everywhere at once) and infinite, then it is plain that there can be no place and no thing in which the Divine is not present. This is the 'heresy' of Pantheism, but it can't be refuted with logic.
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"If God is good and all-powerful, why does evil exist in this world?"\n\nTime to bust out the big words:  Theodicy.\n\nTheodicy:  "an explanation for the presence of evil and suffering that is consistent with the nature and character of God."\n\nBoy, I'm not sure where to start.  There's so many points to make and I'm not sure how to organize my thoughts....but here goes nothing.  This is my theodicy:\n---------------------------------------------------------\nFirst, let's start by defining "evil."  Evil is not a force or a created thing, so it would be faulty to use the circular logic that either God created evil (meaning God isn't good) or that God isn't the Creator of everything (since He didn't create evil).\n\nEvil is the absence of good, much like rust on a car.  God, by giving us free will, allowed us to "create" evil by choosing against Him.  For, if God is good, then to choose against Him would by evil and the consequences would be death (since God gives life).  Just as darkness is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of good.\n\nSometimes evil is the perversion of good.  Cancer is a good non-moral example.  It's a harmful mutation of otherwise healthy cells.  Whether evil twists good or flat-out rejects it, the results are the same.\n\nEvil is not God's fault.  He created only good and we distorted it, which is evil.\n\nEnough on this topic.  I'm leaving a few loose ends and there's much more to say on this, but I would be getting off track.\n\nSecond, let's point out a major implication of the question.  Anyone who asks our topic question for today is demonstrating the influence of Christianity on western thinking.  Hindus don't ask this question.  Animists don't grapple with it.  To them, the gods themselves are evil and corrupt and evil is to be an expected, embraced part of this world.  Suck it up and live with it.  It's the ying and the yang.  The Dark Side and the Light Side of the Force.  It's still the same Force.\n\nBut by asking the question, you are saying that there is a definite "evil" in this world that can be defined and identified.  There's something wrong and not right.  There is injustice.  And you presume that whoever this God fellow is, it's supposed to be His job to oppose this stuff and He's doing a lousy job.\n\nThis is a Christian worldview:  that evil is not normal and should be opposed.  The Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. are Christian influences in our society.  There is something in us as human beings that desires to fight injustice, help the suffering, etc.  This would make sense if we are made in God's image... but I'm getting off track again.  Let's move to the third point.\n\nThe question is usually vague and impersonal.  What I mean is that people who ask this question usually have in mind for God to go over and fix that mess in Iraq, or do something about sweat shops and child labor in China.  Why doesn't He oppose child pornography, or hold to account genocide in Africa?\n\nBut they don't want God to interfere with the sin and evil in their own hearts and lives.\n\nSee, for God to come in judgment, He would have to be fully just and judge all...  and this brings me to my final point.\n\nThe question neglects another key element of God's character.  Yes, He is good.  Yes, He is omnipotent.  But He is also merciful.  This may seem like a contradiction (i.e., why would He then allow suffering?), but let me explain.\n\nGod holds back His judgment with patient love in order to give us time to repent and be set right.  The painful side of this is that we also then have more time choose evil.  But the day will come when He will judge the earth.  The sweat shop owners will be held to account...and so will you and I.  God is good.  He is perfect, holy, and righteous.  He is pure.  He opposes evil.  We all have evil in our lives:  the t
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Why is there evil and suffering in the world? \nThe question implies that if a good God exists, then evil shouldn't because God, being all powerful, should stop it. \nWe need to ask and answer two questions. First, what is evil? It is that which is against God. It is anything morally bad or wrong. It is injurious, depraved, wicked. Some acceptable examples might be murder, rape, stealing, lying, and cheating. Second, if we want God to stop evil, do we want Him to stop all evil, or just some of it? In other words, if just some of it, then why? If He were to stop only part of the evil, then we would still be asking the question, "Why is there evil in the world?"\n     Let's suppose that someone was about to commit murder. God would have to stop him, maybe whisper in his ear, or if that didn't work, do something a little more drastic, like have something fall on him, or stop his heart, or make his hands suddenly fall off. Anyway, God would have to do something.\n      What if somebody wanted to steal? God would have to stop him too, right? Undoubtedly, God's imagination would permit a more practical method than I have suggested, but the end results would be the same.\n      What about lying? If someone were to tell a lie, then to be consistent wouldn't you want God right there to stop that person from lying? After all, He couldn't let any evil occur, could He?\n      Let's take it a step further. Suppose someone thought something evil. Then, of course, God would have to step in and prevent him from thinking anything bad at all, right? The end result would be that God could not allow anyone to think freely. Since everyone thinks, and no one thinks only pure thoughts, God would be pretty busy, and we wouldn't be able to think. Anyway, at what point do we stop - at the murder level, stealing level, lying level, or thinking level? As your question implies, if you want God to stop evil, you would have to be consistent and want Him to do it everywhere all the time, not just pick and choose. It wouldn't work.\n      Evil is in this world partly because we give it its place but ultimately because God, in His sovereignty, permits it and keeps it under His control.\n      Then you might say, "Couldn't He just make us perfect and that way we wouldn't sin?" He already did that. He made a perfect angel, Satan, but he sinned. He made a perfect man, Adam, and he sinned. He made a perfect woman, Eve, and she sinned. God knows what He is doing. He made us the way we are for a purpose. We don't fully understand that purpose, but He does. \nGod is sovereign; He has the right to do as He wishes. He has the right to permit evil for accomplishing His ultimate will. How can He do that? Simple, look at the Cross. It was by evil means that men lied and crucified Jesus. Yet God in His infinite wisdom used this evil for good. It was on the Cross that Jesus bore our sins in His body (1 Peter. 2:24) and it is because of the Cross that we can have forgiveness of sins. \nConsider the biblical example of Joseph in the Old Testament. He was sold into slavery by his brothers. Though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). God is so great that nothing happens without His permission, and in that permission His ultimate plan unfolds. In His plan He is able to use for good what man intends for evil. God is in control.
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You compare different issues:\nSince god does not really exist, except in the minds of believers, god can't be anything, including fool!\nMan, believing something non existing is an idiot!
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I would definately do David Hume. There is a great debate between scholars as to whether his writings depicted skepticism or naturalism. There is definately plenty of information to support either side. Not only are there his writings, but also the history of the time that would have 1) influenced his writing, and 2) affected the way people interpereted his writing. GOOD LUCK!