Why Bad Things Happen to Good People-Free Will and Evil
Perhaps one of the most obvious facts of life is that we make choices and decisions. This opportunity to act is often referred to as free will. Most people don't seem to think twice about their apparent freedom or how it came to be, other than being born and alive to take part in a society someplace in the world.
One question debated by Christian apologists and agnostics is if God is all good, all-powerful, and all-loving why does he allow for evil and suffering? Atheists claim that this fact is contradictory and disavows traditional Bible theologian's claims of an all-powerful loving God. Some philosophers even claim there is no free will saying that all outcomes are predetermined, some even to the extreme of predestined.
This discussion also has some companion considerations: Why do bad things happen to good people and vice versa, and why would God create someone knowing in advance they would go to hell?
If the earth is a place to live by personal choices, it is important for it to be a neutral place so as to not coerce a person to obey God or not, but to live by faith, which is the reason we act on any evidence we may come across. Rational beings act with the expectation of some result based on a consistent set of known consequences to their actions or the previous actions of others.
Events that are unpleasant, negative, unexpected, or undeserved must occur in order for their opposites to occur. If there is no opposition there is no freedom to choose. If everyone loved us, it would not be difficult to love back. If only good happened to us then we would not even know it.
Some truth-seekers and atheists are interested in discussing the nature of our "free will". The debate about the validity of religious theology and the existence of God from various points of contention is never-ending.
A common understanding of most theologians is that there is a source of love greater than all others that also possesses all knowledge as well as all power that there is to cause things to happen or create.
If love and holiness are eternal and uncreated, then evil must be eternal also, otherwise, it would not exist. If it is not eternal then it would have been invented or come into existence by the power of the being that created mankind.
There are at least two aspects of developed theological consideration when debating the nature of God and the free will associated with mankind's existence. I will look at are the theological teachings of traditional biblical scholars and philosophers compared to the teachings of latter-day prophets in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The apparent contradictions of God's love, foreknowledge, and power regarding the imperfections of this mortal life do not exist in the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This one example of understanding substantially demonstrates the nature of the teachings from the revelations that were given to the prophet Joseph Smith.
As Latter-day Saints, we teach that we lived with God before we were born. This is referred to as the pre-mortal life, a time when we lived with God. Our spirit is the literal offspring of divine parentage and we were nurtured and taught. The plan of salvation, earth life, and mortality was explained to us before we were born. This video will give you some background knowledge of our beliefs. Click here to see a video explaining the Plan of Salvation.
Ancient philosophers, Christian and otherwise, conceptualized God as a solitary, genderless, incorporeal and self-exiting divine being. The triune essence of the classical Christian Trinity is to be eternally envisioned in a state of perfect love among its three entities or personalities. The concept of all power it possesses is that of absolute creation, also known as creation ex-nihilo or creation out of nothing.
In accordance with the biblical book of Genesis, these scholar theologians claim that about 6000 years ago the Trinity changed. This earth was created and populated with two beings. They also teach this was the first time and a one-time event. The objective of their creation was for God to share its love with a new kind of creature, human beings.
Latter-day Saints believe and teach that God is not a solitary being but that a divine eternal family order exists in the heavens. God the Father is an exalted and glorified male being. This is why he is called Father in the scriptures. Eternal covenant relationships among divine beings form the basis of love that leads to creation. We see something of this order manifest in the creation of men and women in the image of God, with their union in marriage as the ideal focal point of creation that brings new life to exist and to be nurtured.
What does it mean to say that God has all power? Is God a person or just something that we cannot comprehend comprising the essence of truth? From the biblical record, we are taught that God is a person and a male being. A quick perusal of doctrinal dissertations by modern Christian theologians and apologists, however, shows that traditional creeds indicate that "God", the Trinity, has neither form, corporeality or gender.
Two basic ideas of eternity speak of God having all power. One says that God has all power over an infinite supply of chaotic self-existing materials. The other claims he has the power to think into existence whatever it desires at will in a moment or act of absolute creation. To summarize these descriptions, Latter-day Saints, see God as a literal father, a natural parent yet supernatural being. The second looks at God as a metaphorical parent, an unnatural and supernatural being.
The teachings of traditional Biblical scholars imply that we as human beings are temporary creations, only metaphorically in God's image. We begin to exist only at our birth and therefore we are not eternal beings. They teach that humans are mere creatures with no prior existence. Because of this, any "free will" that we have by which we choose and act is a process of our creation. It is imputed to us as a byproduct of our creation. This means that our will is not our own but actually proceeds from the creator. Any evil associated with the creature is a consequence of the creator.
According to the classical theology, humans are essentially pawns of creation, animated organic and robot-like creatures. The concept of free will is what they say gives humans the power to choose and to disobey God or not. As I pointed out, this is not free will but an imputed character that previously did not exist.
Classical theists teach that an informed choice by the first two created beings resulted in the rest of humanity being forced into evil and sin, which results in pain and suffering that they/we did not agree to. This contradiction is done away in Latter-day Saint theology because we teach that we lived with God before we were born and agreed to the conditions of mortality.
Ironically traditional Christian apologists use the idea that we have free will as the rational that God is not responsible for the evil and suffering that exists. It is not, however, possible to exculpate the creator if prior to our creation the only self-existing power was God itself. (God is referred to as it because the Trinity is nondescript as an actual being)
Latter-day Saints, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe that our spirit and spiritual nature are eternal. The central component of our soul, our intelligence, a spark of our eternal potential as an individual, as such it is uncreated and self-existing. In this way, we have a will that exists inseparably with us. It is absolutely "our" will, in that it was not created or imputed to us by creation. It became part of our spiritual birth as premortal sons and daughters of God giving us the power to act according to our will.
The power imputed to God by ancient philosophers and early Christian church fathers to fabricate from nothingness is known as creation ex-nihilo or absolute creation. From this viewpoint, God is not working with any materials or limits on his abilities, and yet from this state of perfect nothingness, he fabricates only imperfect beings.
The traditional creeds imply that when a human being is born into existence God arbitrarily assigns intelligence to animate the being and gives it free will at the same time.
According to the narrative of traditional theologians, the billions of created beings are introduced to pain and suffering by no choice of their own. Only Adam and Eve had the choice to live in Eden forever in innocence and paradise. Their choice to leave the Garden of Eden, to fall that is, was made on the basis of knowing the consequence of what they were doing. The rest of us are essentially forced into our existence by a random coincidence born to a life of suffering ending in death by the will of God.
The main question of Eden becomes-Why did God place the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden if he wanted them to be there forever? Why did God allow Satan to tempt them? Could they procreate before they partook of the fruit?
What we can observe is a difference between the speculation of scholar theologians and revelation to prophets of God in these understandings. Classical biblical theists have put the blame of sin, suffering, and evil on Adam and Eve for as long as they have been studying the situation.
To answer the reason for evil, apologists state the obvious. Mankind seems to make its own choices and the suffering of innocents must be for some purpose and some greater good. They can't, however, identify what that purpose or greater good is, but, simply state that such must be the case for God to be good and that greater good is an unknowable mystery. Latter-day Saints teach that this mystery has been revealed.
Based on the conclusion of ancient philosophers, mainstream Christian apologists have taught the concept of free will. They claim that because of this apparent freedom, mankind by their choices has brought suffering on themselves, not God.
The doctrinal foundation of Latter-day Saints is based on an eternal principle called agency. Our individual eternal intelligence means we can be moral agents and constitutes an innate freewill as a part of our personhood. It is not connected to God so far as creation goes.
The creations that God brings into existence, this planet and our mortal bodies give us the opportunity to exercise our agency. Agency is a gift and opportunity to exercise our free will and live by faith. Because of agency, we can choose to follow God and obey the precepts he gives us to find eternal happiness.
If human intelligence and the soul it pertains to is eternal and is a component of a spirit being, then there does exist the opportunity for mankind to exercise its own will as an independent agent.
Some element of our personality is eternal, it isn’t a result of God arbitrarily imposing his force to animate a being that previously did not exist. Without a pre-mortal existence, we are mere pawns forced into an existence of suffering and evil and do not have free will at all.
One question debated by Christian apologists and agnostics is if God is all good, all-powerful, and all-loving why does he allow for evil and suffering? Atheists claim that this fact is contradictory and disavows traditional Bible theologian's claims of an all-powerful loving God. Some philosophers even claim there is no free will saying that all outcomes are predetermined, some even to the extreme of predestined.
This discussion also has some companion considerations: Why do bad things happen to good people and vice versa, and why would God create someone knowing in advance they would go to hell?
If the earth is a place to live by personal choices, it is important for it to be a neutral place so as to not coerce a person to obey God or not, but to live by faith, which is the reason we act on any evidence we may come across. Rational beings act with the expectation of some result based on a consistent set of known consequences to their actions or the previous actions of others.
Events that are unpleasant, negative, unexpected, or undeserved must occur in order for their opposites to occur. If there is no opposition there is no freedom to choose. If everyone loved us, it would not be difficult to love back. If only good happened to us then we would not even know it.
Some truth-seekers and atheists are interested in discussing the nature of our "free will". The debate about the validity of religious theology and the existence of God from various points of contention is never-ending.
A common understanding of most theologians is that there is a source of love greater than all others that also possesses all knowledge as well as all power that there is to cause things to happen or create.
If love and holiness are eternal and uncreated, then evil must be eternal also, otherwise, it would not exist. If it is not eternal then it would have been invented or come into existence by the power of the being that created mankind.
There are at least two aspects of developed theological consideration when debating the nature of God and the free will associated with mankind's existence. I will look at are the theological teachings of traditional biblical scholars and philosophers compared to the teachings of latter-day prophets in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The apparent contradictions of God's love, foreknowledge, and power regarding the imperfections of this mortal life do not exist in the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This one example of understanding substantially demonstrates the nature of the teachings from the revelations that were given to the prophet Joseph Smith.
As Latter-day Saints, we teach that we lived with God before we were born. This is referred to as the pre-mortal life, a time when we lived with God. Our spirit is the literal offspring of divine parentage and we were nurtured and taught. The plan of salvation, earth life, and mortality was explained to us before we were born. This video will give you some background knowledge of our beliefs. Click here to see a video explaining the Plan of Salvation.
Ancient philosophers, Christian and otherwise, conceptualized God as a solitary, genderless, incorporeal and self-exiting divine being. The triune essence of the classical Christian Trinity is to be eternally envisioned in a state of perfect love among its three entities or personalities. The concept of all power it possesses is that of absolute creation, also known as creation ex-nihilo or creation out of nothing.
In accordance with the biblical book of Genesis, these scholar theologians claim that about 6000 years ago the Trinity changed. This earth was created and populated with two beings. They also teach this was the first time and a one-time event. The objective of their creation was for God to share its love with a new kind of creature, human beings.
Latter-day Saints believe and teach that God is not a solitary being but that a divine eternal family order exists in the heavens. God the Father is an exalted and glorified male being. This is why he is called Father in the scriptures. Eternal covenant relationships among divine beings form the basis of love that leads to creation. We see something of this order manifest in the creation of men and women in the image of God, with their union in marriage as the ideal focal point of creation that brings new life to exist and to be nurtured.
What does it mean to say that God has all power? Is God a person or just something that we cannot comprehend comprising the essence of truth? From the biblical record, we are taught that God is a person and a male being. A quick perusal of doctrinal dissertations by modern Christian theologians and apologists, however, shows that traditional creeds indicate that "God", the Trinity, has neither form, corporeality or gender.
Two basic ideas of eternity speak of God having all power. One says that God has all power over an infinite supply of chaotic self-existing materials. The other claims he has the power to think into existence whatever it desires at will in a moment or act of absolute creation. To summarize these descriptions, Latter-day Saints, see God as a literal father, a natural parent yet supernatural being. The second looks at God as a metaphorical parent, an unnatural and supernatural being.
The teachings of traditional Biblical scholars imply that we as human beings are temporary creations, only metaphorically in God's image. We begin to exist only at our birth and therefore we are not eternal beings. They teach that humans are mere creatures with no prior existence. Because of this, any "free will" that we have by which we choose and act is a process of our creation. It is imputed to us as a byproduct of our creation. This means that our will is not our own but actually proceeds from the creator. Any evil associated with the creature is a consequence of the creator.
According to the classical theology, humans are essentially pawns of creation, animated organic and robot-like creatures. The concept of free will is what they say gives humans the power to choose and to disobey God or not. As I pointed out, this is not free will but an imputed character that previously did not exist.
Classical theists teach that an informed choice by the first two created beings resulted in the rest of humanity being forced into evil and sin, which results in pain and suffering that they/we did not agree to. This contradiction is done away in Latter-day Saint theology because we teach that we lived with God before we were born and agreed to the conditions of mortality.
Ironically traditional Christian apologists use the idea that we have free will as the rational that God is not responsible for the evil and suffering that exists. It is not, however, possible to exculpate the creator if prior to our creation the only self-existing power was God itself. (God is referred to as it because the Trinity is nondescript as an actual being)
Latter-day Saints, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe that our spirit and spiritual nature are eternal. The central component of our soul, our intelligence, a spark of our eternal potential as an individual, as such it is uncreated and self-existing. In this way, we have a will that exists inseparably with us. It is absolutely "our" will, in that it was not created or imputed to us by creation. It became part of our spiritual birth as premortal sons and daughters of God giving us the power to act according to our will.
The power imputed to God by ancient philosophers and early Christian church fathers to fabricate from nothingness is known as creation ex-nihilo or absolute creation. From this viewpoint, God is not working with any materials or limits on his abilities, and yet from this state of perfect nothingness, he fabricates only imperfect beings.
The traditional creeds imply that when a human being is born into existence God arbitrarily assigns intelligence to animate the being and gives it free will at the same time.
According to the narrative of traditional theologians, the billions of created beings are introduced to pain and suffering by no choice of their own. Only Adam and Eve had the choice to live in Eden forever in innocence and paradise. Their choice to leave the Garden of Eden, to fall that is, was made on the basis of knowing the consequence of what they were doing. The rest of us are essentially forced into our existence by a random coincidence born to a life of suffering ending in death by the will of God.
The main question of Eden becomes-Why did God place the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden if he wanted them to be there forever? Why did God allow Satan to tempt them? Could they procreate before they partook of the fruit?
What we can observe is a difference between the speculation of scholar theologians and revelation to prophets of God in these understandings. Classical biblical theists have put the blame of sin, suffering, and evil on Adam and Eve for as long as they have been studying the situation.
To answer the reason for evil, apologists state the obvious. Mankind seems to make its own choices and the suffering of innocents must be for some purpose and some greater good. They can't, however, identify what that purpose or greater good is, but, simply state that such must be the case for God to be good and that greater good is an unknowable mystery. Latter-day Saints teach that this mystery has been revealed.
Based on the conclusion of ancient philosophers, mainstream Christian apologists have taught the concept of free will. They claim that because of this apparent freedom, mankind by their choices has brought suffering on themselves, not God.
The doctrinal foundation of Latter-day Saints is based on an eternal principle called agency. Our individual eternal intelligence means we can be moral agents and constitutes an innate freewill as a part of our personhood. It is not connected to God so far as creation goes.
The creations that God brings into existence, this planet and our mortal bodies give us the opportunity to exercise our agency. Agency is a gift and opportunity to exercise our free will and live by faith. Because of agency, we can choose to follow God and obey the precepts he gives us to find eternal happiness.
The traditional Christian scholar/apologist argues that God is not responsible for evil and suffering because men and women as creature creations have free will. This somehow “frees” God from being responsible for the sins and evil choices of mankind. This is a contradictory ideology because according to them God is the first cause of all creation. A being created out of nothing at their birth from abstract materials cannot possess free will.
If this were the case, then humans are nothing more than pawns with an arbitrary will and other characteristics given to them at birth. This determines their personality and tendencies to act a certain way. Their will in effect emanates from an act of God.
If man’s will is an extension of God’s creative powers, then man cannot have his own independent will. Evil and suffering would, therefore, exist because of the actions of the “first cause” or God, by creating the humans and not from the humans themselves.
If this were the case, then humans are nothing more than pawns with an arbitrary will and other characteristics given to them at birth. This determines their personality and tendencies to act a certain way. Their will in effect emanates from an act of God.
If man’s will is an extension of God’s creative powers, then man cannot have his own independent will. Evil and suffering would, therefore, exist because of the actions of the “first cause” or God, by creating the humans and not from the humans themselves.
If human intelligence and the soul it pertains to is eternal and is a component of a spirit being, then there does exist the opportunity for mankind to exercise its own will as an independent agent.
Some element of our personality is eternal, it isn’t a result of God arbitrarily imposing his force to animate a being that previously did not exist. Without a pre-mortal existence, we are mere pawns forced into an existence of suffering and evil and do not have free will at all.
Earth was created to implement the plan of love and salvation. It is the plan of moral agency, giving us the freedom that can lead to exaltation and eternal lives. Jesus Christ was foreordained to make it possible and we were there to witness it and are here now to experience it. --
Charlie Brown
Mesa, AZ
Mesa, AZ
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