I'm basically an agnostic when it comes down to it, but I do notice the whole question of evil brough up a lot in religious discussions. But I don't see why evil has to be a thing. You can view it as an absence of good, just like theres nothing that actually causes cold, it's just a lack of heat. Can good even exist at all without evil. Doesn't good merely symbolize benevolence and compassion while evil just represents the lack of it, the complete opposite, greed and apathy to suffering. Can there be light if there's no dark? If there was no absence of light, then you couldn't say light exists any more either. No lack of heat (cold) no heat. Just my take on things. Also without evil and suffering there could be nothing to fight, conquer, and improve yourself by triumphing. There's been plenty of evil and suffering in the past, but where has it gotten us? To the highest state we have yet to be in, humans. Years of evolution, conquering hardship, has shaped us into better creatures. Conquering obstacles is the reason we exist. What point in anything would there be if there was nothing to challenge you? Again just something to think about. I am not justifying gods existance, I am better recognizing the possibility, and recognizing our ignorance as mere humans in the way of things.
Good isn't so easily definable, but I think people have the natural ability to seek goodness in its purest form. It's exactly what great minds like le Ching, Confucius, Jesus (even if you don't believe in the miracles), have been searching for, and they pretty much reached a point where they could discern between superior forms of good to inferior forms of good. In other words, its a never ending search, but through acquired wisdom you can more easily discern which is which and act out the best possible route. Also, you have to factor in mans limitations. We aren't as brilliant as we think we are. We aren't going to completely understand the answers to our own questions. Why is there evil, why would God allow that, what is God? We can search for why good and evil exists, and we definitely should continue that search; But to be 100% certain either way always requires a bit of faith and a level of assumption. The way I see it, not everything HAS to be known without a shadow of a doubt, nor should it be. Many great minds have said that if man had nothing left to discover then our human spirit would just wither and die. Many have said that life is just a ride that we all agreed on before entering into this world. If life is a ride, it would be pretty boring if there was no challenge to our lives. The type of challenge doesn't necessarily require such terrible conflicts, but I think that is mostly due to people taking life too seriously and in return, become greedy - They forget that life is just a game - They are so scared of death, that they will do anything to stab off the inevitable, and don't care who they hurt in the process. In the end, if anyone gives you a permanent reasoning as to why God and evil is contradictory, then they are just assuming too much, and that works both ways, really. The whole point is that there is some kind of divine plan, and what can our over-clocked chimp brains do to solve such a complex riddle? Just imagine a smug little ape-man going, "oooga booga mooga looga looga" ("And that is why such and such does/does not exist"). And after saying that, he feels like he just unlocked the mystery just by proclaiming his meaningless little yips and yaps.
I agree with this whole post except for that one line. That is a lie that these said "great" and I will add GREEDY minds have fed us for thousands of years to enslave us my friend. Loved the rest of your philosophy. I use the cavemen logic to explain things in here too occasionally. HUGS And Much love
What I meant by that is this: Whatever is knowable should be searched for, and whatever is unknowable by nature should not bother us. In other words, keep searching and reach the peak of our level of understanding. There is going to be an inevitable brick wall with our thinking. A LOT can be known, but I don't think EVERYTHING is knowable, and that's fine by me. I think that's the whole point to the Hindu philosophy of God playing hide and seek with himself. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O87-hyperreflection.html - "The idea can be traced back to the ancient Sanskrit scriptures of the Vedanta, one of the philosophical schools of Hinduism, according to which the knower cannot be known, and the one that sees cannot be seen..."
