Dear Christine;
A very honest answer, thank you. I find we have much about which we can agree. I believe children and ultimately adults are the product of their environments. The problem I see is that more and more children are being raised in a Godless environment. We agree that incest, wife beating and murder are evil. How about stealing, lying, or any behavior in which people treat others that they would not treat themselves.
I see a sort of universalism in the link you provided. No parent is perfect. Most are far from it. This causes less than perfect children, who make mistakes in raising their children and so on. All of us have thus inherited from our parents a set of good and bad characteristics. I see a lot of good in this world as well as much evil. I must ask you though, if all belief systems are equal why are we able to talk about certain ones being wrong. Incest for example. I believe it is wrong. Another person with a twisted view of love may think that sex with his daughter is fine, that he is protecting her from the possibility of being harmed by another man. He would reason that I love my daughter so it is OK. If he truly believed this it would still be wrong. Without a standard of good behavior what are we to say to this man? If we argue that all beliefs are of equal merit there is nothing we can say when evil occurs.
I belive in God. That God is a positive influence in the world. God asks us to love others, to treat them as we would be treated. I also see another force acting in our world. I am unable to blame humans entirely for this evil because we are a product of our environment. This evil I call Satan. Getting past the name it is still evil and most people have an understanding of the difference. God sets a standard for our behavior which each person is free to follow or not. God has given us free will.
Free will is important to the equation as it makes love possible. True love has a choice. If it is compelled it is not love. This is why God allows evil in the world. To make this choice clear. However, it must be God that sets the standard or else much evil is possible, and then justified by the people who commit evil acts. I am sure you have noticed people compromising their beliefs for money, fear or some other influence. God is above all of these, his standard is unchanging and therefore useful to us if we are willing to follow his lead. I cannot follow the standard of humans because of the history of imperfect parenting has twisted our natural view. But God will never let us down if we follow his standards. What do you think?
In Yeshua's love for you - DLL |
