We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition Essay Example

We must learn that to expect God to do everything  while we do nothing is not faith but superstition Essay Before reading this essay one must recognise that out of Faith comes superstition, and out of superstition comes faith. Faith brings out hope, whereas Superstition brings about doubt.Evil, to both Christians and non-Christians, is that which is morally wrong or bad. It is usually someone or something that causes harm, pain, misery, and even death. Christians regard it as anything that goes against the word of God (The Bible). God is considered to be all knowing, all present, morally and spiritually perfect, and all-powerful.Therefore the idea that God is all-powerful and evil exists is to many people a contradiction. Now one must, when faced with this problem and assuming that both an all-powerful God and Evil exist, come up with an answer of educated demeanor. There are very many arguments towards the coexistence of Evil and an all-powerful God.Near the end of the 4th Century a monk, St. Augustine, after studying Neoplatonism came up with an idea towards answering this quandary. St. Augustine thought that maybe God did not create evil and that evil is the deficiency of good. Also that it is entirely possible for something good to be cankered by lesser evils such as that displayed in other things of freewill. i.e./ Humans avert from greater, more perfect things and choose minor, imperfect things. Finally St. Augustine explains that feasibly what looks evil up front may be seen to be good in the context of eternity.Another argument is that of Leibniz. He argues that Gods creation power was limited to words which were/are only logically possible and evil is a necessary logical part of the Best of all Possible Worlds. This basically means that evil and suffering could be fitting only because it models part of Gods Divine and Benevolent Plan. i.e. Person trips up, breaks leg and therefore has to go to hospital, while they are in hospital they are not present in their office and their office burns down; therefore them breaking their leg and going to hospital has sav ed them from being burnt alive in their office building.Another, although slightly simpler idea, is that of (for example) a girl puts her hand into a flame and burns it, but in doing so learns from her mistake and probably/hopefully wont do it again.The final argument that one can think of is that conceived in the Bible of FREEWILL. This simply states that God has given mankind the option to do whatever it wants. This is not saying that God has no control, God could step in at any time and put a stop to it. i.e. The Great Flood.In conclusion, a personal view would be that, there is no problem of a contradiction between God and Evil, there is no discrepancy,. Evil and an all-powerful God can exist at the same time. Christians have faith in God that although they could do anything with freewill, many choose to do good rather than evil: as said in Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the assurance of all things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Modern day Christian faith also involves bel ief and the idea of the Supernatural action of God upon the human soul. Many people believe that reason and faith are far apart, and that one should choose to make the jump from reason to faith, (this is probably where the phrase Leap of Faith was coined.) Therefore another reason for the existence of an all-powerful, benevolent God and Evil is that of man having to have faith in lifes mishaps and faith in the rewards in the afterlife, to be good even though man is being tested by God.1I leave you with the idea that God works in mystical ways and man does not understand these ways because they are too complicated. Man is too fearful as to the true answer to God, which is the unknown, and Evil, which is where the superstition comes from, and so man is unable to grasp the true concept of why man sees evil or why there is evil. Superstition is only really used in times when there is personal stress, social stress or a crisis, this fits in with the concept of God and Evil, because man i s unsure of the answer. One has got to remember that one persons faith can be an others superstition, even within the same sect of religious belief. Therefore quotes in the Bible about Good and Evil are simply models and that they are not the true, whole answer. For, from Gods eternal perspective, everything can be good.