Welcome to Gaia! ::

As for the current thought... If God created EVERYTHING, then what is God's connection with evil?

I know what I believe, but at this point I am ready to let some other folks have the first say. Then I will give a somewhat heretical voicing of my own opinion, and hope the other Christians don't stone me.

Well, here is a million dollar question that no one has been able to answer to my satisfaction...

If it were not for the evil, how would we know what is good? If it weren't for the dark, how would we know the significance of the light. Without wrong, what good is free will? If the only actions that could be taken were good and right actions, then there really would be no purpose for free will at all would there?

In this I agree with Chieftain, that God created the ability for us to do bad things. You see, God had to make a rule that could be broken before sin could even start. If God did not want sin in the world, then all that He had to do was neglect to make a rule for humanity to disobey. The Old Testament is the Covenant of the Law. He may not have made us sin, but He made the sin when He defined it for us by saying that these things are what you can do, and these things are what you can't do. For what else is sin but the definition of the actions (or lack thereof) in which cause us to "miss the mark" of what God wants from and for us.

I don't believe God wanted slaves, and so for us to be more than dolls, we need to be given the opportunity to rise above the self. We would never do that if all that we wanted and needed automatically came to us for eternity, and we would never truly appreciate where we came from or who we are, or what purpose our lives have.

In short, we would not know what good was without evil. Just like we wouldn't know peace without war. Everything would just be standard, medium, boring, unenlightened, and void.
As for free will, being that this discussion is based on the idea that free will exist, then we would use our free will to determine other things. Each step we take demonstrates free will and not all decisions are based on a good vs. bad. I suppose it would become a good vs. better way of thinking.

Sorry it's late for me and my mind is completely functioning. So this is at least my little statement to start.

i would say that God as we know him isn't nessesarilly teh same God in the beginning of the Book of Genesis. lemme clarify.

"in the beginning, there was Nothing; then God said 'Let there Be Light', and there was Light. and God saw the Light and it was Good, and He divided the Darkness from the Light."

the way i interpret this, is that God was Nothing and Everything simultaneously, and when God became Conscious, he became All Creation and Existance. but He is also the Force of Destruction. you can think of it as the Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva trio of Hinduism (Creator/Maintainer/Destroyer).

He divided the Light from the Darkness, and this is a way of Dualizing the world, so as to make it perceivable. but in Reality, all things come together.

we look at God, and think of Him as Pure Good, because He has chosen to divide Himself from Evil. but the Evil came from the same source, and was a part of Him. it is only by Dualizing God that we are able to discern Him, but in doing so we dilute His Ultimateness, and His Glory. the Pre-Genesis form of God is like Kali-ma, and the God we know is like Durga when Benevolent, and Kali when Vengeful. i think the Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Wiccans tend to forget that God/Goddess is all, and that the Pure Good form is only one Aspect. the Evil also originates from the same source as the Good in a single Being.

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as for Adam and Eve... i'm not realy certain where i stand on Destiny.... is Destiny ever-changing? is it Set-in-Stone?

i think that if Destiny were unchangeable, than even God would be powerless to it, and that just doesn't seem to be Omnipotent. if God is Omnipotent, than he'd be able to change Destiny, and there is no reason we wouldn't be able to either. besides, if we look at it Scientifically, we know that Particles actually pop into and out of our Reality, through various different Realities, and are even in multiple Realities at once. this idea of Alternate Realities solidifies my belief in Infinite Possibility and Potential, and that is why i am willing to bet that Destiny is Changeable.

as for whether or not that means Adam and Eve realy had a choice, i think the truth is, that each choice they could possibly make happens, so some Reality had to have this possibility. what this means fundamentally gets tricky, and i'll need more tim eto philosophize on it.