"Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans."

[SkyWriting]

However, there are plenty of times when humans got together and were civil toward each other while working toward a purpose that was not "of God"

That would be all the actions of every unbeliever?

You'll stand behind that idea that anything not done for God is evil then?

Perhaps your moms delivery doctor was not saved? Uh oh.
That would make you the devils seed.

 

[dqhall]

“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place," Austin wrote.
“People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil."
“I don’t buy it," he continued. "Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own... By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.”

However, Austin and Geoghegan's dream trip came to a tragic and gruesome end when they got to Tajikistan, a country with a known terrorist presence. They were riding their bikes through the country on July 29 when a car rammed them, according to CBS News. Five men got out of the car and stabbed the couple to death along with two other cyclists, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands.

Two days later, ISIS released a video showing the same men sitting in front of the black ISIS flag. They looked at the camera and vowed to kill "disbelievers," according to The New York Times
​

​

The lack of ISIS hospitality, charity and loving kindness makes radical Muslim areas less attractive to tourists.

These militant attacks give the ISIS religion a bad reputation. The Chinese are in the process of taking down mosques. In fact China seems to doubt religion in general after the traditions of Marxism:
https://bitterwinter.org/chinese-government-demolishes-mosques-in-xinjiang/

 

[Sistrin]

Millennial Couple Bikes Through ISIS Territory to Prove ‘Humans Are Kind’ and Gets Killed

Liberalism kills.

 

[MMDave3]

Sad story. Evil is very, very real.

 

[A_Thinker]

Liberalism kills.

Conservatism kills ...

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-heather-heyer-profile/index.html

 

[RDKirk]

Spoken like a true unbeliever.

Watch out. You will get banned for calling someone who professes Christianity an unbeliever.

 

[RDKirk]

I don't think "evil" exists as its own thing in the universe. From what I read in scripture, "evil" is the tendency of humans to disobey God, and thus is a characteristic of fallen man, not something that just floats around on its own.

Or we can say that Satan is evil in the same way.

But "evil" is not something that just floats around the ether. It's a characteristic within persons.

 

[DamianWarS]

Millennial Couple Bikes Through ISIS Territory to Prove ‘Humans Are Kind’ and Gets Killed

https://www.pluralist.com/posts/182...tory-to-prove-humans-are-kind-and-gets-killed

This is wrong in so many ways.

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, who were both in their late 20s, last year quit their office jobs in Washington, DC, to embark on the journey. Austin, a vegan who worked for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Geoghegan, a vegetarian who worked in the Georgetown University admissions office, decided that they're were wasting their lives working.



"I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige,” Austin wrote on his blog before he quit. “I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned. Too many thunderstorms went unwatched, too many gentle breezes unnoticed.”
​

Only in their 20s and dissatisfied with life? GOD gives that satisfaction, faith in GOD gives grounded hope.

“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place," Austin wrote.


“People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil."

“I don’t buy it," he continued. "Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own... By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.”



However, Austin and Geoghegan's dream trip came to a tragic and gruesome end when they got to Tajikistan, a country with a known terrorist presence. They were riding their bikes through the country on July 29 when a car rammed them, according to CBS News. Five men got out of the car and stabbed the couple to death along with two other cyclists, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands.



Two days later, ISIS released a video showing the same men sitting in front of the black ISIS flag. They looked at the camera and vowed to kill "disbelievers," according to The New York Times.
​

The world IS an evil place without Christ. Ignoring the truth, making up your own truth, won't change that. People. Need. Jesus.

​

People are not our enemy they are our mission; the enemy is our enemy, let's not confuse the two.

 

[DamianWarS]

I don't think "evil" exists as its own thing in the universe. From what I read in scripture, "evil" is the tendency of humans to disobey God, and thus is a characteristic of fallen man, not something that just floats around on its own.

Or we can say that Satan is evil in the same way.

But "evil" is not something that just floats around the ether. It's a characteristic within persons.

Mat 7:9-11
Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Evil is assumed but even within evil there still is the sacred where goodness and love triumphs.

 

[RDKirk]

Mat 7:9-11
Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Evil is assumed but even within evil there still is the sacred where goodness and love triumphs.

No, it says, "You, then, who are evil..." As I said, "evil" is explicitly identified as a characteristic of the person, not something hanging around that attaches itself to people like a cockle burr.

 

[Sistrin]

Conservatism kills ...

Ah, the boogeyman of liberal contretemps, Charlottesville. Charlottesville has become the Selma of the Millennial generation. Every liberal with an agenda to push was either there, or new someone who was there, or has suffered some deep, life-altering emotional trauma in response to the violence associated with the event. Except, of course, the violence conducted by Antifa while the police just stood around and watched.

Unlike the five self-identified Muslim extremist in New Mexico arrested for various forms of child abuse, Fields is still in jail. In addition Fields does not represent Conservatism. He only represents the lie the American left continually promotes about Conservatism.

 

[DamianWarS]

No, it says, "You, then, who are evil..." As I said, "evil" is explicitly identified as a characteristic of the person, not something hanging around that attaches itself to people like a cockle burr.

let me rephrase...

Evil characteristics are assumed but even within these evil characteristics there still is the sacred where goodness and love triumphs.

 

[DamianWarS]

The world IS an evil place without Christ. Ignoring the truth, making up your own truth, won't change that. People. Need. Jesus.

is Japan an evil place with evil people? They are prosperous, responsible, and seemingly flourishing... they are also 1% Christian and need Christ.

 

[Johnny4ChristJesus]

Watch out. You will get banned for calling someone who professes Christianity an unbeliever.

I said "spoken like a true unbeliever," because some of the things he said are not consistent with Christian beliefs. If I would get banned for that, the same people who ban me, would have also banned Jesus, Peter, Paul, Stephen, etc. That's pretty good company to be in.

Jesus talked about people who would appear like they were His followers and be self (or others)-deceived in many parables (The builders, the virgins, etc). Jesus said: "Did I not choose you, and one of you is a devil." Jesus said: "Get behind me satan!" in Peter's direction.

Paul's last address to the Ephesian elders. He told them "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

God is one. He not only allow, but it is him who creates it.

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things"

After creation God said it was good. Now am I supposed to say otherwise? Maybe, maybe not.

God made Lucifer, who then rebelled and became evil because of his immense pride. So yes, God created him, but the evil was entirely a result of free will.

Ezekiel 28:15-17: You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones....

17: Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you.

 

[RDKirk]

God made Lucifer, who then rebelled and became evil because of his immense pride. So yes, God created him, but the evil was entirely a result of free will.

It's not as though Lucifer caught God by surprise.

"Oi vay! Luci! I never imagined you do such a thing!"

No. As we see in Ephesus and 1 Peter, everything that has happened was within God's plan before anything--including Lucifer--was ever created.

 

[RaymondG]

God made Lucifer, who then rebelled and became evil because of his immense pride. So yes, God created him, but the evil was entirely a result of free will.

Ezekiel 28:15-17: You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones....

17: Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you.

You do know i quoted scripture and not my own words, right? It was the Lord who said he creates evil, not me.

 

[tulc]

Liberalism kills.

...at pictionary! We leave conservatives speechless with our ability to understand quickly done drawings!
tulc(is glad to clear that up)

 

[tulc]

I said "spoken like a true unbeliever," because some of the things he said are not consistent with Christian beliefs.

Well...with your beliefs any way, that doesn't mean they're not consistent with Christian beliefs. There's a difference.

If I would get banned for that, the same people who ban me, would have also banned Jesus, Peter, Paul, Stephen, etc. That's pretty good company to be in. (snip)

I don't think any of the people you list post on CF. But if they did? With only one exception I don't think any of them would accuse other people of not being a Christian just because they disagreed with them.
tulc(suspects even that one exception would be the one most likely to be more reasonable then that)

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

You do know i quoted scripture and not my own words, right? It was the Lord who said he creates evil, not me.

You do know that scripture must be read in light of scripture?