Okay, so this a place to discuss philosophical ideas, religious questions and stuff like that.

I guess I'll get things started and see how this goes.

Hypothetically speaking, if evil exists, where does it come from?

Have fun. I'll drop back in in a little while to offer my opinion.

All right. I have a reply!

Okay, first of all, I am a Christian, so some of my beliefs about good and evil are impacted by that fact.

So, I believe that evil originates from within humans because they are born corrupt and are taught how to be and do good things. I believe that humans have a great capacity for good and are continually striving towards goodness and perfection because somewhere inside of them, they understand that something is missing. I believe it is quite possible to be a moral and good person without believing in God. But I do believe that all of our ideas of what is good originates from God.

And about God and bad things happening. The idea is that bad things happen because of sin and corruption in the world. The devil is responsible for some things, but the majority of bad things that happen to good people are caused by the fact that sin exists. And, I believe that God blesses people with good things and hurts when bad things happen. And, really, a lot of people blame God for bad things that happen, like when someone dies of a cancer, a person will say, "Well, I guess it was just time for God to take that person away." And that's not true. God doesn't take things away. We cause bad things to happen because we sin and the fact that we can't not sin because our natures make it impossible.

I'm not taking any offense, Billy. If I did, it would be a poor reflection of my character rather than yours.

I'm not sure that I can ever completely grasp the idea of why bad things have to happen. I've had such a hard time with it for the longest time and I still haven't figured it out. I do know that I believe what I said is true to me, but even I can't completely grasp it. I do know that everyone has "free will" and so has the power to either choose to do good or bad things. I think the reason God doesn't interfere is because no one believes He really will or can. But, I'm not going to pretend that I don't question my own beliefs.

As for the thing with following all of the Bible's guidelines, I believe that we no longer are required to punish people by a strict set of religious laws is because of the fact that Jesus died for eveyone's sins and so made it possible for people to be saved not by their own attempts at righteousness, but by grace. And with Moses and Pharoah and putting the first-born sons to death, Pharoah was warned repeatedly by Moses that God would send plagues to Egypt if he would not let the Hebrews go. Pharoah did not listen, so plague after plague was put upon his own people in an attempt to make him listen. But he didn't and he was given one last chance and he didn't take it even after seeing everything that God had done.

I don't expect you to agree with me. I do agree with you on organized religion. I hate it with a passion. In fact, I believe that being what I loosely call a "Christian" means being free of religion because I think religion has more to do with impressing other people than it actually has to do with God.

In answer to your question, I don't take everything in the Bible literally, especially when reading a translation. Since Hebrew doesn't use any punctuation, it has been inserted and if you move things around, what is being said can have an entirely new meaning. I believe in questioning and trying to figure out what is true. But, for the most part, I do believe the accounts of the Bible are true.

I'm not sure why God doesn't interfere. The one reason I can come up with is that each time he did, he had people who were his messangers, who interceded for their people with Him, who believed He could do anything. There isn't any power in a church without a strong belief that God is capable of doing anything. So, I think that is where the problems come in. I can't explain why things like the Holocaust happen and God doesn't do anything about it. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a few miracles that did take place within that time. But, I honestly don't know.

Just out of curiosity, how old are you?

Actually, I've heard a very good explanation for that dilemma. Noah didn't have to take every single species on the ark. Christians do believe in adaptation, so it was quite possible for Noah to take two dogs on the ark and that was all for that particular kind of animal. The Bible never says he took every species. Just every kind. I watched an entire series by Kent Hovind that had very scientific explanations for all the things that happened in the Bible, especially the flood and the existence of dinosaurs and other things.

And you don't sound like a dumb kid. If this was a real debate, you would be flattening me because I'm not as sure about the things we're discussing as you are. And, I'm seventeen.

And, even as a Christian, I would have been disappointed to hear that explanation from an engineering professor.

I don't know. I missed half the video series and I think he covered the flood while I wasn't there. But, I do agree with him that it is possible that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. I'm certainly more likely to believe that than the idea that we all evolved out of rocks. But, new topic. We're starting to go in circles.