Problem of Evil Take Two!

Ok, well I have introduced my ideas. Next will be Augustine’s ideas, well not all of the ideas but a few. I mean really, if you want to know more about his ideas please read them. I am not intellectual enough to assume I can fully understand his ideas and be able to pass them onto a reader population. (Not that anyone reads this, but I like to pretend)

I applied my mind to understanding what I was hearing: namely, that free will was the reason why we commit evil, and your righteous judgment (Ps. 119.37 [Ps. 118.37]) the reason why we suffer it; but I could not understand it as it was. Therefore as I endeavored to raise my mental sight from the depths, I was drawn down again; and often as I tried, I was drawn down again and again. What raised me up towards your light was the fact that I knew that I had a will just as much as I knew I was alive. Thus, when I will or did not will something, I was wholly certain that it was I and no one else who was willing it or not willing it; and I was now on the point of perceiving that therein lay the reason for my won sin. As for the evil I did against my will, I aw that I was suffering it rather than committing it, and adjudged it not so much my guilt as my punishment; conceiving of you as being just, I was swift to acknowledge that I was not being punished unjustly. But once again, I said: ‘Who made me? Was it not my God, and is he not only good, but the Good itself? What, then, is the origin of my willing bad deeds and not willing good ones- why I should justly pay the penalty for my deeds? Who was it that set and planted this bitter plant (Heb. 12.15) in me, seeing as I cam into being entirely from my God, the supreme Sweetness? If the Devil is responsible, what is the origin of the evil will by which he became the Devil, seeing as he was made wholly an angel by the supremely good Creator?’ These anxious thoughts dragged me down and choked me again and again, but I was never brought to that abyss of error in with no one confesses you (Ps. 6.5 [Ps. 6.6]). Of thinking that you suffer evil rather than that man commits it. (7.3.5)

Well here is his “introduction” to the problem. The standing assumptions (And yes I do mean that these are the base ideas we are starting from. If you and I do not agree on the assumptions, then we will not agree on the logic.) are those in Genesis. God created the heavens and the earth; they were all pleasing to him. Then the next assumption is that God is all good and void of evil. So at this point, man was not tainted with the evil deeds or desires because man was pleasing. The race was perfect. So then it must be assumed that Evil entered in at a later time than creation, but when?

I believe that that to look at the problem of evil, we must examine what evil is. So I guess looking at what I have previously said, I will state the assumption that evil is going against the will of God. If he is all good, then his will would be the perfect will. If we go against this then that is evil.

Now with that assumption, some of the natural disasters will not be considered evil. Notice I did not say all. I strongly believe that some of the “natural disasters” would not be as disastrous if we had followed God’s full plan in the first place. The moment we decide to go against God’s will we have willing committed an evil. This can not be blamed on someone else, it can not be sited that God allowed it to happen, or the “Devil” caused it to happen; it is our responsibility to be faithful to our creator and we decide not to do so. Therefore, I think my stance is that evil is not created, but manufactured though out own free wills. It is a lack of God in our desires that causes the evil to occur. God gave us all we needed to be happy and blissful. However, we used it for harm instead.
For an example, they guy who started the Nobel Peace thing… He was the one who invented the use of explosives. His though was that it was a useful tool for removing rock and other objects so that progress could be made. However, it was used for warfare and other foul things. It was not his intention for these uses, however, though the will of others, this was how it was used and became known for.