Another part of a video series from Wordonfire.org. Bishop Barron will be commenting on subjects from modern day culture. For more visit www.wordonfire....
I've pretty much been an agnostic/atheist for a while (even though I was raised RC) because I have had so many unanswered questions. Your videos have answered many of the questions I have had and after each video of yours I feel I am much closer to Catholicism, which is something I thought I would never say. I can't call myself a believer, but I'm not an atheist either. I'm somewhere in Limbo
I'm so grateful to have discovered Bishop Barron on RU-vid. He explains things so beautifully and simply for all to understand. No doubt, I've gotten closer to God because of these RU-vid videos. Thank you, Bishop Barron.
Prayer Against Evil Dear Blessed Mother, we offer our prayers for all who plan evil against their fellow man, and ask that their hearts be filled with love from the Holy spirit. Amen.
Whilst I wholly agree with your heart felt prayer for the betterment of man. I feel i would be negligent if I did not point out that jesus instructs us to prayer to the Father and not His mother.
- You seem to say that the capacity to do evil is necesary for our free will (and that this is a good thing to have, even if it causes harm) ... but you say that god does not have this capacity. Does he not have this sort of free will.. and wouldn't that mean it is better to not be able to harm? - A big miss in this reasoning of 'bringing about greater good' is that you never mention it is a bold assumption, completly against all evidence. If we cannot justify our reasons to think there is good in the long run... the assertion that is will become good is not a rational conclusion. it is blind faith.
@@PGBurgessAs Catholics, our understanding of the world is not about reason alone. But reason in light of scripture. We know that God permits moral evil to allow a greater good. How do we know this? Because Christ, the New Adam, gave himself up to be crucified that the salvation of the world may be possible. The greatest evil brought about the highest good. God allowed the people of Israel to be dispossessed of their homeland to reveal to them the spiritual darkness they were in. Far from God. But we know that the exile ended, and God’s people returned to the Holy Land with a newfound vigor in their faith. Your assertion that this is blind faith, as if we had nothing to turn to for answers about this reality is simply untrue. As for asking if God can do evil, I think that’ll be a discussion for another time. I know the answer, but I don’t want to type several paragraphs. Now you know what we Catholics believe, and I sincerely want the best for you. Have a good day.
Of course God can "intervene" from time to time in order to signal his intentions dramatically. But that doesn't contradict the fact that his normal modus operandi is to allow the processes of nature to unfold according to their own rhythms. And this by no means amounts to Deism! I hold with Thomas Aquinas that God is intimately present to every expression of finitude, precisely as the ground of being.
Yes it's true God allows evil to get a grater good. The suffering has a propose in life in order to a grater good. BUT THAT'S DOESN'T GIVES HOPE it actually kills it. Saying that evil is used to obtain a greater good for you brings the most insufferable sadness. Rational creatures understand they don't I want pain. So they ask God to take it not giving it a porporse, its worst if that porporse is based in parental love. They only accept pain when the concept of guilt for sins is introduced. God is love and love its all he does yes its true. But his love its painful because the good in self its painful. But that's has been the point always. It has to pain. Otherwise how could possibly exist real love? How can you say you want something if it is not costing something? That is god secret he allows evil pain and suffering for your sanctification. So you can truly transform your being in someone who besides everything choose good and virtue and the good of the other. And only by that the rational creature can expirience true happiness. That is all God wanted, you to be happy, happy by loving, loving by suffering. And there are so many who don't accept that... Angels and humans. They won't choose happiness if it's based in sacrifice and that is where god can do nothing. That is the theological drama. That is the history of creation old and new testament, rejecting God providential love because it's painful.
"How can a finite mind possibly judge the decisions of an infinite mind? " It can't. And it can't assess whether the infinite mind is infinitely benevolent or infinitely cruel. "And why do you think biological death is the worst calamity?" I doubt it's a recommendable line of defence for murder cases.
@Order Of The Black Cross - You're right: it is usually called "blind belief", i.e. no rational criticism is allowed there. Textual material is given as unquestionable paradigm, and one unconditionally accepts the lack of logic and consistency therein. I agree with you that there is no point in discussing when the only answer is "my book says so."
@Order Of The Black Cross - If something produces suffering in myself or others, I simply try to avoid it. I choose empathy over and above cruelty and selfishness. A self-contradictory collection of texts is not necessarily helpful in that regard.
@Order Of The Black Cross - I didn't mention any "non rational animal senses". The Bible is indeed self-contradictory - which is not necessarily a shortcoming. If you do some research, you will find websites where they are collected.
Thank you Bishop Barron.i learned alot. Please pray for my other my other teachers. Father Todd Unger and sister Mary Butimar. Who I can never repay there kindness. I'm humble and greatfull. Wade.
Excellent video, as always. Another perspective is from our wonderful Pastor John: he said the right question for Catholics is not "Why did something bad happen" - the right question is "What is my response to that bad event or thing?"
Thanks for the video Bishop Barron. Another thing that I think helps deal with this problem is that if one accepts belief in the divine, it is then possible to believe in another existence beyond the one we experience in this universe. If that is the case, then as Bob Dylan once said, "Death is not the end." If death is not the end, then death in this life, although it seems horrible and unjust at times, really is of no consequence. So people who say, "How could a just God allow this suffering to occur?" really have no argument if those people now exist in some other dimension. And what if as a result of a natural disaster, the lives of survivors were transformed and they realized what was truly important in life and turned their lives to God. Maybe these souls would never have changed without the tragedy they experienced. So from a salvific point of view, allowing natural disasters makes sense in that often in tragedies, people do reorient their lives toward God. I just never really hear anyone approach it this way. But I feel like as believers, when people say how can a just God allow these tragedies to occur, a valid response is "So what. If God is real then these souls are now with the divine in some existence more beautiful and perfect than we could ever imagine."
There is not contradiction here at all! As the Romans said long ago, "corruptio optimi pessima" (the corruption of the best is the worst). It is precisely because the devil is (and remains) such a magnificent creature that his corruption is so terrible and destructive.
Well, yes, God's ways are always mysterious to us. But that doesn't mean for a moment that they are capricious or irrational. Consider how undergoing surgery appears to a three year old.
Bishop Barron is wonderfully eloquent and explains difficult subjects so well. When he was telling the Chinese saying this came to my mind (totally unrelated to what the Bishop was saying): Tax Inspector: "You have to pay me $5k tax." Me:"we'll see....." 😀
Thank you Bishop Barron for this explanation of good and evil. However, the story of Job is wraped up in the end where everything is restored to him that was lost. That does not happen to most of us living this unpredictable life.
Not even in the story of Job was everything restored to him. In his omnipotence God could have brought his slain children back to life, but instead only "blessed" Job with new ones, as if children were replaceable commodities. And I think most of the credit for the work goes to Job's wife in that case anyway.
@Juan Flores Rights are social agreements, not fundamental laws of the universe. If God takes life it's only because nobody has the power to stop him, and that just makes him a thug.
@Juan Flores Good and bad being things we decide upon or derive from biological impulses doesn't make them useless or nonexistent. It's a popular theistic claim that good and bad can only come from some absolute god, but there's neither evidence nor sound reasoning for that. And besides, your own claim that God has the right to take lives indiscriminately while others do not just identifies good and bad as relative and subjective in your own worldview, and not as absolutes. You've eliminated any perfect standard yourself by saying God can have different standards from ours. In any case, whether my moral standards come from an absolute source or not, they still are what they are. And I can tell you they don't include admiring someone who tells Satan to go ahead and murder people just to prove a point. I find your rationalizations for this horrific story frankly repulsive. Fortunately, the story is fiction, and the petty, callous, and insecure god described in it is almost certainly fictional as well.
@Juan Flores When you say that God alone has the right to take life, you're applying a different moral standard to God than to anyone else. If killing an innocent person is morally bad in an absolute sense, then that moral standard applies to God as well as to anyone else. Authority is a social agreement just as much as rights are, so you don't get to claim God is exempt from your own moral absolutes because of his "authority". Any god that exists might have the power to kill people with impunity, but rights and authority only exist among those who agree to recognize and respect them. There's no evidence for meaning, purpose, or morality being objectively real absolutes in the first place, only religious assertions that they must be so, along with the condescending assumption that any other kind is worthless. Show me a scientific observation of "meaning", "morality", or "authority" outside of human discourse, please. My assessment of the immoralities in the story of Job are based upon Christianity's own assertions of concepts like compassion and justice. Christians claim God hates the wicked and yet here he is not only having a casual conversation with the source of wickedness, but giving Satan explicit permission to slaughter the children of a man whom the story states in the very first verse was upright and blameless. The god in this story fails by Christianity's own claims and standards. By the way, the inventors of Judeo-Christianity and its modern adherents are the ones who anthropomorphized God, not me.
Couldn't one say that without the knowledge or experience of evil and suffering we would not be able to experience joy. For example, if nothing bad ever happened, you will not experience joy when something good happens because you expect a good thing to happen. If good and bad things can happen, when something good happens, you will experience joy because you were not necessarily expecting a good thing to happen.
Great video Father!!! it gave me a better understanding of this issue and it strenghened my faith. There is a Korean idiom called "새옹지마 (sae ong ji ma)" and the story behind it is the Chinese story you talked about. The meaning of this idiom is "Irony of fate; blessing in disguise"
@rnoodle3 Well friend, that's a very old theory. It's called gnosticism, and it was very effectively refuted by St. Irenaeus in the 2nd century. Take a look at his Adversus Haereses for the details.
In 1975-76 there was an earthquake in an Italian village. The priest was on vacation out of town. The local church collapsed on Sunday morning When the church was full for mass. Many many died. The priest rushed home and was sifting thru the rubble. A reporter asked him how he could beleive in a God who would allow this? The priest said “God had his own way of working, his own way of testing the faithful.”
@Fr. Barron: We have both a Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. We are literally their spiritual offspring; We see God as holy, wise and benevolent and (unlike the biblical Jehovah), God allows their children the choice to "walk away" without any fear of condemnation. We commune privately with God in the Sanctuaries in our homes, not in a church building. True worship is the imitation of God's goodness toward humanity, as demonstrated by Yeshua. I could go on, myself! Thanks! God's love to you!
@adstanra, A very thorough examination of conscience and the ultimate judgment of God will determine those who are culpable of the sin of disbelief and those who were invincibly ignorant.
@badpanda84 I suppose I should be used to it by now, but I'm still amazed that people think slander is a legitimate way to enter into a public conversation. I mean, really, how would you feel if, in a public forum, I insisted that you must be gay?
Regardless of how people view God or think of him. We Catholic Christians have to bear in mind that God is merciful, kind, loving and forgiving. Even if i hear a report of a earth quake somewhere around the world, I'm not saying that God is a angry deity but rather showing his divine wrath. And why does God allow evil? Well because of free will. We humans have free will. We can either praise and worship God and be in his dwelling place of safety. Or we can live our own lives without him and commit any type of sin. It's own choice but the real right choice is to praise and worship God because he created us.
Spiritually, I understand why evil happens my biggest struggle is if we live in a world where there is disease, disasters, and other suffering not caused by free will then I don’t see how we as human beings should have to risk being eternally punished.
@nicocap24 Sure. Satan is evil precisely in the measure that his will and mind are twisted away from the good. He can influence others by inducing that same sort of non-being in them.
@BalladoftheWindfish Well friend, there is only so much I can do in one brief video. And it is not the only video I've done on this problem. Look at the Faith Clips series and the particular piece on the problem of suffering.
I'll see too much cause i was at starting wanting help to God with all My Heart and i was trying little to little someones and i'm surprised that too much has passed only don't want to be selfish and anticipate that people must to know and recognize how much God loves us, and give us the Earth like share his hapiness with us but not only at Earth also at Heaven, and this Earth is awesome from Beloved God too the Heaven, all is from Him so we must accept if He wants take back his Earth and send us at Heaven, but if we don't knows and love him how can to live with him. He loves us more than we can expect so i hope He prepares the different ways for everyone get be Save with God at his time. 😇😇😇 God bless all! God loves us! Ever
I'm no theologian, but permitting ≠ being the causal ground of evil, especially if we define evil as a lacking, not as a being having existence or cause, i.e. evil is merely the lack of good, not an entity in itself. This lacking is what our fallen state alludes to. This "fallen-ness" is the result of our free choices not to conform our lives to God's commandments. So, to sum it up, *we* made ourselves sick, and God wants to help us heal. Heartening.
We must remember that God is Love, but also God is a just judge who will separate the righteous from the wicked. Any time in the Old Testament God causes death, it is in response to wickedness, oppression, and injustice. God's love is a burning zeal to set things right. Christians typically understand these passages you mentioned tropologically or allegorically to point to the need to avoid sin. So the death of the wicked isn't necessarily wicknedness, but the justice of God manifested.
No! Free process is something like free will. God allows both, for he doesn't want a universe that is simply a puppet, either morally or physically. But that is not at all tantamount to saying that God has "distanced" himself from the world. In point of fact, his creative providence is at work at all times and in all things.
That was a great video, I myself have to admit I wonder why God allows bad things to happen to people more specifically believers. But as you illustrate our foresight is very short and we can't predict how the perceived luck of the situation will have future impact.
@adstanra, It's certainly a struggle, the Church has spoken against Hell not being eternal. I strive to live faithful to the Church even when it's difficult to do that. I will have to find out if my faith is true or not when I die. Life is tough sometimes, it's full of mysteries, sometimes we don't see the whole picture, I certainly don't, I'm only human, after all.
Somehow I get the feeling that 72mespo, while arguing about God not intervening, is the type of person who would turn around and proclaim disgust at God ordering the genocide of the wicked nations in the promised land (I get that a lot on RU-vid). I think the main problem is that the questioners don't read the Bible to see that God very well does stop extreme wickedness, but he very rarely stops the 'minor' things of nature. But, great video Fr. Barron.
@C45SAA Friend, what if you kept quoting from your third-grade science book as evidence that physics is simplistic? I'd tell you to read Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Well, you keep quoting from your bad childhood instruction in Catholicism as evidence that the Catholic Church is wicked. It's time to read more serious people! It's time to grow up in your faith!
@onethrown The whole point of what I'm saying is, "How do we distinguish between what one CAN do, and what one SHOULD do?" You have conflated "can" and "should," which I believe is the inevitable result of denying that a Transcendent Voice has spoken to mankind, whether in human nature, or prophetic revelations, or even Divine Incarnation, or all or the above. I believe this Voice has spoken. Those who deny this are left only with what they CAN do, with no way of ascertaining what they SHOULD do
"Will see' is the only possible answer in any time in ups and downs of human history. The best way remaining in Christian faith is only 'Jesus' who had suffered so much, and not go beyond about all mighty and all known God. It is forever mystery, no scholar neither no philosopher, no one. It is mystery and we never stop curious about it. So, the life makes continually interesting.
I thought for a while, looking at some posts of the Bishop, that he might have had some original and possibly compelling arguments, but this video was the end. His defence of God's permitting of undesirable human or natural phenomena - that there must (MUST!) be a greater good to follow that we humans can't see - is both patronising and desperate. It has all the hallmarks of a man who was born a Catholic and has ever since spent his considerable intellect in reading backwards from that learned belief.
@adstanra, The fact that we have numerous contributing factors that our will dwells upon and is persuaded by does not mean that the will is not free. The will obviously does not operate in vacuum, but that does not mean it is bound to any particular action or thought on account of those factors that influence it. The will always has motives presented to it, but it freely chooses between these different motives and decides to think/act upon them. Your objection does not come too bear at all.
@onethrown Don't be silly. To love is to will the good of the other. God loves himself, because he is the supreme good, and all other things in the measure that they participate in him. When you truly love someone else, you do indeed share in the divine life.
@goldenram27, hence the question of what created God is a disregarding of the argument at hand. Nothing causes God, God exists by necessity, He is His own reason for being. A necessary being exists because it is necessary, not because anything caused it, it is its own reason for being.
What you are referring to, raping and molesting, is not promoted within the Catholic Church. I agree whole hardily with your disgust to those involved and to those who through inaction facilitated there continuation. For me, that does not destroy my belief in God, or the historicity of the Catholic Church; a church with many of the worst sinners and saints; this may seem like a contradiction to outsiders but I see it as a witness. I just wish this stuff didn't happen, the fact however is that it did and blaming the Catholic Church is like saying all humans are totally evil when we know this is not so.
The problem described is only a problem when the world is seen from a point of duality. As Thomas Merton said: "You have to experience duality for a long time until you see it’s not there."
@adstanra You're raising our old problem of ultimate vs. contingent causality. It's quite right to say that God is not one fussy cause among many, intervening to direct the process of evolution (or any natural process for that matter). God is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, and hence his causal influence "stretches from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly." But precisely because he is not "a" cause among many, he does not compete with natural causes.
Erica Saxon we live in a real world where our good and evil actions have direct consequences and indirect consequences upon us and those around us. God’s desire is that for all of our sakes we would obey Him that it might be well with us (Deuteronomy 5:29). Instead, what happens is that we choose our own way, and then we blame God for not doing anything about it. Such is the heart of sinful man. But Jesus came to change men’s hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, and He does this for those who will turn from evil and call on Him to save them from their sin and its consequences (2 Corinthians 5:17). God does prevent and restrain some acts of evil. This world would beMUCH WORSEwere not God restraining evil. At the same time, God has given us the ability to choose good and evil, and when we choose evil, He allows us, and those around us, to suffer the consequences of evil. Rather than blaming God and questioning God on why He does not prevent all evil, we should be about the business of proclaiming the cure for evil and its consequences-Jesus Christ!
There are too many unknowns about the state and condition of existence to really even know if that question has any meaning at that point, at least from what I know. Fact of the matter is, Heaven seems to be a fundamentally different existence in nature to that of this realm we are in. Do not take my answer as anything authoritative, but I would say free will yes, but evil I am sure is definitely not.
i like bishop Barron, he is clearly an intelligent man. However, the answers provided are frustrating to say the least.If the same thinking was applied to a human bering that presided over the torture, murder and suffering of innocent people (children) for the greater good ....we would call them a genocidal maniac.I understand that most people will argue that god exists under a set of laws that are diffferent to ours. There is no amount of eloquent language that can camouflage the reality of what is so clearly aweful and wrong. We deserve a bettter explanation than that provided in this clip. it plays on the ignorance of people, their fear of challanging, and perpetuates a world that is governed through miseducation.
First is... if GOD caused DEATH, TORTURE, DESTRUCTION and DISASTER...who are we to question, complain etc... We have no power, we have no choice, we are created, sustained even if for 1 second by GOD. We are commanded...not asked to do things...Take it or leave it.... We have NO RIGHT TO EVEN QUESTION our GOD. Be thankful for all the seconds of life sustained. SERVE GOD. NO MATTER WHAT.
As moral sentient beings we have that right, just as human children have the moral right to question and defy abusive parents, in spite of all else those parents may have provided. All you're arguing here is "might makes right," that God gets what he wants because he can. Even if that happens to be the unfortunate reality, a tyrannical god who insists on silence and submission, it's still morally bankrupt. If God really wanted no questions or complaints, perhaps he ought to take better care of his creations, or else stopped creating things after he was done with the rocks and trees. But I think we have little to worry about from him, since he seems to rely entirely on believers like you to tell us what we can and can't question.
@onethrown What that passage means is that God is the sovereign Lord of his creation, presiding over both weal and woe. Evil, since it is a species of non-being cannot be "created." God produces the good and permits evil so as to bring about a greater good.
@TheMythus Free will is fundamental to our ability to be 'in relationship' with the world around us, in any sense. But it's also the key that unlocks our highest potential to truly be 'in relationship' with God. His loving us, and our loving Him, have no real meaning otherwise. Thus, he allowed free will in order to heighten the entire realm in which our living narrative could play out. The consequence of this is that our abuse of free will became a part of that narrative.
@adstanra, the notion of Purgatory is that in this life though we may have been forgiven all of our sins (or not, some venial sins may remain which are sins that weaken but do not destroy the a state of supernatural self-sacrificing love by grace with God) we have to rectify our souls and our habits so as they are totally just and holy. That is if I have a tendency towards overeating when I die, that vicious habit needs be corrected before entering Heaven, so as I may be totally just &sanctified
You probably meant "what most about Catholicism do you like"? And for me its definitely the Eucharist i.e. the idea even that the Infinite God would want full and substantial union with me, filling me with All His Bounty as far as a finite creature can enjoy is simply overwhelming
Everybody should study the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is a manual of the realities of life. God favours no one so that no one can boast. Everything is meaningless, says the teacher. Also, everyone has free will, but it needs to be activated to work. A person needs to choose to exercise their free will or simply follow the world. Free will is a gift from God so that we can choose Him.
@@huskyfaninmass1042 No, on the contrary. Instead of saying, 'favoured, I should have said, ' have favourites'. I guess I am referring to how human beings have a tendency to be nice to people who are nice to us. We are generally good Samaritans to those we know such as friends and family but not so much to strangers or people we disagree with for whatever reason. God isn't like that. Everyone is equal in God's eyes. So, everyone has access to God's love no matter the background or belief; that includes miracles.
@adstanra, I meant to say if I didn't say it well that we are properly ordered by our very nature to desire God and avoid sin, but we often act contrary to what human nature was intended to aim at, just as many people act contrary to human nature, i.e improper sexual acts, delighting in the misery of others, knowingly leading others into lies and errors, malice extended towards others, among many other sins and vices.
Re: God's omnipotence..Fr. Barron isn't saying God *must* permit evil, but that it's only a human conjecture. Trying to explain why evil exists does not place limits on what God can do. It's just trying to find out why things are the way they are. Ultimately, who can know the mind of God?
@adstanra, children are not forced to have religious beliefs anymore than they would be forced to have no religious beliefs. Even in cultural conditioning or marketing techniques the marketer nor the culture can actually coerce your will, it is free, nobody can creep into your mind and keep you from thinking specific thoughts. They may persuade you, but that is not forcing the will.
@goldenram27, we discussed already in private believing things in faith, faith is the belief of something that is uncertain but not unreasonable based on the evidence that one has. I suggested to you the problem of my ongoing existence and why I believe by the virtue of faith that I will continue existing. Hence faith can be a virtue necessary towards acquiring greater virtues like wisdom. I definitely care if my beliefs are true, that's why I study my faith, though not very well, I am a sinner.
Yes, with union and prayers we can avoid this climate changing.😇😇😇👼🔥☄️or if not get all together this effect can ends all with us. Please pray, read Bible and listen the homily, confess and get comunion after confess and wish to all to Jesús Christ never fault He to no body😇😇😇👼🔥☄️
I haven't read through all the comments but here's how I look at it. God is the Creator and is still creating the earth and all of us. He has given us great intelligence and, therefore, we are able to observe the way in which our surroudings behave. For instance, LA is built on a faultline and is going to experience a cataclismic earthquake. When this happens and people die and disease breaks out, will it be God's fault?. He has given us the choice to build there.
@adstanra I agree that none of us can know precisely what factors were involved in Fritzl's (or anyone else's) actions, nor to what extent they were volitional. Most people don't deliberately choose eternal torment, any more than they deliberately choose AIDS or drug addiction or lung cancer or obesity. But the cumulative effects of our daily decisions produce probable outcomes. If you totally remove one's moral responsibility, he/she becomes a mere biological mechanism.
@goldenram27 I didn't intend to return to this blog, but I can't resist (where is my free will?)! As Christians believe that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, so historically the Church has upheld the divine and human natures of Scripture. The biblical writers and editors were not merely instruments in the hand of God; God designed and utilized the unique contribution of each human author/editor, warts and all. I don't pretend to understand all this scientifically. I will to believe.
If there is free will in heaven, then it is possible to have free will without evil, which means that evil on earth does not come from free will. Also, if God not intervening with natural disasters that not came from free will, is God letting "nature unfold itself", then wouldn't that mean that God made nature unfold itself that way, since everything outside of free will is gods work. Now last, how dare you to say that human suffering is totally fine due to the fact that some humans who were fortunate enough to believe (belief is not a choice. It's determined through outer influences. If you think different, explain how one can choose to believe for example that they are a unicorn. I can't decide to believe that I'm a unicorn and neither can you) in God, get well-being for the rest of eternity, while the remaining majority gets sent to more, eternal suffering through pure chance. Of course theists love to say "we can't know how a God would act", which might be true; we will never know what the most perfect most beneficial solution to everything is. But we are able to know what a not-perfect solution to everything is. And i suppose, having a world where there's "evil" only due to the gift of free will, having a second world where there's no "evil" but still the gift of free will, and using the first world to determine by pure chance (evildoers who believe in God will go to heaven) who will go to the second, evil-less world - and then sending everyone else off to eternal suffering; I suppose that that's not the omnibeneficial merciful way.
“it is possible to have free will without evil, which means that evil on earth does not come from free will." This is illogical. By the premise, it''s also absolutely possible to have free will *with* evil.
Belief is a choice. And by your example, everyone CAN choose to believe they are a unicorn, we just choose not to. And whether we are unicorns is not a matter of belief, it's a provable fact. Both Belief and disbelief in God requires leap of faith/logic, since neither is provable, so they are beliefs. By choice.
@adstanra, you say by definition a human would freely choose happiness over suffering, but that simply isn't the case for many wicked persons who corrupt their souls by pursuing and delighting in evil vices. Our souls become habituated to delighting in evil if we allow them, therein if they die they die with their wicked desires as their eternal desire, instead of God.
a daring video - for a lot of people it might come across as an abstract metaphysical rationalisation away from the horrible facts - i wouldn't like to say to Japanase mother who lost her son: We'll see - maybe it will be a blessing on the other hand maybe the thought that there is divine providence and that even such a tragedy could make sense in the eyes of god - this thought might (only might) help some people with their pain - there is no solace from an absolute meaningless disaster
