tiberry

I think the real point of, and further the whole reason for constructing an evil being in the first place is that you cannot know or conceive of an "ultimate good" without an "ultimate evil" to contrast it by. Without evil, you cannot know good. Without black, there would be no white. Taken a step further: If God was or is "all (or everything) there is"; as most religious texts describe him or in which he describes himself this way - how could he even realize that he existed? To know myself, I must also know that which is NOT me. IMO - Humans have imposed the personification of "God" and Devil" onto the two major themes of "good" and "evil" so that they can further rationalize each beyond just the conceptual.

My beliefs are such that I do not need to personify either, thus - I don't ascribe to any religion that conceives of or attempts to personify either as something separate from ourselves. The whole notion of personification seems to me, the root of all the confusion that stems from interpreting individual passages or contextual examples from the bible or any other "holy book".

In short - Do I think God exists? Sure. In all of us - not some separate, supreme being...same for "the devil". That which we call "evil" exists in all of us as well. If you need to assign a name to it to rationalize it, fine.

Even further - and more in line with the topic of the thread: I think ALL things are of God. If he's as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, as most of you'd have me believe - how can this not be so? Therefore, to judge anything as "bad" would be God contradicting himself, wouldn't it?

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My life's work is to bridge the gap between that which is perceived by the mind and that which is quantifiable by words and numbers.