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"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." — Genesis 3:5
I was always taught and have always believed that God is perfect and that He Himself sets that standard of perfection. That God cannot be found to be flawed because it would mean that another standard of perfection had been established, and that would mean that there would have to be something higher than Him, which would make, whatever that would be, god; that God created angels that serve Him, and that we were eventually created, ultimately, to serve Him.
That being said, my questions are:
Being the Standard of Perfection, how can God create entities, whether angels or humans, capable of rebellion against perfection? and
Why would He, given the logical conclusion that ultimately this means that God created sin and the devil, which I don't necessarily believe, make Himself imperfect?
I suppose a better way of asking this would be to ask whether the dichotomy of (good versus evil)/(God versus satan) is simply a divisive interpretation of the witnessing of a powerful and creative force in the creation and continuous care of a living universe with a nature that can be equivocated to the inherent nature found in the origins of consciousness we find in the breakdown of the bicameral human mind? and
Would that not open all human beings to the potential eventuality of becoming as God is, not only knowing good and evil, but determining what perfection actually is?
Jeremiah
{
How can God create entities, whether angels or humans, capable of rebellion against Him? }
Mike replied:
Dear Jeremiah,
You said:
Being the standard of perfection, how can God create entities, whether angels or humans, capable of rebellion against perfection?
When God created mankind it was not His Intent to create us like robots but as real people and real angels with free will.
The Divine Gift of our free will can be used to do great things for mankind and as well as terrible things for mankind; just review a bit of world history.
So God did not create sin and the devil, men and women choose to sin and the devil and his legions had a choice to be holy angels or demonic, fallen angels. This is from the Catechism:
390 The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. (cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 13 § 1) Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents. (cf. Council Of Trent: DS 1513; Pius XII: DS 3897; Paul VI: Acta Apostolicae Sedis (Main index) 58 (1966), 654)
391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. (cf. Genesis 3:1-5; Wisdom 2:24) Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called satan or the devil. (cf. John 8:44; Revelation 12:9) The Church teaches that satan was at first a good angel, made by God:
"The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing." (Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800)
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. (cf. 2 Peter 2:4) This fall consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: You will be like God. (Genesis 3:5) The devil has sinned from the beginning; he is a liar and the father of lies. (1 John 3:8; John 8:44)
393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable.
"There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."
394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls a murderer from the beginning, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. (John 8:44; cf. Matthew 4:1-11) "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8) In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.
395 The power of satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries — of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature — to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him. (Romans 8:28)
You said:
I suppose a better way of asking would be to ask whether the dichotomy of (good versus evil)/(God versus satan) is simply a divisive interpretation of the witnessing of a powerful and creative force in the creation and continuous care of a living universe with a nature that can be equivocated to the inherent nature found in the origins of consciousness we find in the breakdown of the bicameral human mind?
God or satan is not an interpretation; they are realities.
You said:
Would that not open all human beings to the potential eventuality of becoming as God is, not only knowing good and evil, but determining what perfection actually is?
When we avoid the truth, or worse, decide what is true and false for us, we fall into Moral Relativism. In Moral Relativism there are no absolute truths.
When some one falls into the error of Moral Relativism, True is what I believe is true and False is what I believe is false.
Hope this helps,
Mike
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