Hi Randy,
This is exactly the view of Pelagius and many believers.
I understand why people hold this view. I would suggest it is a sub-Biblical view.
In fallen humanity, there is still a little bit of good - that can do good works that contribute to our salvation. Whereas, others theologians there is none and we are dependent upon the work of Christ.
Can we shed Good and Evil?
Really good question, Randy.
When I was a University student I was also taught "good and evil’ are social constructs.
We evolved to the point at which we constructed our own ethical or moral culture; that is, what has evolved is a social environment in which individuals behave in ways determined in part by their effects on others.
Hence we are not innately good or evil nor do we have “an inborn need or demand for ethical standards.
Instead, as evolved humans, we are intrinsically nonmoral, the product of a nonmoral environment which in turn causes us to act in ways we call “moral.”
If we are essentially nonmoral, what then is the “good”?
The good, or rather those things we call good, are positive reinforcers, and those things we call bad or evil are negative reinforcers.
What determines what is good behaviour and what is bad?”
My secular university lecturer’s answer was that whatever the members of one’s culture find reinforcing as the result of their genetic endowment and the natural and social contingencies to which they have been exposed will be that culture’s value system.
In brief, a person’s culture determines what is right or wrong, good or bad; it makes such value judgments because it has been caused to do so by nonmoral physical causes, namely heredity and environment.
If we want people to be better “morally” we must proceed to the design of better environments.
Finally, the concept of God is a personification of what we think is good. A very ant-biblical position but understandable.
Randy, I think you are referring to- metaphysical dualism.
Gnostics construe the world in thoroughgoing dualistic terms.
Two realms exist, that of matter and materiality versus that of spirit.
The material world is evil or inferior, while the spiritual realm defines good.
The inferior and evil material world comes not from the high God of the spiritual realm, but from an inferior being.
Many gnostic myths function to explain the catastrophe of the creation of the material world.
I was referring to solutions to the problems of metaphysical (doctrine of) and moral evil that do not, in and of themselves, solve the problem of physical evil.
Or I can put it this way: the solution to the problem of metaphysical evil (i.e., evil is a privation) merely shows how evil is possible in a perfectly good, finite world created by an absolutely perfect God.
The answer to the problem of moral evil merely shows how good creatures could activate evil by freely choosing their own finite preferences above the infinite good of God.
But if you’re interested neither of these indicates why there are many physical evils in the world that do not appear to be the result of any free choices.
Why do many innocent people suffer from floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes?
There seems to be no connection with their own free choices nor any justification for their innocent suffering.
If nature were an independent entity operating autonomously apart from God, the theist might have ready recourse to an answer.
But the problem is made more acute for the theist since he believes God is in sovereign control of the natural world.
This leads to the Problem of Physical Evil
One of the most famous contemporary examples of an objection to theism from the point of physical evil can be seen in the example used from - The Plague by Albert Camus which coudl apply to todays pandemic.
The logic may be summarized as follows:
Either one must join the doctor and fight the plague God sent for man’s sin, or else he must join the priest and not fight the plague.
But not to fight the plague is inhumane.
And to fight the plague is to fight against God who sent it.
Hence, if humanitarianism is right, then theism is wrong.
Humanitarianism is right, and it is right to work to alleviate suffering.
Therefore, theism is wrong.
There are several assumptions the theist would challenge in Camus’s argument.
First, according to the Bible, one cannot conclude that people who suffer tragedy through a natural disaster are suffering because they are more wicked than those who are not likewise suffering (see Luke 13:3, 4).
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Second, if the “plague” is viewed broadly as the curse of sin on the whole fallen world, then it might be better to describe it as what man brought on himself by his own free choice (Gen. 3:14; 5:12; 8:19, 20).
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Third, it is not wrong for a theist to work against unjust suffering. In fact, because it was a man who brought the fall to the world (brought evil into the world), he can work to remove the effects of that fall (i.e., suffering) without being concerned about fighting against God.
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Fourth, although the biblical theist is concerned for the plague’s victims, he works against the general plague of evil at the most effective level—the cause of the plague, not merely the results. Evil is the ultimate cause of plague, even physical evils, and the life-transforming message of the cross of Jesus Christ is the most effective cure for evil know to man. It is not wrong—in fact, it is good—to treat symptoms and put bandages on suffering men, but it is even better to treat and cure the disease that is causing the sickness.
Christian theism offers exactly what is needed—an internal change in man that enables him to overcome evil. I ramble