harwood@cvl.UUCP (David Harwood) (11/06/86)
Some remarks about the problem of the existence of evil: (i) When we talk about the power, knowledge, and goodness or other attributes of God, we are inclined to attribute an infinite degree - without really knowing what we are talking about. We do not even know what it means for creation to be "logically possible" - except that we obviously exist. To complain about what should be its "perfection" is an even greater absurdity. (ii) But creation demonstrates the absolutely incomparable power and knowledge of God. There is also reason to believe in the "foreknowledge" of God, also that he knows even our very intentions. And there is the apparent fact that by far most human beings, despite suffering and inequity, enjoy living. (ii) The Bible says that creation is not yet finished, that even the creation of mankind is not yet finished. (cf Paul in Romans, also Rashi on Genesis) If the end of creation is forever good, it doesn't make very much sense to complain "in the beginning" that things are bad, especially when, as I said, most human beings enjoy their lives, however imperfect. (iii) It is obvious to anyone who is sincere that mankind is overwhelmingly responsible for the existence of evil in the present world - if we understand by this, the knowing contribution to destruction of life - witness militaristic economy, drugs, abortion, promiscuity, crime, neglect of disease and starvation, poisonous food and tobacco, destruction of enviroment and species, terrorism and warfare... The suffering and death because of human intention and neglect is far greater than that due to "natural disaster", which itself is largely avoidable with scientific knowledge. It is even conceivable that human beings will someday live very much longer than they do today. (iv) There might also be a complaint about the existence of death itself. But in this world, there would be no moral improvement of the human garden if there were no death. Death seems to be intrinsic to the moral law of Creation in the sense that it will end when we become morally perfect. Or to put it in the other way - of Genesis, when mankind is immoral, there is death: that is what evil is - the human intention which consequence is destruction. (v) So what we complain about is that God does not stop suffering in the world which we ourselves cause or neglect. Perhaps that is the lesson - God wants us to "freely" come to have His own intention - and He waits upon Creation for this. Otherwise, if God created us without the possible intention for evil - what moral dignity would we have? Moreover, if He did this, even if it were possible - to achieve His intention for Creation, we should not exist at all, none of us, since our personality is largely derived from our moral dignity. I wouldn't give you 2 cents for our intelligence. (vi) The Lord answered Job, "Would you accuse me in order to justify yourself?" This is what the accusation against God amounts to; but as I said already, if potential evil were impossible, then we should not exist at all, as we are, having moral dignity. And, in any case, we are responsible for the suffering of the world. (vii) Someone asked me, by mail, about escaping from the terrible destructiveness of our world - escaping to some extraterrestial sanctuary I suppose. I didn't say anything, but I rather doubt that anybody out there would want our present species. The apostle Paul said that all Creation groans, as in birth- pangs, awaiting for the sons of God to conceived - according with his thinking - in the image of Christ. Unless God has, incomprehensibly, created an immense vacuum, devoid of life everywhere, I imagine that the problem of evil is everywhere in Creation - certainly nuclear physics would be discovered wherever there are rational beings. It would be wise, I would venture to say, if such species were not admitted to any inter-stellar civilization unless they were truly peaceful, having been redeemed already from destructiveness. God surely would not want us roaming the galaxy as we are. At least, it should be, providentially, hard to get from here to there, while we prove to be such moral imbeciles. Paul said that while Death, that is -destructiveness, came by our human generation, according to the likeness of the First Mankind, whereby we are human souls, --still, Life came by the grace of God, in our generation, according to the likeness of a New Mankind, whereby we have become *life-giving* spirits, sharing in the eternal Life of Christ. St. Augustine (The City of God) once speculated that some of the sons of God and the angels literally inhabited the starry heavens. And of course, we are spiritual descendents of Abraham, because of our faith in the goodness of God - Abraham who was promised that his descendents would be so numerous as the stars. I suppose that the stars were already becoming fullfilled with his spiritual descendents, even then. David Harwood