The reason for evil

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In my encounters with religious people one of the questions that keeps coming up is the existence of evil and that evidently has bothered theologians for centuries with no satisfactory resolution. A thoroughly beneficent God surely would not permit the intense suffering and early death of obviously innocent infants and older folk unless there was some good acceptable reason. The one frequently offered was that He wanted to welcome them into the bliss of heaven a bit earlier than most people but then why torture them at all? Surely an all powerful God could create souls and dispatch them heavenward in the blink of an eye well before they had to suffer, or even before they were born, to have the pleasure of their company. And wouldn’t it be comforting and a great advertisement to send a few down from Heaven on festive occasions to re-assure us, the still living and impatient to be dead, that Heaven was really there so we could better concentrate on being good to qualify? It’s these and a few other things that give me rather strong doubts about the whole kit and caboodle.

Now it’s relatively well accepted that God cannot be unproven, whatever they say about proof that he exists. So, if we theoretically accept that there might possibly be a God, what would he be like? Certainly not the vicious blustering nincompoop that has such a weak ego that he must demand constant adulation to prop up his self-confidence. Or someone particularly gratified with slapping together one sun and a planet with only one moon after throwing together a few universes chock full of galaxies between breakfast and brunch. No. This guy has to have a bit of cleverness about him. As Bertrand Russell once noted, intelligence is never mentioned in the Bible so we can feel confident that the Biblical description of God must have some fundamental flaws.

I found an interesting hint in a story written by Theodore Sturgeon in 1941 called “Microcosmic God”. It’s the story of a very bright scientist who loved inventing things but was frustrated by the long and stumbling process to come up with something really great. He wondered how he could speed up the process and came to the conclusion he could create some strange miniature living creatures with a metabolism much faster than normal life. He created an environment where these creatures could live and prosper and then sent awful things into their living space that deprived them of many of the basics they needed. With their speeded up activity they soon overcame all his obstacles and invented new processes that not only conquered their difficulties but each innovation taught the scientist things he had never seen before. Within a reasonable amount of time their superior processes not only gave the scientist new inventions, it gave the miniatures powers no human science could approach. This was recognized as a danger by humanity and military force was sent to destroy the laboratory which was on an island. The scientist became aware of the danger and warned his small charges that immediately designed and erected an impenetrable shield. The story ends with a mystery of what was going on inside the shield.

This sounds not too far from what a rational God might do. What we consider evils – incurable diseases that inflict humanity, collapsing buildings that kill hundreds of helpless people, floods, storms, global warming, dissention and brutality between people, crime and obvious ignorance and stupidity, all of these things not only create horror, they create strong motivations to do something about them. Without cancer we would know far less about how cells reproduce and operate and turn bad. Without rot and poisonous food we would know far less about microorganisms and how they can be either enemies or friends. Without structural disasters and famines and forest fires we would know far less about how to build well, how to grow food properly, how to protect ourselves from fire and how to use it for our own purposes.

God might be teaching us how to behave and learn about the universe and how disastrous stupidity and ignorance can be. Some people might be calling it God. Others might be calling it evolution.

I like your post. Very insightful, thanks.

It reminds me of a song by John Frusciante:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrMvYbgF1H0[/youtube]
"The reason for the bad is that there'd be such thing as good"

It reminds me of my suffering from loneliness, which in the end brought insight.
I would like to think that we have the option to prevent this suffering, but if we can't, God will make up for it, somehow.

There is no reason for evil...evil is what happens when good people do nothing...

"The reason for the bad is that there'd be such thing as good"

That's pretty shallow...

Good and bad aren't relative things partly because we have instincts. You can go your whole life without experiencing anything good. I think potentially you could do the opposite too, but not in this world.

Basically I merely indicate that what is considered evil, if it falls between the trivial and the totally disastrous, is a spur towards education.

an interesting perspective. i think that story does a better job describing a deity than any religious text has. it's a classic that translates well into modern cartoons-for-grownups too.

Actually, evil is merely what we describe as an injustice, something does not seem just or "good" to others or oneself.

The traditional Judeo-Christian god is considered omnipotent and omniscient; it would have no need to conduct experiments. The theodicy that humanity learns something by overcoming evil is a very old one; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy#As_a_necessity_for_greater_purpose for starters.

-Edmund Burke

Although I don't completly agree with this beacause many evils in this world is a result of something else done to trigger the evil. Example: The nazis came to power indirectly as a result of the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Please don't tell me the Treaty of Versailles was "nothing".

I'm wagering that each one of us has felt "wronged" by a fellow human at some point in our life.

We are free to choose how we respond to that.

The idea of evil is a product of humans. Nature has a certain balance which some consider cruel, but that's a matter of perspective. Two male rams will fight for dominance, but won't kill each other or hold a grudge. Some people will kill others out of hate instead of necessity. I wonder sometimes if animals have the capacity for hate, but that's off topic. I guess what I'm trying to say is evil seems to be not so much something that happens, but something we do.

It sounds shallow, I know, but in the context of Frusciante it sounds different to me - perhaps because I'm familiar with his other texts, such as "anyhow mistakes are what lead you through life". Everything bad can teach you a lesson, just because it happened. It won't necessarily do.

I think people who don't experience anything good need to think about it. They either have to examine and analyse their point of view, or take medications, or both. Otherwise, no reason to live. I do think that you can be feel good with pain. I learned to see the good things in pain. That's not to say I'm never sad.


You are right. But people don't see the difference between excuse and reason - so when I say it's because of Versailles, they tell me I justify it. When I say there's reason for suicide bombing, they tell me I justify it. When I say there's reason for Israel's action, they tell me I justify it. I don't. I just look for the reason. You have to understand reasons to prevent happenings.

i dont think evil exists in people. there only is a lack of comprhension or a lack of care. these things arent evil there just unfortunate.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

The inaction of people who know something is wrong will always be the major contributing factor to the propagation such "evil" in the world.

My question regarding evil is if, before the universe/heaven/angels etc., God was the only thing in existence, and there is no evil in God, where did it come from? Did God create evil? Why would God do that?

You are off on a wrong tangent. These are not experiments, they are a process. When you whack a piece of red hot iron against an anvil you are not experimenting, you are processing the iron into the shape you desire. Assuming a God manufacturing life into the form He desires a certain amount of whacking is required to create the process. I am assuming a God that does not wave His magic wand and "shazam!" something happens. He is processing His material. Whether this idea has been proposed before is irrelevant.

Who is raising that question during those encounters?



That what? The fact that the question comes up, or the fact that evil exists?

Assuming "evil":



You might be correct about that, but this is the first I have ever heard of it.

There is only one "evil", and that is to in any way stand or speak against the living Elohim ... and I cannot imagine any human being not being able to comprehend that!