DanLMP
Well-Known Member
It has become cliché for people to ask the question of why God allows evil to exist. The underlying accusation of some of these people is that God is acting immorally. Without having taken a poll I would say that the majority of these accusers sit in the camp of those who don’t believe that God exists or who are generally ambivalent to His existence. Their logic is that if God existed that He would not allow the evil that obviously exists to continue and He would not have allowed evil to be created. Following their own logic, they therefore conclude that since evil does exist and that a good God would not allow it that there is then no God.
Well, without the existence of God we would still need to ask the question of why evil exists. The people who choose not to believe in God are not off the hook for an explanation.
Again, without having taken a poll, I think it is safe to say that the majority of people, both secular and religious, would agree that evil does in fact exist. It’s not really necessary to characterize the specifics of the nature of evil, every person has their own definition, but most would lump certain acts into the category: Lying, murder, rape, theft, false judgement, false testimony, etc. You can easily make a long list, and evil is not restricted to acts of people referred to as moral evil.
If you are walking down the street and someone throws a brick at your head and kills you that is moral evil. If you are walking down the street and a brick falls on your head and kills you that is natural evil. The list of natural evils is probably just as long as the list of moral evils.
Christians, within the framework of mankind’s fall from grace in the Garden, explain evil as a consequence of Adam’s sin. All of creation was affected by Adam’s choice and all of creation no longer operates according to God’s original perfect plan. Discounting moral evil, the evolutionary model can only explain natural evil as something that just is.
Sticking just with the concept of moral evil, without the existence of God, most naturalists have zeroed in on the evolutionary model as being the driving force behind the existence of the universe and the existence of Man. Without getting into a full discussion about the nature of evolution, evolution is generally described as the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection. The general principle being that successive generations of humans are selected based on the idea of “survival of the fittest”.
If survival of the fittest has generated humans that act evilly then it seems logical to conclude that evil is a necessary component in the survival of the human species. Why then are the people who complain about evil complaining? To extend the logic a little, if evil is necessary for the survival of the human species, then those who complain about the presence of evil might be considered an evolutionary defect. Alternately, those who complain about the presence of evil could be considered to be acting evilly by complaining about and acting against the presence of evil because it imperils the existence of our whole species. That’s quite a logical twister.
Additionally, these evil complainers would also need to explain how an undirected, unconscious, non-sentient “force”, evolution, created evil in the first place. Evil is not a material entity that can be put on a table. It is an immaterial concept that most would agree exists but can not provide a sound explanation for how atoms that have no ability to think can create a concept that humans can think of.
Natural evil, under the evolutionary model is, in my thinking, a little more difficult to explain. The evolutionary model assumes a long span of time before the advent of biological lifeforms that have the capacity to think. Were all the volcanic explosions, tsunamis, earthquakes and other earth-shattering events before Man evil? How did they suddenly become evil just because mankind came on the scene?
So, no, I have not provided a long-winded explanation for the existence of evil from a Christian perspective but the non-Christian has an equal responsibility, within their own belief system, to provide an adequate defense or explanation for the existence of evil, which they have not done.
We are waiting. In the meantime, stop complaining.
Well, without the existence of God we would still need to ask the question of why evil exists. The people who choose not to believe in God are not off the hook for an explanation.
Again, without having taken a poll, I think it is safe to say that the majority of people, both secular and religious, would agree that evil does in fact exist. It’s not really necessary to characterize the specifics of the nature of evil, every person has their own definition, but most would lump certain acts into the category: Lying, murder, rape, theft, false judgement, false testimony, etc. You can easily make a long list, and evil is not restricted to acts of people referred to as moral evil.
If you are walking down the street and someone throws a brick at your head and kills you that is moral evil. If you are walking down the street and a brick falls on your head and kills you that is natural evil. The list of natural evils is probably just as long as the list of moral evils.
Christians, within the framework of mankind’s fall from grace in the Garden, explain evil as a consequence of Adam’s sin. All of creation was affected by Adam’s choice and all of creation no longer operates according to God’s original perfect plan. Discounting moral evil, the evolutionary model can only explain natural evil as something that just is.
Sticking just with the concept of moral evil, without the existence of God, most naturalists have zeroed in on the evolutionary model as being the driving force behind the existence of the universe and the existence of Man. Without getting into a full discussion about the nature of evolution, evolution is generally described as the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection. The general principle being that successive generations of humans are selected based on the idea of “survival of the fittest”.
If survival of the fittest has generated humans that act evilly then it seems logical to conclude that evil is a necessary component in the survival of the human species. Why then are the people who complain about evil complaining? To extend the logic a little, if evil is necessary for the survival of the human species, then those who complain about the presence of evil might be considered an evolutionary defect. Alternately, those who complain about the presence of evil could be considered to be acting evilly by complaining about and acting against the presence of evil because it imperils the existence of our whole species. That’s quite a logical twister.
Additionally, these evil complainers would also need to explain how an undirected, unconscious, non-sentient “force”, evolution, created evil in the first place. Evil is not a material entity that can be put on a table. It is an immaterial concept that most would agree exists but can not provide a sound explanation for how atoms that have no ability to think can create a concept that humans can think of.
Natural evil, under the evolutionary model is, in my thinking, a little more difficult to explain. The evolutionary model assumes a long span of time before the advent of biological lifeforms that have the capacity to think. Were all the volcanic explosions, tsunamis, earthquakes and other earth-shattering events before Man evil? How did they suddenly become evil just because mankind came on the scene?
So, no, I have not provided a long-winded explanation for the existence of evil from a Christian perspective but the non-Christian has an equal responsibility, within their own belief system, to provide an adequate defense or explanation for the existence of evil, which they have not done.
We are waiting. In the meantime, stop complaining.