Evil - A View from Afar
Evil – A View from Afar
By Joma (Mar4/05)
Evil is defined as an action or phenomena that which is morally bad or wrong, or that which causes harm, pain, or misery.
If one is familiar with the current discussion between Theist and Nontheist deliberations, he will find out that there are two (2) types of evil, termed as Moral and Natural Evil. To understand better, examples of Moral evil are murder, rape, genocide, wife-beating, torture and other abhorable actions a human can inflict on another human being. On the other hand, Natural evil are earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, birth-defects, sickness such as AIDs and SARS and other observable facts which are beyond man's control.
What Causes Evil?
According to current (Theistic) thoughts, Evil is not a direct action by God. It is caused mainly by, at least, two excuses. The first reason is the claim of abuse and misuse of freewill and second reason, the doing by Fallen Angels.
God, it was claimed, gave us the choice to conduct our life, hence, freewill. God wishes us to perform good and compassionately with our lives. But human is basically weak and an inborn sinner. Because of this man's intrinsic nature, he, in some cases, adversely commits some of the Moral evil mentioned above [1]
Natural evils are the doing of Fallen Angels, namely Satan himself and his cohorts. While it is known that Satan was a creation by God Himself, this seemingly wicked, mischievous and troublesome creature is always at hand to subvert God's benevolent intention. [2]
From the rationale above, Theist claim that evil is not caused by God, but as a matter of fact, man causes moral evil and Satan is the reason for the damaging occurrence which are beyond man's control.
Does God Allow Evil?
God is a universal Father, and is therefore good, benevolent and merciful. As a Father, He does not intend to torture and bring miseries to His children. However, He allow evil in a tolerable quantity. This is the rationale for the pain we suffer during times when we visit our dentists. While we see pain as "evil", this bearable discomfort will bring us an overall wellness in our personality [3]
But how does a Theist reason out for evil done in a massive quantity? W.L. Craig, in one of his famous debates, asserted that the extreme poverty experienced in Honduras has resulted into a surprisingly 30 percent increase in the evangelical faith. And Faith being an important fixture in a man's life is beneficial gain from devastations of poverty.
Another example are earthquakes: if God eliminated all earthquakes, we will have a world where we didn't have any plate tectonics. Plate tectonics are what causes earthquakes. But without plate tectonics, the continents would all erode into the oceans, and there would be literally no life on earth. So these natural laws that cause harm are in many ways essential to our existence.
What Does the Opposition Says?
Some atheists have maintained that the existence of evil makes the existence of God improbable. In particular, atheists assert that theism does not provide an adequate explanations for the existence of seemingly gratuitous evil, such as the suffering of innocent children. Positive atheists counter that justifications for evil in terms of human freewill leave unexplained why, for example, children suffer because of genetic diseases or abuse from adults.
Arguments that God allows pain and suffering to build human character fails, in turn, to explain why there was suffering among animals before human beings evolved and why human character could not be developed with less suffering than it occurs in the world. For an atheist, a better explanation for the presence of evil in the world is thatGod does not exist.
Conclusion
I trust that I have presented to you a balanced viewpoint on the question of Evil. Whether it is God's handywork or not is not the object of this writing. Moreover, whether God exists or not is never the intention of this reply[4]
Sources:
1. Dr WL Craig vs. Dr C Washington Debate, 9 Feb 95, Univ. ofWashington
2. Dr Michael Martin on Atheism, Encarta, 2001
3. Internet Debate, Dr. Fernandes vs. Dr Martin, 1998 (?)
Note:
[1] Taken from my several discussions with (Mr.) this_isit (pdof)
[2] My thanks to Ms. D. Uichanco for her thoughts
[3] Ditto
[4] This article was a reply to a query in a particular forum
By Joma (Mar4/05)
Evil is defined as an action or phenomena that which is morally bad or wrong, or that which causes harm, pain, or misery.
If one is familiar with the current discussion between Theist and Nontheist deliberations, he will find out that there are two (2) types of evil, termed as Moral and Natural Evil. To understand better, examples of Moral evil are murder, rape, genocide, wife-beating, torture and other abhorable actions a human can inflict on another human being. On the other hand, Natural evil are earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, birth-defects, sickness such as AIDs and SARS and other observable facts which are beyond man's control.
What Causes Evil?
According to current (Theistic) thoughts, Evil is not a direct action by God. It is caused mainly by, at least, two excuses. The first reason is the claim of abuse and misuse of freewill and second reason, the doing by Fallen Angels.
God, it was claimed, gave us the choice to conduct our life, hence, freewill. God wishes us to perform good and compassionately with our lives. But human is basically weak and an inborn sinner. Because of this man's intrinsic nature, he, in some cases, adversely commits some of the Moral evil mentioned above [1]
Natural evils are the doing of Fallen Angels, namely Satan himself and his cohorts. While it is known that Satan was a creation by God Himself, this seemingly wicked, mischievous and troublesome creature is always at hand to subvert God's benevolent intention. [2]
From the rationale above, Theist claim that evil is not caused by God, but as a matter of fact, man causes moral evil and Satan is the reason for the damaging occurrence which are beyond man's control.
Does God Allow Evil?
God is a universal Father, and is therefore good, benevolent and merciful. As a Father, He does not intend to torture and bring miseries to His children. However, He allow evil in a tolerable quantity. This is the rationale for the pain we suffer during times when we visit our dentists. While we see pain as "evil", this bearable discomfort will bring us an overall wellness in our personality [3]
But how does a Theist reason out for evil done in a massive quantity? W.L. Craig, in one of his famous debates, asserted that the extreme poverty experienced in Honduras has resulted into a surprisingly 30 percent increase in the evangelical faith. And Faith being an important fixture in a man's life is beneficial gain from devastations of poverty.
Another example are earthquakes: if God eliminated all earthquakes, we will have a world where we didn't have any plate tectonics. Plate tectonics are what causes earthquakes. But without plate tectonics, the continents would all erode into the oceans, and there would be literally no life on earth. So these natural laws that cause harm are in many ways essential to our existence.
What Does the Opposition Says?
Some atheists have maintained that the existence of evil makes the existence of God improbable. In particular, atheists assert that theism does not provide an adequate explanations for the existence of seemingly gratuitous evil, such as the suffering of innocent children. Positive atheists counter that justifications for evil in terms of human freewill leave unexplained why, for example, children suffer because of genetic diseases or abuse from adults.
Arguments that God allows pain and suffering to build human character fails, in turn, to explain why there was suffering among animals before human beings evolved and why human character could not be developed with less suffering than it occurs in the world. For an atheist, a better explanation for the presence of evil in the world is thatGod does not exist.
Conclusion
I trust that I have presented to you a balanced viewpoint on the question of Evil. Whether it is God's handywork or not is not the object of this writing. Moreover, whether God exists or not is never the intention of this reply[4]
Sources:
1. Dr WL Craig vs. Dr C Washington Debate, 9 Feb 95, Univ. ofWashington
2. Dr Michael Martin on Atheism, Encarta, 2001
3. Internet Debate, Dr. Fernandes vs. Dr Martin, 1998 (?)
Note:
[1] Taken from my several discussions with (Mr.) this_isit (pdof)
[2] My thanks to Ms. D. Uichanco for her thoughts
[3] Ditto
[4] This article was a reply to a query in a particular forum
posted by DearestWarrior at 3:03 PM
2 Comments:
Hello Joma, I would like to commend you for a very balance presentation of this very sensitive issue.
Though Joma is an all - time atheist, he has delved the topic with extreme care I can't afford to make point-by-point critic to this posting, but instead enjoys the pleasure of hit permission to comment likewise.
Evil is not a direct authorship of God according to the scripture, in which it has abundantly supplies. However, evil at it's cruelty is sometimes uses & employed by God to bring about good (Romans 8:28-30). I know this raises eyebrow not only for the atheist camp, but from all people from all sides including the self-styled theist.
Accordingly, the scripture never teaches that God becomes the universal father of all mankind. Sin is what separates us from God. Jesus confronted the pharisee and told them that they are from their father, the devil.
While it is true that theism does not provide adequate explanation about the suffering we all have today, most objections are driven by emotional reluctance of admission. Even the theist are guilty of this.
Using the bible once more, it doesn't teaches that animals have been suffering before the fall (Gen. 3), but to be biblically precise there is no pain and death before the fall.
As a conclusion, the greatest argument and strongest against the existence of God is the reality of evil. But the evil would not exist without GOOD. Extreme EVIL is extreme GOOD is pre-supposes. Extreme good is another name for Good.
Again nice blog and God bless Joma
Dave
correction :
Extreme evil as it's extreme good. extreme good is another name for God
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