Why Does God Allow Evil to Exist?
I know this is a seeming contradiction that many people grapple with. Here's a great article on the topic, from a Christian perspective, by Dr. Peter Kreeft of Boston University:
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/evil.htm
Some of his main points:
1) We naturally tend to picture evil as a thing - a black cloud, or a dangerous storm, or a grimacing face, or dirt. But these pictures mislead us. If God is the Creator of all things and evil is a thing, then God is the Creator of evil, and he is to blame for its existence. No, evil is not a thing but a wrong choice, or the damage done by a wrong choice.
2) ... the origin of evil is not the Creator but the creature's freely choosing sin and selfishness.
3) God's solution to the problem of evil is his Son Jesus Christ. The Father's love sent his Son to die for us to defeat the power of evil in human nature: that's the heart of the Christian story. We do not worship a deistic God, an absentee landlord who ignores his slum; we worship a garbageman God who came right down into our worst garbage to clean it up.
4) The worst aspect of the problem of evil is eternal evil, hell. Does hell not contradict a loving and omnipotent God? No, for hell is the consequence of free will. We freely choose hell for ourselves; God does not cast anyone into hell against his will. If a creature is really free to say yes or no to the Creator's offer of love and spiritual marriage, then it must be possible for the creature to say no. And that is what hell is, essentially [the separation of man from God's love].
I found this article while checking out a website a friend set up, "Finding More at Princeton":
http://www.findingmoreatprinceton.com/
I definitely recommend the site. It's basically a page with links to articles, tackling a wide variety of issues. What I really like about the site is that, though there aren't that many articles posted yet, they have all been screened and selected because they are both interesting and theologically sound, with a firm footing in Christianity. If you're looking for the intellectual Christian perspective on anything from "Science & Christianity" to "Family & Career", this is a great resource. Keep up the good work, Charles.
posted by Kris @ 4:23 PM
1 Comments:
In most cultures around the world, God is accepted as perfect and so the question of evil is a troubling one. I, personally, agree with the author in that Evil is not something God creates, at least not in the sense that He sends it down to us, but that we, individually choose it.
I firmly believe that there is a crucial moment in anything we do where we have the choice to do right or wrong. In any given circumstance, that decision can only be purely individual - not socially mandated. I take this as proof that right/wrong, good/evil is not a creation of God's, for if it was, each of these would be universally, unconditionally true - and I know this is not the case. As an example I can refer back to something I said earlier regarding lies and compassion. In some cases telling a lie (white lie), can save a person from pain, and in this case, lying would be the 'right' thing to do - something that contradicts the generally held assumption that lying is bad.
Talking about right/wrong and good/evil as a personal choice, may seem over simplistic. But if we think about it, everything we deem to be evil in this world stems from an individual choice.
What can we do about it? We can listen to the little voice/conscience/Jimminy Cricket inside all of us and strive to do what is right from the most basic little level to the most complex.
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