GOD AND EVIL: TURNING EVIL INTO A GENERAL EVIL, AS IN THE PROBLEM OF EVIL, IS MASKING THE EVILS THAT SHOW GOD CANNOT EXIST
How do you deal with the tension between the all-powerful love of God and the fact that there is much wrong with us and our lives in this world?
There is the problem of evil and there is the problem of evil as in us not
being smart or powerful enough to curtail evil or to help it destroy itself.
It’s the difference between suffering and evil happening that we cannot control
or impact on and that which we should be (or are) able to.
If you could account for dangerous personality flaws and diseases just happening
that does not help at all with how we face evils and nothing gives us the
resources to fight them well. Even if you do fight something well you never know
if it was as well as you think.
So there are two problems of evil.
One might fit God but that does not mean the other does. The problem of God’s
silence as we battle and need guidance proves there is no God. It’s a
contradiction wrapped up as a problem.
Anyway suppose we could call evil simply a problem.
It’s the problem of what evil is actually for or tolerated by God for. In this
light, it is an expression of doubt. If your beloved comes home late you don’t
assume they must have been with a love rival. To find evil problematic is
letting evil let you doubt God. Yet if you don't question you break
rapport with those who suffer who want you to understand a situation that forces
them to doubt. Their doubt is pain. You dilute your empathy.
There is no plan for evil. This plan is really a summary of countless small
plans where evil is used to do greater good. Even if evil destroys itself that
is a greater good for the idea is that evil is an absence of good so if it
evaporates then good has to come in. If there is no God setting up loads of
plans for evil, then the space is there for you to help, to really help.
If there is a God with all those plains then your efforts in fact do nothing.
The plan is bigger than you which is why it uses you. It is the context that
helps. It is not you. No matter how good God is, he still looks
likes a monstrous tyrant. You will lose your motivation and pleasure
in helping others.
Other problems arise as well. It is not just that evil exists and it is showing there is a problem. The problem is blamed on evil. God belief leads to a problem of evil. So God causes the problem not evil. It depends which side you blame for the possible contradiction.
Here is an example of how God belief sources the problem in itself.
If you knew somebody with medical training was going to set up on their own to abort babies late term on request you might decide to kill that person for that person is evil. Nobody else is planning to do what they are doing so this is a unique situation. You are doing it to save the babies and to remove an evil person to boot. It is not like killing a mere abortionist who aims to do what is for the best with abortion for doing that only brings a new abortionist in. So you get the gun ready. What if you think God wants you do do this? Perhaps the idea of the will of a supernatural being is irrelevant? See what is happening. If you are atheist you see it as right no matter if God exists or not. If you are believer you see it as right anyway and God happens to agree and that is an added bonus.
munson
