Evil versus God or God versus Evil? Or both?
The Bible says that God makes good times and evil times equally (Ecclesiastes 7:14).
CHRISTIANS:
God is all-good and all-powerful. Yet evil exists. He takes final responsibility
for all that happens and he will remove all evil. He is fighting it now without
taking it away completely for he has a purpose for allowing it to happen. He is
justified in doing so.
SANITY SAYS:
It is only an assumption that allowing evil is justified. If the believer proves
that it is possible, he still does not prove that it is justified. It is simply
evil and cold to assume that evil is justified. You don't assume that someone
lets a child molester hurt her child for some understandable reason. Some
believers do outstandingly good things. Is it because it boosts their egos to be
part of God's evil-busting activity? The OH I'M GREAT FOR GOD HAS CHOSEN ME kind
of thing? Or is it because they have to compensate for the callous assumption
they make? With motives such as that, their goodness is only apparent. It might
seem to do no harm but what about what it does to their inner decency? They will
be dangerous if they drop their religious crutch.
People suffer horrendously. We can learn better what they
go through if we refuse to try and harden our hearts enough to pretend God is
taking care of it. That is about helping us cope not them.
If there is no God, their situation is horrific. By assuming there is a God we
fail to see how horrific it is. By forgetting about the God idea, we can engage
with them and see the evil fully as it is. The atheist can be more heroically
self-sacrificing than the believer.
If evil is needed in God's plan then we should praise God for letting it happen.
Why don't we party when somebody gets cancer? Why not tell the sufferer that he
or she is so lucky to be asked to suffer in God's plan?
It would show more faith to rejoice when you get cancer
then it would when you get the love of your life. And faith is a great virtue
according to Christendom.
The Christians are repelled by all that but by implication, when they praise God
they are praising him for allowing evil to happen. Their revulsion is
hypocritical. They do not really believe that God allowing evil is justified for
they say that any prophet speaking in the name of God who advocates abortion and
war is not really authorised by God at all.
Believers are manipulated to think of only God versus evil. But what it is evil versus God?
Can it be both?
If not then what if it is either? Which one then?
God is said to detest our evil and how we suffer for he loves us. Yet he lets these things happen.
Is this a contradiction?
If it is, then God is not very powerful, or he is not all-good or he does not
exist.
If there is no God we still worship. What do we worship? We worship blind
indifferent nature and hail its activities as those of God.
One day God will make the evil consequences of evil good. That is what attracts people about faith in God and draws them to various religions. So to say God has a purpose that forces him to put up with our evil and suffering is therefore very very serious matter. If there is no all-good God then evil and suffering are inexcusable. You don't want to risk excusing the excusable. You don't want to be saying there is a purpose for evil when it is useless. You need proof that God and evil do not contradict each other. You need solid and strong evidence.
The risk is inherently degrading.
Evil is a waste and produces only waste. If God turns
evil good then he does so by force and in spite of it. Would you not want to
believe that evil can be turned into good gently and without force? Yes you
would but that involves playing down what evil is.
Now that we have shown the inherent degradation in
telling people they are part of God's plan in the face of great suffering, we
need not bother examining the reasons God is supposed to allow suffering to
happen. They all assume that God is in control and letting suffering happen is
part of his plan. But let us bother anyway!
WHAT IS SUFFERING?
Suffering is the experience of meaningless existence - it is experiencing
something that tells you that you should not be happy or alive.
Anyway, pain and suffering are not exactly the same thing. You can feel your
existence is worthwhile to whatever degree if you have pain. Suffering is a form
of pain that makes you feel your existence is not worth it. If God can allow
pain, it does not follow that he can allow suffering. Suffering would mean he
has given us the faculty to feel that our lives are useless and that if he has a
purpose for us it means nothing for us.
GOOD COMES IN SPITE OF EVIL
Good cannot come out of evil. It can only come in spite of it. Evil by
definition means good is worked against and can only happen in spite of it. If
evil presents itself as enabling some good purpose then that is a smokescreen.
Evil always does that. Human nature fears evil and likes to believe it is part
of a higher power's plan to eradicate evil or reduce it. But to fail to
recognise evil for what it is and to see it as less bad than how you can see it
is to enable evil. Evil is honoured when it is given a bit of shine.
FINALLY
Suffering is such a serious matter that you need hard solid evidence, testimony is not enough when the matter is serious enough, that a God may allow it. The next burden is getting from may allow to should allow. Sufferers are real and they come first and are not to be distorted into an example to you of God's love. It is not about you.
