The Problem of Evil

The problem of evil.

How can God be good when there is so much evil in the world?

The question truly relies on an accurate conception of God. God is good meaning that God IS good, the quality itself. Evil is just good that is taken away or corrupted. Evil is less good. Evil, that is that which is opposite to good, is opposite to God.

One concept I have become rather fond of is the idea that "Evil does not exist". I am not saying that evil things are not done, or that there are evil outcomes in life, but that evil itself has no physical existence. Evil is not a being or an object or a thing that has existence. Rather, it is the deprivation of the good. 

None of creation is evil, inherently, at it's core. One can think of the most evil, violent, harmful circumstances, and no matter what, it will be a good thing that has been corrupted. The devastating tornado which decimates a small town can only do so if the small town exists in the first place. There cannot be a tragedy without the good. The town must exist, it must have a history, it must be populated with people, all with their own lives, all with value. If the tornado strikes in the middle of an empty field, it does not matter. It is only a tragedy, it is only EVIL, when it deprives something that has already been made good.

You will find that this is true on all levels. Evil has no existence. It is a vampire on good itself. It is a kind of madness, a kind of corruption of the good that is physical, material, and spiritual reality. It is self denial. It is disintegration. There is a famous saying, that evil cannot create, it can only destroy, or it can only corrupt. The power of creation is inherently an attribute of God, and therefore, a good act. Everything created is good. Evilness is only the corruption of the already created good.

Think about the most tragic tragedies of life. What about someone who goes blind? Maybe in an accident, they have had their vision tragically taken from them. But just as well, their vision was a gift in the first place, something to be thankful for each and every day. The evil cannot exist without the good in the first place. If eyesight is good, and blindness is evil, then it was the good that existed predominantly. The good is the ruler over the evil.

When one seriously considers life, and the preciousness thereof, things become clear. The evilness of becoming blind cannot happen without the miracle of sight. The organ of the eye, along with the nervous system that connects it to the brain, and the rational soul at the top of the personal hierarchy, making sense of it all, it is many experiences coming together in unison to bring the experience of sight and of existence in our 3 dimensional world. 

Every single breath that we take is a miracle. Somehow our bodies, incredibly fragile substances encased in a softhard human shell, can survive for 70, 80, maybe even 100+ years. Not once to we consider this in our day to day activities. Not once does the appropriate gratitude enter into our hearts.

God has given us free will. This is something that atheists cannot accept, their conception of God is too close minded, too deterministic, with no room for natural performance, with no room for personal agency. In the Garden of Eden, God created us as Rational Creatures. Unlike the animals, we have souls, we are made in the image of God, we have the ability to make moral choices. We can choose to be good or bad. This is reflected strongly in the story of Genesis. It is through our moral and rational choices that we shape and define reality, it is the method by which we name and catalog creation.

Ultimately, this is why hell must exist. There must be a place for those who choose to go against God the most, who decide to go the fullest distance away from Him that they possibly can. The Orthodox view seems to be that heaven and hell are both one and the same, they are an escatological nearness to God, which is felt like the choirs of angels for those who love Him, and felt like the fires of hell for those who hate Him. We live our lives and have an opportunity to pursue the kind of afterlife that we truly desire. Some people really want hell. They hate God with all their hearts, they openly berate Jesus, they work tirelessly to fill the world with lies. When these people die, their souls will be dragged down by the dark angels, for they cannot see the light.

The truth is that good is real and evil is a lie. This hierarchy points to why God is the ruler and creator of the universe. Think of it as light and dark. It is very strongly related. Good is light. When you enter a room, you turn on a light bulb. You flick a switch and it fills the room with light. There was a darkened room and it is now filled with light, instantly, at the speed of light, according to Einstein. It is a transcendental thing, light, and it fills any vacuum where it is deployed. 

The light demolishes the dark. The dark cannot help but be overtaken by the light. There is no recourse. Yet, if one wants to make the room dark, there is no dark bulb. No dark bulb will make a bright room into a dark one. Darkness is not an additive property. 

This is the closest metaphor we have to the end of time, I believe. The Bible often talks of fire, Tongues of Fire, God appearing to Moses in the burning bush. This was notable because a bush is a rather small piece of shrubbery, and it was on fire, and it was not being consumed, but rather, existing as an eternally burning bush. God displaying his mastery over time and space, the fact that He exists outside of such dimensions. It could be that light and dark, good and evil, these are just fragments, glimpses, of properties in other realms.

Who knows?

But this much seems to be true. We exist. Evil cannot create, it can only corrupt, or destroy. Evil exist because God allows it to, to some degree. This is part of the deal of Free Will. We have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This initiates us into the world of Free Will. We decide heaven or hell. We decide good or evil.

From what I have read, this is the Orthodox Christian view on heaven and hell. It is one and the same, it is union with God. If you hate God, you will experience it as hell, and if you love God, it will be heaven.

God is goodness itself. In order to know Him better, you must become a creative person yourself. If you are a painter, you will find yourself judging your painting after each addition, just like God, who judges each creation in Genesis, and judges them all as good (humans are judged as very good). If you are a father, you will have an experience, you will love your child, you will be challenged by them, be adversarial with them, be ready to lay down your life for your son. 

Would an evil person do this? Would they be so selfless?