QUENTIN SMITH & THE MYSTERY OF EVIL.

July 2006's thought from my agnostic calendar is;

"So how do theists respond to arguments like
this? [The Argument from Evil]. They say there is
a reason for evil, but it is a mystery. Well,let
me tell you this: I'm actually one hundred feet
tall even though I only appear to be six feet tall.
You ask me for proof of this. I have a simple
answer: it's a mystery. Just accept my word for it
on faith. And that's just the logic theists use in
their discussions of evil." Quentin Smith.

It may be that there are theists who believe that
evil has a purpose....karmic realinement for
instance (simple cause and effect = people get what
they deserve). A Christian is not such a theist - my
best guess is; evil as evil does not "have a
reason", it is chaos and abscence of reason, it is
Creation evacuated of all it's God given properties
- love, tenderness, empathy, creativity,joy, humour
etc. Evil is an imposter which serves no direct
purpose - indeed it cannot, for it is not part of
God's creative purpose and is antithetical to it.
Quentin Smith is naive if he expects evil to parcel
itself out justly; that is not the nature
of the beast is it? It is not without reason that
the Christian scriptures often refer to evil as
"lawlessness" - the antithesis of justice and
civilisation.

Evil exists only in the same way that the cold
exists or the darkness exists - they are the
abscence of heat and light. Furthermore if evil
was a natural part of how the world ticks ["nature
red in tooth and claw" etc] it shouldn't logically
even register on our radar because we have evolved
within its atmosphere and absorbed it - but it
does bother us, why is that? Maybe we live in a
moral universe.

Or maybe evil bothers us in an evil way! We humans
have a pathological need to shift the blame for
evil onto others and even attribute it to God. It
is the same fault the Devil has - the need to play
the "eternal victim" - in his eyes no one has
suffered more than he. The real mystery is why do
we nurture evil in our own hearts and make peace
with it? The "reason for evil" is that it is the
means by which we "otherise" evil. We see the speck
in our brothers eye and fail to see the plank in
our own! We say we have a problem with evil....
in actuality we don't.

The real question Quentin Smith is reaching for
is "why does God tolerate evil?" - he certainly
permits it for now, but that is far from saying
that it serves a purpose, at least not in and of
itself. But we have already covered this ground
with Einstein back in April's "Calendar of Doom".
God does have an unfolding plan to contain and
eradicate evil, and he may even, from time-to-time,
subvert people's evil designs to his own purposes
.....how else could a God of love respond to the
desecration of the world he created? Remember that
biblically speaking we are in the fourth act of a
five part drama. The final curtain has yet to fall.
Christians crave for God's kingdom to come; justice
to reign and evil to be destroyed. What everyone
fails to see is that we [you, me and everyone else]
are also part of the problem. We often smugly think
God should bump off the people we don't approve of
- that's pharisaism for you! Why do you think you
will be spared....what is it that you are trusting
in?... or who are you trusting in? When you are
called to account; what is it that you are going to
say to God?

There is a problem and it is this; how does God
"square the circle" of expressing his perfect love
as perfect justice with expressing his perfect love
as perfect mercy? It is quite a conundrum but I
believe God vindicates himself at The Cross!


tagline: Calendar of Doom. Nature of evil. Cross.
Jesus Christ. Judgement. Justice. Mercy. Human Nature.
Self. Righteouness. Pharisees. Pharisaical. Pharisaism. God's plan.
Justification. Atonement. God's. Plan. Versus. Compassion. Empathy.

Post-script:-
One final thought - unlike QS I firmly believe that
there is no lack of integrity in saying "I don't
know" when faced with a baffling question. That
does not mean that one won't think about the issue
and get back to them. Oh - and he's not 100 feet
tall because that is measurable - not everything
of importance can be quantified so easily....it
doesn't mean that they don't exist.