The case for "evil"

Eventually every serious person must decide what they are going to do with questions about "evil." For thousands of years this has been one of the core issues about life itself. You can read what the ancient philosophers wrote, early Christian writers like Augustine, all the way up to modern day thinkers and you'll probably still be confused. It is often mentioned in the Bible, so we know its important. But when asked, and we will be if not already have been, "what is evil and why does it exist?", what can we really say that satisfies the one who asked? Maybe even satisfy ourselves!

I do not by any means in writing this blog assume I have the answers once and for all. This blog is merely how I have condensed very difficult treatises on "evil" by very smart people for a very long time. I have tried to do the "heavy lifting" for those I love and who might want to know my point of view. So here it is:

The idea of "evil" can only be understood in light of "good." We must also deal with the philosophical question, "what does 'exist' mean? There really is no way around being a little philosophical. After all, philosophy is just the way we think about things. So if you ever think about "good and evil", you are practicing philosophy.

Our natural tendency to think about the word "good" is to equate it with what's beneficial or favorable, especially to the experience or the way we view the outcome. In this way, "good" is the quality associated with the object, not the object itself. To say a person is "good" is to describe the person. It is the person that exist, not "good." The fact that we experience the person in a certain way is meaningful, but it is not "good" that has form and substance, it is the person. In this way, "good" does not exist as an object but merely qualifies the experience or observation of the object. 

In the Biblical context "good" is still understood as the quality of the object, not the object. Yet, it has a very different meaning. An object is "good" not because of extrinsic benefit but because of the intrinsic nature of its creator. You have likely heard me explain the Biblical idea of "good" this way, "a pie is good not because of its benefit to me, but because of the qualities of the baker." So the object, in this case the pie, is good because of the pie's intrinsic qualities granted to it by the creator of the pie. In either meaning of the word "good", the pie is the object, not the quality (good) of the object. The pie exists, "good" describes something about the pie that exist.

Since "evil" is generally viewed in a spiritual or moralistic context. We must use the Biblical idea of "good" as our basis for what is "evil".

So, does evil exist? I would say no. It cannot "exist" because it has no form or substance and is therefore not an object, either observable or abstract. Like "good", "evil" can be used to describe an object, such as an evil person or an evil act. St Augustine said it like this, "either the evil we fear exist or our fear itself is the evil." Assuming the later Augustine rejects the notion that "evil" itself is an object, but rather fear (an emotion which exists) is the object and that "evil" is simply a quality of the object we call fear.

Then when we see "evil" as a qualifier of an object and not the object itself, we do not have the irreconcilable issue of "how can a good and powerful God create evil?" Augustine goes through an elaborate dialectic to conclude "evil has no being." He defended this by concluding that "You (God) have made all good things and there are no substances that You (God) had not made." Augustine goes on to confess, "I was seeking the origin of evil, but seeking it in an evil way, and failing to see the evil in my own search itself."

This is a great warning to all of us, it certainly was to me. We cannot answer philosophical questions under the "weight of carnal habits." Augustine realized that pursuing the questions of "evil" like the world did had been the problem. He confessed "above my changeable mind soared the real, unchangeable eternal truth .... indeed did I perceive your invisible reality through created things." To heed Augustine's conclusions in my words, "don't try to find a place to paint in open spaces left by others, switch to the right canvas, or don't try to swim better than others in the wrong pool, get in the right pool."

So, where did the quality come from that objects can possess and why would God allow it if He is all powerful? To answer the first question let's go back to "good." In the Biblical notion of 'good" it is a quality of the object. In this case to say anything is "good" is to say that it has the quality of its Creator, in this case God. So something is "good" (in the Biblical sense) when it embodies the very nature of God. So, "good works" are those things we do that are intrinsically God. They may or may not seem to benefit us or anyone we can notice. In fact we may observe the very opposite. But "good works" are "good" because they are done out of the very heart of God.

That would mean that "evil" occurs in an object when its intrinsic qualities do not contain those of God. Another way to say this is that an object is "evil" when it is absence the qualities of God. Why then would God ever allow an object He created to not have His nature? This answer is found in the very idea of the Fall, of Adam and Eve's rebellion, where they preferred to be God themselves. Evil is the way we describe any object that has declared its independence from God. It is not that evil is some object that has invaded the world or your life, but that evil is the description given to anything that operates with a will apart from God. Anything seeking its own glory is considered to be evil.

Why does God allow anything He created and has the power to control to operate outside of His will? Now that is a tough question, way more difficult than "the case for evil." I will leave that in the "too hard pile" and the subject of a future philosophical discourse.

That's why we will forever ponder on this side of eternity .....