The Mystery of Moral Evil, Part 1: The Human Condition
Could there have been a greater moral evil than the Holocaust? Consider the real and nearly successful attempt to systematically brutally enslave and incinerate an entire race as a matter of public policy. Shall not Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau forever be the diabolical symbols of a stark reality that we cannot escape? Do they not herald us to our senses? God does not exist. For how could God allow such unconscionable evil for which no good or accumulation of good can ever atone?
And what shall we say about equally unconscionable moral evil as a matter of private policy? I recall an Associated Press story about an eighteen year old girl on a picnic with her family on a beach in Sri Lanka when the holiday tsunami of 2004 hit. The waves killed both her parents and seven of her relatives. The girl was “rescued” by a young man who raped her as soon as the torrential waters swept them aground. The man forced her to succumb by threatening to strangle her. He told her that, under the circumstances, no one would know. Raped by her rescuer? How dark the human heart? How hopeless the human condition? If God did exist, he would certainly be the devil. The evidence is in, and the verdict is sure. God does not exist. The presence of such evil is sufficient reason to deny him.
Or is it? We must never deny the horror of such moral evil nor minimize its impact on its victims. Moral evil is not just an accidental impersonal force that randomly wafts about, but is the result of the real actions of real individual persons or even entire populations who deliberately and unjustly inflict pain and suffering upon innocents of their own kind. How is a world that accommodates such behavior compatible with the existence of a good, all-knowing, all-powerful God? The question presses, and we must take it seriously. At the same time we must not allow the real evil we experience all around us to cloud our minds and paralyze our ability to think clearly and reason soundly. There is too much at stake to surrender without a rational inquiry. So we begin by asking, “Is the existence of moral evil logically incompatible with the existence of God?" In our next post, we will engage in a rational inquiry.
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Blessings,
Arnie Gentile
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Posted by Arnie Gentile at 8/16/2009 9:14 PM 
Categories: The Problem of Evil
Tags: Christian Apologetics
Categories: The Problem of Evil
Tags: Christian Apologetics
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