Presence of evil in this world is a fact no one can deny. This fact has become an effective weapon at the hand of atheists. They considered the presence of evil an argument for non-existence of God, who if He would be there would prevent such evil from happening. This write-up discusses this issue.
The Cases Against God
MAMBI - “In some distant forest lightning strikes a dead tree, resulting in a forest fire. In the fire a fawn is trapped, horribly burned, and lies in terrible agony for several days before death relieves its suffering” (Rowe 1979: 337).
SUE- A five-year-old girl in Flint, Michigan named Sue was severely beaten, raped and then strangled to death early on New Year’s Day in 1986.
Once upon a time there were three brothers: Early, Lucky and Cursed. Early died in early childhood. Lucky lived a long life of full devotion and Love to God. Cursed also lived a long life but a life denying God and committing all sorts of moral mischief on earth. They died and assembled in front of God. God granted Lucky the best of bounties in Paradise. Early though entered Heaven, yet wanted the same prize. God said, “Lucky did more righteous deed than you”. Early said: “Why then God, you took my life? You could have extended my early death, so I would have devoted myself to you, like my brother Lucky”. God replied: “I knew that your early death is better for you, for if I would extend your life, you would become a tyrant”. Hearing this Curse –the third brother- cried from the midst of Hellfire: “Why then you O God did not make me dead in early childhood like my brother Early, so I would not commit all these sins that have brought me into Hell?”
What is the purpose of creating poisonous snakes? or perhaps Satan (if he exists) who is the root of all evils?
Why would not Adam and Eve stayed in Heaven forever? Why they had to fall down and face all the troubles on this earth?
An attempt to Explain
Inherent weakness of Man’s knowledge in front of the knowledge of God must point to the difficulty of understanding the purpose and justification of torturing Bambi and Sue. If I imagine myself a tiny bacteria with eyes and ears inside the tiny stomach of a tiny ant, then looking into the wall of the stomach would be like a human being looking into the distant universe in a dark night! To what extent this bacteria is entitled to reason about mount Everest?!. Yet someone would still jump in and say: “But we are not that bacteria, and no justification would explain the torture of Bambi and Sue”.
We must consent that in all actions and events associated and permitted by God, the signs of wisdom, purpose, perfectness and goodness are far more than those which we label as evil and find no reason, purpose or wisdom in. In other words, of all actions of God, blessings and bounties of God might represent 99% of His actions, and just 1% would includes cases like Bambi and Sue. We tend to focus on Bambi and Sue and forget the blessings of God. Yet someone would jump in and say: “Even this 1% is so horrendous, that it would outweigh the rest 99% of blessings”.
God’s action has a purpose and wisdom, and He does not do anything without a praiseworthy purpose. But someone must say: “ I can not imagine praising a God who would permit Bambi to be burnt and Sue to be raped”.
God might not create an event which would yield a good outcome, but not creating this good would yield even a better outcome, and since the two can not co-exist, then not creating this good for better is better. Yet someone would jump in and say: “but creating the event that would burn Bambi and rape Sue will never be better than not creating it..”
Pondering on the creation and action of God would reveal endless purpose and wisdom. Suppose –for the sake of argument- few example of evils reveal no good purpose, would that entail that all –or majority- actions of God have no purpose?
God is different than us. He is different in His body, in His properties, and in His actions. His knowledge is far greater than ours, and his reasoning is far superior than ours. Hence, his wisdom and purpose must be far superior than ours as well.
Following from the above point, our ignorance of any purpose in the examples of above evils, does not entail absence of any purpose or wisdom. As we know, the absence of our knowledge of something does not necessarily mean the absence of this something. An ignorant human being would still say: “But Bambi and Sue can not be justified”.
The perfectness of a perfect being necessitates that this perfect being would not reveal the purpose and wisdom He enjoys to everyone. His wisdom refuses to reveal His wisdom to everyone. Anyone among us, if reveals all his/her affairs and wisdoms and purposes to someone else is regarded non-perfect. I –being a father of 4-years kid- does not reveal all my wisdom to this kid. An ignorant human being would still say: “But Bambi and Sue can not be justified”.
I guess the crux of the problem of evils lies in the fact that human beings with their limited knowledge, when unable to reason an event jumps into quick conclusion that there is no good purpose for this event. Rowe probably was very clear in assuming that even if there were a good purpose for “Bambi” fawn or the raped Sue, these are still unreasonable. As if Rowe is closing all doors of negotiation on such kind of evils. Given the ignorant nature of human being, this arrogant position is by itself unreasonable, and hence an ignorant human being would still say: “But Bambi and Sue can not be justified”.
Let us assume that Mr. Wise is perfectly knowledgeable, noble and active person. All his actions sounds full of wisdom, perfectness and goodness. All in a sudden you were reported that in one morning Mr. Wise took his shoes under his arms and walked bare footed. Now, apart from a group who would think that Mr. Wise turned crazy, the majority would be influenced by Mr. Wise’s rich history of wise actions to think that this particular action must have a wise aspect, but is till unknown to us, and that probably Mr. Wise only knows that. Yet, an ignorant human being would still say: “But Bambi and Sue can not be justified”.
Full wisdom and purpose necessitates creating opposing properties in this world. Night will show the virtue of Daylight, as Daylight would show the virtue of a peaceful night. Pain would show the virtue of pleasure, as pleasure would show the virtue of not having pain and the virtue of the one who relieved you from pain. A God who creates such opposing features in better than a god who does not. If there were only day with no night, life would be difficult. If there were only good without evil, life would become difficult too. Opposing items create boundaries, and set definitions. If everything was good, probably no one would appreciate good and praise God for that. Sin is evil, and if there were no evil, no sin would occur, and no one would bother to ask forgiveness, and God would not be having the property of forgiveness. Yet someone will jump-in and say: “but burning Bambi will have no purpose whatsoever”.
Consider a king called Kong. Kong has a huge kingdom and millions of subjects to interact with. Kong has a good quality called: taking revenge. Kong have been declaring this quality to his subjects all the time, but there were no incidence where this quality was qualified through any examples. Every time Kong was mentioning this quality, his subjects were whispering among themselves: “how should we know”. It continued till one day the neighboring king called Mong captured a caravan that was sent my Kong, and confiscated all riches and killed all people who belonged to Kong. This was really an evil and injustice done by Mong. Now it was proper time for Kong to implement and show to his subjects the meaning of this quality which Kong was always talking: revenge. Will God be able to show all His good qualities without creating evil. Someone would still say “But Bambi and Sue should not be the experimental Guinea pig to show the qualities of God.”
Consider two persons, one does things arbitrary without any preference of one choice over other. The other chooses one item over other and justifies the choice with reason, wisdom and purpose. Among the two the later should be praised, and the former should not be praised, because it was just a random choice for him. God performs one action and does not perform another based on wisdom, and this is why He is supposed to be praised for. This particular choice might be very complicated for our limited mind to comprehend, so He does not reveal this complicated wisdom, but in many other less complicated case, He does reveal this purpose and we praise Him for that. Of total actions, the ones which we have no problem to understand the wisdom are far greater than the ones where we have problem to praise God for, like the case of Bambi and Sue.
Following on the issue of praise, I being a rich person would praise God when seeing a poor. I being a healthy person would praise God when seeing a sick. I being a noble person would praise God when seeing a wicked person. God loves to be praised. Hence, one purpose of creating and allowing evil could be to praiseworthy by those who are free from these evils. Someone still would say: “I think of no praise to a God who burned Bambi and caused Sue to be raped.”
God wants to be worshipped through various forms of worship. Among these forms is the worship through love and hatred. Love for those who love God and hatred towards those who hate God. This can not be materialized without having two camps of people. One who are in the camp of God, and the other who are against God. Continuous fight both physically and intellectually will continue between the two camps, and hence what seems evil must result in the battlefield. As a result of such battle a camp would raise over another. This requires a winner and a looser. Losers are evil, but are necessary to know the winners. Yet someone would object and say: “But Bambi and Sue are not in any camp”.
Also among the noble characters man enjoy is to give charity and be mercy on widows, orphans and the poor. How would these qualities be realized if there were no poor, sick, orphans and widows? Yet someone would say: “But Bambi died and no body came to help this poor creature”.
God loves those who would repent and return to Him. The moment of return after escape has a taste that can not be achieved without escaping. We experience fantastic feeling of rejoin after having dispute with our spouse and friends. The same food would have much better taste for a hungry person than for someone who just took meal. Experiencing evil would make someone’s relation with a personal God much stronger than without evil. A body coming out of vaccination (where a sort of evil is injected inside one’s body) is much healthier than before. An army coming victorious out of a strong battle (where many troops are killed in the battle field) is much stronger than before facing any war. Yet someone would say: “but this has nothing to do with Bambi and Sue.”
Through evils many of the miracles and powers of God are depicted. Without the evil of people of Noah the miracle of Flood would not appear. Without the evil of Pharaoh the miracle of Moses would not appear. If we logically believe in cause and effect events, and agree that the effects can not come without their associated causes, then we should have no problem in considering these evils as proper causes that would effect in depicting the power of God. Yet someone still question: “ And what power would be depicted by burning Bambi?”.
Happiness must come over a bridge of hardship. Good result in the final exam must come over nights of hard study. Promotion in workplace must come after years of hard working, etc. Again this is a natural cause and effect scenario, where you can not expect the result (happiness) without the cause (hardship or evil). Can’t God create a world where the result (happiness) would come without the cause (evil)? Yes, he could, but that would defeat greater purposes in a world who’s default nature is of trial and exam. But still someone would say: “Sue and Bambi never ended in happiness out of their horrendous pain”.
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Indeed, We have sent down for you (O mankind) a Book, (the Qur'ân) in which there is your reminder (and Honor). Will you not then understand? [Quran al-Anbiay (21):10]
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