OUR MANY EVILS

In the past months we have been witness to a disturbingly large number of events and catastrophes that have changed the world as we know it while tragically claiming thousands upon thousands of lives. The most natural question that forces itself upon the victims and those who observed or learned of these occurrences from a distance is: Why do these things happen?

I remember the uneasiness I felt when I heard of typhoon Ketsana lashing urban areas in my home country, the Philippines, in September 2009. A mix of desolation, dread, and despair took hold of me when I saw pictures of Filipinos stuck on roofs or swimming in flood waters because everything was submerged. Ketsana rushed past my homeland to wreak havoc in other South-East Asian countries, while leaving behind thousands of victims, including some family members and friends who lived in areas hit hardest by the typhoon. A few months later a bitter cold winter destroyed lives and property in various parts of the globe. Then the first couple of months of the new year added to the list of catastrophes: who could forget the train collision in Halle or the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile? And just recently we have heard of knife attacks in China whose victims were mostly the elderly, women, and innocent children. Why indeed do such things take place? Why do they happen even to the good and the innocent?

There are people who believe that this fact—that innocent people suffer (particularly children)—is incompatible with the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and absolutely good God. Why would such a God not prevent evil if he could, if he knows they will happen, and if allowing evil is against his nature? Why does God allow a natural disaster’s devastation of cities and the lives of so many? Why did he keep silent when Africans were shipped like cattle from their continent to be treated like beasts in another’s soil or when the Jews were massacred? Why does God not lift a finger when the tragic fate of a scared, innocent, helpless little girl, for instance, could be prevented? If such evils exist, some people argue, then God does not.

There are people who argue against this claim. Despite the misfortunes that happen all around and which even come their way, some still say that “Everything happens for a reason” and “Don’t worry, things will be alright.” These clichés in fact express a couple of basic convictions of the 17th century German philosopher Leibniz who believed that there is sufficient reason behind every truth, being, and event and that ours is the best of all possible worlds. The expressions above basically say that some good will come out of the tragedies we live through. Believers appeal to Divine Providence, that is, that God has some grand plan that accommodates the pain and suffering we experience and whose unfolding will bring about the greater or even greatest good (that we do not always readily see). But there are those who cannot stomach this notion. Remember Ivan Karamazov who wanted to return to God the ticket to eternal life rather than accept a grand scheme that allows for the suffering of innocents.

Another way of responding to the alleged incompatibility of God and evil is to make a distinction between moral evil and natural evil. The latter refers to death and suffering caused by forces in the world usually beyond our foresight and control. Under this category belong tsunamis, earthquakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters. Moral evil means pain and suffering rooted in the decisions of human individuals. Neither one is caused by the divine. Natural evil arises because there are physical forces at work in this world that affect us and at times do us harm. Countless people are poor, hungry, exploited, and wallow in despair because of the decisions of others who are driven by self-interest, who lack moral imagination, or who take perverse pleasure in others’ sufferings. This distinction can be followed by the (theological) argument that God created human beings who are intelligent and free. He respects our capacity to make decisions and to take responsibility for them and thus allows us to mature through our mistakes and moral failings. For God to intervene every time we do something that leads to the disadvantage of others runs counter to this respect, to our freedom, and is to deny us the space to become better. I think all of this is still susceptible to attack from the non-compatibility of God and evil position. It might be asked: How much pain and suffering are needed for us to reform our ways and become better? (And do innocent children really have to suffer in the process just so that some of us can realize that we want to be better persons?) As regards natural evil, it might be said that it will not cost the divine anything to make certain events less destructive of human lives. And after all, some of us pray and explicitly ask God to intervene when some calamity happens and it seems that either he remains an indifferent spectator or there is nobody watching at all.

At this juncture I have to put all my cards on the table and admit both that I am a believer and that I do not know how to respond to the “God and evil are mutually exclusive” argument. But I do know that with our knowledge and technology we can protect ourselves better from external natural forces. More importantly, we know that our actions have consequences we cannot always foresee. We can hurt others even when we mean no harm. Thus there is a need to reflect before acting or speaking, to be careful whenever we make decisions that will affect others. We have it in our power to effect some good and to lessen pain and suffering. Awareness of this capacity and of the evils in the world makes our responsibility to be responsible greater. |