The God of Disaster: Part 2

Ancient Solutions to the Problem of Evil

In the previous post, we discussed moral and natural evil and the obstacle they often present to belief in a good, powerful Creator who remains intimately involved in the natural world— in other words, the Judeo-Christian God.

In part two of our discussion, I will present six efforts from the early Church to account for this problem of evil. In part three, we will discuss St. Augustine’s take on the matter, and how he arrived at a Biblical understanding after believing in his youth that God Himself was the cause of evil.

Six Explanations for Evil

1. Ad maiorem gloriam Dei / “for the greater glory of God”

   1. The theory: God permits evil as a means to reveal His glory.

   2. An example: If a friend of yours betrays you then returns to apologize, you shall in turn forgive him. His betrayal, while sinful, allows both your graciousness in forgiving him and his humility in repentance to be revealed.

   3. My thoughts: God certainly can use an evil for good (“you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good”). The entire realm of creation is a testament to His glory (see Psalm 19:1 and Isaiah 43:7). He can rework anything for His purposes; but we must be very careful about our wording here. God did not author evil to make Himself seem greater by comparison; he is not a narcissist, tearing down others to appear bigger and better. Rather He permits our world to continue on amidst the consequences of the Fall, despite the brokenness introduced into it by the consequences of man’s free will. God Himself is grieved by this brokenness and yet He permits it— for the time being— in part because He wills higher goods which conflict with the eradication of evils, such as the good of free will. We cannot deny that, in permitting evils to plague our world, God’s infinite benevolence is placed in sharp contrast to their darkness. Is this a silver lining of a malevolent cloud, or is this the main reason why God permits evil? I think it’s closer to the former.

2. Credo quia ad absurdum / “I believe because it is absurd”

   1. The theory: The presence of evil is a mystery; seek Christ, and do not seek not knowledge that is impossible to know.

   2. An example: Our universe contains somewhere between hundreds of billions and trillions of galaxies. We may pontificate about the existence of life forms elsewhere, and we may send probes to interrogate planets in our solar system, but we will likely never know what is contained in the vast reaches of other galaxies. The vastness of God’s knowledge is analogous to this, though on an infinite scale; he knows answers to things we are too small to ever know, especially while we are limited by the time and space constraints of our bodies.

   3. My thoughts: At the end of the day, the answer will always be to worship God. We do not know many things, let alone why evil exists. A lack of understanding (which we will always have, whether related to this problem or not) should never prevent us from seeking Christ. On the other hand, our finitude and limited grasp should not morph into an excuse to be intellectually lazy. There are theological and philosophical explanations for the problem of evil. We need not bury our heads in the sand and be frightened to investigate our own worldview, neither should we confuse a hunt for metaphysical answers and intellectual satisfaction with a relationship with God.

      

      This image from NASA shows Webb’s First Deep Field, a galaxy cluster with thousands of galaxies.

3. Judicial solution

   1. The theory: God permits evil as a test for humanity.

   2. An example: A woman, wondering if a man is marriage material, arranges a test of his fidelity. She hopes that he will succeed, and when successful he will be rewarded with marriage. Likewise, God views our response to trials and responds with eternal reward or punishment.

   3. My thoughts: I have one main issue with this theory, and that is based on its applicability to individuals. Not all who suffer are able to learn from it, and not all who suffer possess the capacity for moral reasoning. How does this theory atone for the suffering of an infant, for example, unless that infant is a pawn for the moral development of an adult? Furthermore, if God is omniscient and knows who will respond favorably to a moral test, why would he still permit evil to befall them (unless of course the evil prompts some sort of moral remediation)? However, this theory does explain the presence of Satan in the Garden of Eden before the Fall; God clearly used evil in a personal form to test humanity. Like the theories above, this theory cannot be used on its own, but provides a piece of a very complex puzzle.

4. Eternal felicity

   1. The theory: The promise and glory of Heaven will drown out any earthly suffering.

   2. An example: If my toddler wants to eat Cheerios before her birthday party, yet I’ve baked her a decadent cake and cooked all her favorite foods, her suffering in being denied the Cheerios is nothing in comparison to the joy that awaits her during the culminating feast.

   3. My thoughts: This is my personal favorite theory. When faced with the loss of loved ones, I have often focused on strengthening my convictions where eternity is concerned. If they are truly in the presence of God forevermore, then I may grieve heartily as Jesus wept for Lazarus (even knowing He was to revive him soon after), yet my grief is placed in a context of hope and redemption. While this theory offers hope, it does not offer an explanation for why evil is permitted on Earth. It’s like slapping someone across the face and then kissing them afterwards— and saying they shouldn’t be upset about the slap at all.

5. Evil is an illusion

   1. The theory: Based off Stoic theory, this reworks our understanding of evil itself. It says that evil doesn’t actually exist, we only perceive that it does.

   2. An example: I may think that someone dislikes me, and two possibilities follow from that. One is that they actually dislike me and my perception is correct; the other is that they do not, and my perception is distorted. This theory proposes the latter.

   3. My thoughts: I don’t think this is Biblical, though I’ve heard versions of it passed around in the Calvinist community to explain away the idea that God predestines evil. Certainly not all things we perceive to be evil may be indeed evil; in other words, our moral instincts are warped by the Fall. But to say that evil acts and personified evil (i.e. Satan) don’t exist is going much too far.

6. Totality theory

   1. The theory: This theory also questions the validity that evil exists. If we had total knowledge, we would see a seemingly evil event in light of its contribution to the overall good. One variation of this is felix culpa, or the “fortunate Fall,” where the Fall in itself is a tragedy but when viewed in a larger context becomes a blessing, for it led to the gift of the Incarnation of the Word.

   2. An example: You suddenly come down with an illness. You tell your friend about it, and she comes to visit and take care of you. Your illness is not good by itself, but it highlights the beauty of your friendship.

   3. My thoughts: This is very similar to the first theory and the fifth theory. The notion that God’s full knowledge, if we possessed it, would explain everything is plausible but something we cannot prove. We might also ask the question: would the world have been better if there was no evil at all? Can goodness not be revealed to its full glory without the presence of evil, as God is immensely glorious and infinitely good without containing any imperfection? Some might say that a God who needs evil to reveal His blessings may not be worthy of our worship.

Augustine’s Early Theology

In St. Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will, the preface notes that Augustine first turned to a heresy called Manichaeism to explain the problem of evil. This heresy was founded in Babylon in the 3rd Century A.D. by a man who purported to have a vision revealing to him that he was the Holy Spirit. How fortunate to have a private, non-verifiable experience to tell you that you are God! He was executed in 277 A.D., which was perceived as martyrdom and lead to greater spread of the heresy. Manichaean theology stated that, if evil exists, and if God created everything which exists, then God is the cause of evil. Further, the heresy is dualistic, believing in both a Kingdom of Evil and a Kingdom of Good (similar to Zoroastrianism), where man embodies both.

St. Augustine was said to not find the above theories satisfying; in response, he put forth his own theory in his treatise on free will (and redacted a bit of it later on). In part 3, we will discuss this treatise as well as Alvin Plantinga’s free will defense.

A final note and food for thought: for the non-theist who puts the burden on the theist to reconcile the problem of evil, how do you reconcile the problem of defining “evil” without acknowledging a transcendent moral law? And where does that law come from?

Image source: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet/