Every so often I get a question like this, about 'natural evil' (as opposed to 'moral evil', in which there are intelligent agents/perpetrators involved)...
I have a couple questions for you. I have not found them covered in your material, but I haven't read through everything you have, so it's possible I missed it. Anyway, I was wondering how you would explain the problem of natural evil. I have heard the argument that evil is a result of sin. A tragedy such as a murder happens because someone commits a sin. A child is killed by a drunk driver. There is sin here as well. But what of the tornado that destroys homes and kills several people? Or an earthquake? Or any other tragedy that is a result of natural disaster and has nothing to do with what people have or have not done. I cannot explain to a non Christian why God would allow such things to happen. Any thoughts?
and, one focusing more on pain...
Have to complement you on a very reasonable Christian WWW page.
However (there's always one :-) I have a question concerning your thought on the problem of natural evils :
Even after concluding that such pain hurts God more, the basic question _why_ does He allow it remains unchanged and unanswered. In fact, I'd have thought such a problem would be _more_ unsatisfactory : not only does present a God who causes unnecessary suffering, it shows that God ends up causing himself unnecessary pain too.
Your dialogue seemed mainly confined to mental pain, and the benefits of empathy. For an example of a seemingly unnecessary natural evil, read the section on Hot Viruses at
http://freethought.tamu.edu/debates/craig-washington/washington2.html
Such things are even harder to console with a God that only allows as much pain into the world as is necessary.
Let me know what you think.
These are good, good questions, and no doubt questions that most of us have wrestled with, agonized over, pondered deeply, and even experienced ourselves. Before I get into 'dissecting' the questions in the various pieces embedded in them, let me make some preliminary remarks.
First, I must remind you that we are taking a SPECIFICALLY THEORETICAL approach here. Any answers/guidelines we develop here are NOT going to be any help to those experiencing grief associated with these types of situations. Grief is to be experienced and to be expressed--not necessarily answered. The problem of pain and suffering CAN be approached in a semi-detached, philosophical, analytical manner, but it MUST BE UNDERSTOOD from the outset of this discussion that I am in NO WAY 'insensitive' to these issues. (Some of you out there will be familiar with the experiences of me/my family with unexpected child death, long-term terminal illnesses, personal trauma. I can say with some depth that I am no stranger to this arena.)
Second, we must focus on clarity of terms. 'Natural evil' is, strictly speaking, a misnomer. What is actually under discussion is the problem of 'agent-less pain' or 'agent-less untimely death' or the such like.
This distinction is important. "Evil" implies some kind of moral agent--local or remote. But in the two cases we will examine here--children being killed in a natural disaster earthquake, or the excessive pain felt in certain types of terminal illnesses (such as the 'hot virus' referred to)--there is no 'agent' to do the 'evil-ing' as it were. The issue is NOT 'evil' per se, but something else. We will need to isolate those 'something elses' for analysis.
It should also be noted that in the bible there WERE natural disasters that occurred that were NOT 'agent-less.' In situations involving the nation of Israel, God sometimes used natural disasters such as disease and earthquakes to accomplish judgments or victories (e.g. Ex 8-13; Num 11; Num 14; I Sam 6; Num 16; 2 Kings 19; Acts 12). These, however, fall into the category of special miracles (due to their agent-character) and do NOT fall into the general scope of our investigation.
We generally do NOT have that kind of information about today's events being of this type--we cannot therefore assume that any specific event (e.g. earthquake, volcano, plague) is a judgment from God. It would somehow fall into some 'global' will of God--in some indirect/permissive kinda sense--but this would not have enough 'predictive power' to dismiss the event easily.
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