Why Is There Evil?

There is no simple answer to the question of why there is evil in the world. War, disease, suffering, and crime are realities which cannot be explained away. The innocent suffer, the wicked often prosper. If God is just, how can this be? The question is natural and proper.

The easiest solution to the dilemma is to abandon the idea of God. If there is no God, then it is reasonable for life to be cruel, without meaning or purpose. But where do we get our ideas of reason? of meaning? of truth or beauty? How do we know that something is right or wrong, who is guilty or innocent, what is fair or unjust? Unless there is a First Cause of existence, an ultimate Ground of Being, who somehow gives meaning to life, there is no final standard by which to measure ourselves and our experiences.

But to affirm God's presence leads us back to the reality of evil in his "good" creation. One clue may be found in accepting the nature of human existence as finite and perishable. Whether we like it or not, and for whatever reason, God has created a world in which pain, accidents, injury, destruction, and death are possible. Human life is not eternal. It is subject to imperfection and ultimately to death.

Even the natural world, while governed for the most part by inflexible natural laws, also has aspects which seem to be subject to chance. So some of the things which cause human suffering are involuntary, the result of existence being what it is. As humans, we have the capacity for joy and physical pleasure. The other side of the coin is the capacity for sorrow and pain. Is it reasonable to expect to have one without the other?

Some of the world's suffering is the result of voluntary acts. More often than we would care to admit, pain and injustice are caused by willful choices made by persons who either did not know or did not care what effect their actions would have on themselves, on others, or on society as a whole. Much of what we tend to blame on God can actually be traced to human error or willfulness.

The crucial factor is that God gave human beings free will. His purpose in creation was to people the world with relational beings who could interact with him and be partners in his creative purpose. But in order for us to be able to say "Yes" to God, we must be free to say "No." For our morality to have any meaning, we must have the freedom to choose evil as well as to do good. If we choose the wrong, we must suffer the natural consequences. Unfortunately, we may cause others to suffer as well. This is the price of our human interrelatedness. Just as we benefit and experience pleasure from the good actions of others, we can be harmed by the bad choices others make.

The Bible offers us the assurance that human existence, though temporary, is still good. Some religions teach that the body is evil and human nature is something to be ignored or repressed. But by entering human life in the person of Christ, God has shown us that he values our bodily existence. Christ came to recreate what we have distorted by our sinful choices. He cares about our suffering and wants to help us overcome the conditions which cause pain.

Thus, rather than blaming God, we should be examining our responsibility for the goodness or the badness of the world, at least the small part of it over which we can exercise any influence. We can involve ourselves in religious, political, or social endeavors that try to be part of the answer instead of part of the problem. Instead of stopping with the question "Why?" we can move on to ask, "What can I do to help?"