A while back someone asked me “why is there evil in the world?” This is a large question, so I will be discussing it over the next three articles. The problem of evil in the world stems from the very idea of who God is; in Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, “God is Love,” the Holy Father describes the love of God for us in an extended way. We hear in Jn3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is the extent of the love God has for us.
So then, if God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving; then how can there be evil in the world. David Hume argued that either evil does not really exist, or God is not all-knowing, powerful, or loving. Because if God knows everything then he also knows that evil exists, if God is all loving then he loves us, He would want to remove evil, and if God is all powerful then he can remove evil; then can there actually be evil in the world? You can argue whether or not evil exists. It cannot be scientifically proven.
There is a story claiming that a young Albert Einstein tells an atheistic professor that evil really does not exist in the same way that cold and darkness really do not exist. Cold is simply a lack of heat, and darkness is simply a lack of light, so evil is simply a lack of goodness. This idea comes from St Augustine, who says that blindness is just a privation of sight, so evil is a privation of goodness. Whether or not something is evil depends on the perspective that you are looking from. Some things that one person would consider an evil, another might consider a blessing. So, think about a couple of questions: why do bad things happen to good people? Why are some people very rich and others very poor, and is money the root of all evil? Remember the passage from the book of Job when he questioned why he was suffering; God answered Job by saying “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” There are some mysteries that we need to pray for understanding, and one of those is to find meaning in our suffering.
Evil is a topic that is vast and still hotly debated in what it means. There are many different theories of why there is evil in the world, the one that is sometimes used is that if there is evil in the world there must not be a God or he does not care about us. This is obviously not the case because if God did not care for us then why did he send his only Son for our redemption?
Keep praying for the peace and love of Christ to settle on the earth.
God bless,
Fr. Ken