Evil and good are constructs, which rather exist separately but somewhat seem to work together. In many instances, where evil or hate prevails, there is no good or love and where love prevails, evil is always absent. God’s love is known to be infinite and present for all human kinds, but human hearts are maliciously evil, despite the struggle to reflect the love of God over each other.
Theodicies and the Questions of Evil
There is the longing in the hearts of many men and women toiling and living the earth from the ages past, yesterday, today, and forever. In this longing for unrestricted validation in what is called love, many are the vendettas within the hearts of human beings, struggling to know when to, and when not to love. Everyone believes in the power of a higher being, and to most of us, God is the greatest of all, the creator of all that exists. In him, there is the love that the hearts of men long for, and he offers His love liberally to whoever chooses to ask it of him. Even though God’s love is perfect, His beloved is rebellious and harbor lots of evil, but committed to loving as an obligation. Dostoevsky argues that love exists together with hate justifying why Ivan struggles to understand the concept of loving ones neighbor as he details the story of the stranger and John the Merciful (200). The saint is reported to have welcomed the stranger only as an obligation, but not out of sincerity and love for the neighbor.
From the readings, the main issue seems to be the struggle to understand the unlikely effects of evil and the suffering attached to evil, in light of God’s un-ending, and unmatched love for mankind. In many people’s minds, the understanding of why evil happens yet God, who is all-powerful, and the ever-present friend in times of need, fails to show up in such times of serious need, while evil prevails.
As Hanson notes concerning why evil closely relates to love, evil does not exist in a space within a man’s heart but is stirred by the same passion that stirs the heart to love (98). From the reading in the brothers of Karamazov, consider the case of slavery of fellow mankind; torturing, and hunting fellow human beings with dogs like game meet. This is based on the concept that human beings can have free will, either choose to obey God’s directives for loving one another as to the love of oneself or be rebellious and cause harm to fellow neighbors and strangers while awaiting their share of punitive measures. According to Genschow et al., the human free-will is envisioned as a limitation to the abilities of an omniscient, omnipotent and, and omnipresent God (2017, p.1074). The thought of suffering is, therefore, seen as a disinteresting topic to God and He has left solely into the hands of men.
The readings are as valid as the opinions they seek to address. Individually, the prevailing evil in the world is a chance for God to achieve his will over every living being in the face of the earth. Being a God who is ever present and all powerful, nothing bypasses his knowledge, not even death, suffering, or the rebellion seen among men. In all these, He works at achieving his purpose for everyone, an atmosphere of constant vindications from sin and redemption from evil.
I do not find the authors persuasive especially when limiting the powers and abilities of God in handling the daily activities of our lives. This is because I believe God is everything, and he is in everything. The thought that has stuck with me is whether the children’s sufferings in life are as a result of their fathers’ faults. Everyone suffers in life, as a result of the first human beings to live the earth being rebellious to God’s will. From this event onwards, the life of man is biblically pointed towards suffering. In conclusion, if God had not been in existence, what do you think the world would have looked like? Do you think it would be any better than it is today?
Works Cited
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. The Russian Messenger, 1880.
Genschow, Oliver, Davide Rigoni, and Marcel Brass. “Belief in free will Affects Causal Attributions when Judging others’ Behavior.”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114.38 (2017): 10071-10076.
Hanson, C. Bradley. Introduction to Christian Theology. Fortress Press, 1997.