The many historical sources to comment on the subject of evil are all asking the wrong questions. As a result of these misleading philosophical assumptions, we have all come to an unfortunate stalemate in a game of chess, that is, “the ultimate question.” The book you are now reading will put the atheist in check. When the last page is turned and the cover is closed, it will be their move once again. Truth be told, neither side will ever have the ability to finish the game. It is only the King who possesses the insight to declare checkmate (Revelation 19:16).
In one way or another, every human soul has at some point asked himself or herself this same question: why (fill in the blank)? The atheist might ask, if a loving God truly does exist, why are humans required to deal with so much pain and suffering? The agnostic might ask, why should I cling to religion when religion is the source of so much death and warfare throughout history? Why bother? There is no way to prove God exists one way or the other. The Christian of course will state plainly that God is a God of Love and we do not have the authority to question His judgment. Nevertheless, this thinking has not deterred countless atheists, philosophers, and religious zealots across the planet from questioning God’s motives.
No matter what religion a person ascribes to, the so-called problem of evil has never been sufficiently addressed—certainly, not by the Christian worldview. The unspoken creed of addressing evil for Christians has always been “repent and join the church, or burn in hell!”
“But why is this the case?” The skeptics will ask, “Why will I be sent to hell for an evil preordained by my supposedly loving creator?”
The problem of evil was first introduced as far back as the Babylonian epic of creation, Enuma Elish, and the Epic of Gilgamesh originating from ancient Mesopotamia. In both of these legendary tales, the reader is presented with the most fundamental human reflex of evil, which is of course to look up and blame an outside force. In such tales, we are directed to imagine a cosmic battle of good versus evil taking place in the heavenly realms. We mere mortals are nothing more than cannon fodder in a war-torn cosmos with no end in sight, that is, no favorable end from what little information the gods allow us to possess.
Later, during the era of the Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all contemporaries and successors of one another, we begin to see a new way of understanding evil emerge. Plato was a disciple of Socrates where the two of them grew together in knowledge. As time went on, Plato took under his wing the well-known Aristotle. The evolution of thought between these three characters ultimately led to Aristotle producing his own matured view. That being, the problem of evil boils down to a “lack of will power” to follow one’s own inherent good nature. In essence, if every action we humans took part in were to be ruled by a wholesome moral compass, there would be no evil to combat and, therefore, no question of “why” evil exists.
As time would pass, the theologians and religious types would continue to seek answers to the problem of evil from a religious perspective, and not that of a secular philosophical one.
We would be remiss if we skipped this next individual due to his direct relevance to evil in our current world.
Karl Marx asserted the only “evil” in the world was to segregate the masses by class, social status, or financial gain. And the only way to eradicate the existence of this evil is to take from the “have’s” and give to the “have not’s.” Or rather, force those who have independently acquired large sums of money to give that money to the poor. In the mind of Karl Marx, the only way to eradicate evil was to allow the government to “fairly” distribute money as if money is the source of happiness, or the antithesis of evil. He believed that if everyone were on the same financial playing field, people would have no need to be angry with a different class of human, and a peaceful coexistence would ensue. Let us not forget that Marx believed in the “evolution” of races and societies. This type of ideology not only dismisses the existence of God, but further denies Christ’s teaching that essentially says the same thing (give to the poor) yet in a completely different context.
Christ commands His followers to help one another— to give to the poor willingly, making all things equal so that no person can hold their personal wealth or power of influence over another person. It is quite evident when reading through the gospel message that following Christ’s commandments did in fact produce an absence of evil, for a time. Once Christ’s teachings were corrupted by false doctrine, the evil that had begun to flee the heart of the believer was once again showing up in droves.
Communism is to have the state forcefully take money from the wealthy independent creators and give it to the less prominent masses. This ideology assumes that the intermediary will remain pure at heart, not allowing the money passing through their hands to corrupt their conscience. In the case of every attempted communist regime planet earth has ever known, this is clearly not the case. The bulk of the money never makes its way into the hands of poor people. The money is not distributed fairly. If Karl Mark were the man to mediate the taking and giving of money, are we to assume Mr. Marx would always be honest enough to distribute the money fairly? Communism is putting our faith in man to solve the ills of evil, while Christianity (freely giving to those in need) takes the intermediary—the potential for corruption—out of the equation. Without the intermediary managing the finances and distribution of wealth (communism), we would be free to help each other as everyone has need (the Kingdom of God). Communism (the ideology of Marx and his elite companions) is Satan’s version of God’s kingdom, a kingdom where everyone freely gives to those in need, where no man, woman, or child will ever be found lacking, in turn, ridding ourselves of evil by loving one another as Christ commands.
Communism, and the entire ideology Marx proposed, is pure evil. Perhaps Marx and his close associates were well schooled in the teachings of Machiavelli. A little “controlled evil” has the potential to go a long way and is necessary to successfully control the masses. As true as that appears to be, it does not answer the question of who, what, where, when, and how did evil originate?
And much, much more.
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