Too Much Evil – Continued

We humans are different from all other species. Both anthropology and theology attest to our uniqueness as spiritual creatures. Our spirit component gives us a powerful capacity both for expressing goodness and for expressing evil. Unlike other species, we can inflict suffering on others for a variety of motives from revenge to perverse pleasure. Unlike other species, we kill for sport, and we tend to kill the best, the trophy animals, rather than the sick and weak, as the animal kingdom is prone to do. As for killing our own species, Leninist and Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, Maoist China, revolutionary France, Inquisitionist Spain and countless other modern societies (as well as ancient civilizations) show that we willingly slaughter and torture others.

How much of the injury and death and even disease-promoting behavior perpetrated by humans does anything to enhance the survival or well-being of the race of mankind? A reality check quickly informs us that we cannot chalk up the evil and suffering in our world simply to natural processes and survival instincts. Rather than proving the nonexistence of a spiritual realm and of a Creator-God, evil and suffering, even by our recognition of their repugnance, provide evidence for a good God opposed by some supernatural enemy, a God who for good reasons, some revealed in Scripture, is currently restraining the exercise of His almighty wrath against evil.

Return to Eden

How often we hear God’s critics boast, “If I were in charge, I could have designed the world in such a way as to eliminate evil and suffering.” Whether they admit it or not, such individuals see themselves as wiser and more righteous than God. If we are daring enough to ask for an explanation of what this human-designed, perfect world would be like, we may receive no answer. Or, most likely (in the experience of many spiritual leaders, at least), we will hear a description that closely resembles Eden: a beautiful and pleasant paradise in which we would be protected from all harm for all time. Evil, if it did arise, would be snuffed out immediately so as not to afflict anyone but its own source.

The Garden of Eden indeed was a wonderful place. Given what we know of the universe to this point in time, and its laws of physics, no better environment for the human race could be constructed. Consider what Genesis says of our original parents’ original environment:

• The garden, designed and planted by the wisest and most loving of all beings, was perfectly beautiful, perfectly watered and fertilized, and perfectly free of weeds and pests.
• The plants of the garden pleased not only the eye but also the palate.
• The garden was full of treasures of all kinds, including gold, aromatic resin, and onyx.
• Adam and Eve had access to perfect health and unlimited longevity.
• Adam and Eve were given the capacity and the freedom to enjoy all the riches that abounded around them.
• They lived in perfect peace, harmony, and fellowship with all the animals.
• Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect peace, harmony, and fellowship with one another.
• They both enjoyed perfect peace, harmony, and fellowship with God.
• There was a complete absence of shame.

The biblical description of Eden reveals a human habitat unexcelled in human comprehension, at least not within our current reality’s limits. Eden represents the best environment possible for the human race within the boundaries of the natural reality we know now. We long for Eden because we long for the best our limited experience can suggest to our imagination. But God is not limited. His scope of operation exceeds by far our imaginative capacity. His plans for blessing humanity match His capacity to give above and beyond our current, limited capacity to receive.

How many of us would rather return to Eden, to something good we can visualize, than to move beyond it to the new creation, which God says is better and yet which none of us can visualize? Atheists and agnostics are not the only ones who would rather stick with the familiar realm. Believers and unbelievers alike share this tendency. Many religious systems portray heaven as an Eden-like paradise often embellished with humans’ sexual fantasies.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified from the book by: Hugh Ross, Beyond the Cosmos: What Recent Discoveries in Astrophysics Reveal about the Glory and Love of God; chapter 15.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.