Jan Brueghel the Younger, \u201cParadise\u201d (ca. 1650) \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I here offer a thought that I wanted to jot down for potential future development. \u00a0(It\u2019s possible that I\u2019ll have another such thought later today or tomorrow, though two actual thoughts may represent my full allotted quota for this half of 2020.) \u00a0It goes as follows:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can the problem of evil be considered an argument for \u2014 or, anyway, a hint of \u2014 the existence of God? \u00a0Or, at least, of something beyond inanimate particles and the void? \u00a0(C. S. Lewis used to make this argument, among others, so I\u2019m not claiming it to be original, though my specific verbal formulation of it here is, so far as I am aware, my own.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Usually, and for quite obvious reasons, the problem of evil is seen as an argument against<\/em> the existence of God. \u00a0\u201cHow can a good and all-powerful deity permit _______ ?\u201d \u00a0(The options for filling in the blank are virtually infinite, including such things as child molestation, the Black Plague, young mothers dying of cancer, Auschwitz, school shootings, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, severe congenital deformities, and on and on and on.) \u00a0This is an indisputably difficult question for theists. \u00a0Perhaps the most difficult question of all.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there is, perhaps, another way of looking at it:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
How do we know that such things as child molestation, the Black Plague, Auschwitz, school shootings, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and severe congenital deformities are bad?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The question may seem a frivolous one (and, thus, quite inappropriate for so terrible a topic), but it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is there such a thing as a bad leg or a bad eye? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Obviously. \u00a0But how do we know that a leg or an eye is \u201cbad\u201d? \u00a0We know it because we have a very strong sense of what a good leg or a good eye would be like, and how it would function. \u00a0That is, we have a standard against which we measure eyes and legs. \u00a0A bad eye or a bad leg is deficient when measured against that standard. \u00a0The bad eye can\u2019t see distant objects or detect colors or read fine print or, perhaps, even see at all. \u00a0The bad leg can\u2019t support its owner or be used for walking. \u00a0Or it can\u2019t bend.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the same way, bad mufflers and bad loudspeakers and bad violins and bad keys don\u2019t function the way they were intended to function.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we call a person \u201cbad,\u201d we seem to be judging that person against a standard for what people should be. \u00a0Likewise, we judge child molestation, the Nazi death camps, and school shootings to be \u201cbad\u201d \u2014 indeed, evil<\/em> \u2014 because they depart spectacularly from what we know to be standards of morality and human behavior.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But where do these standards come from? \u00a0And why do we regard deviations from them as not merely regrettable but actually wrong<\/em>?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even in the case of natural evils\u00a0like plagues, devastating geological catastrophes, young dying mothers, and badly malformed children, we sense somehow that these things ought not \u2014 they ought<\/em> not \u2014 to be<\/em>. \u00a0We don\u2019t simply shrug and say, \u201cwhat is, is.\u201d \u00a0We vaguely feel that, in a truly \u201cgood\u201d world \u2014 in a world that, to put it another way, isn\u2019t \u201cfallen\u201d \u2014 such things would not<\/em> be.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But if this is the only world we\u2019ve ever known, the only world we can<\/em> ever know, and the only world that there is<\/em>, where do we derive such a sense of another world, a better world?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Incidentally, if you haven\u2019t seen a video of the dreadful recent landslide on the Norwegian coast, you should have a look at it:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNorway Landslide: Massive landslide sweeps 8 homes into the sea | ABC7\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortunately, so far as I know, nobody was killed or even injured in it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I here offer a thought that I wanted to jot down for potential future development. \u00a0(It\u2019s possible that I\u2019ll have another such thought later today or tomorrow, though two actual thoughts may represent my full allotted quota for this half of 2020.) \u00a0It goes as follows: \u00a0 Can the problem of evil be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6216,737,8622,2601,740,12458,10390,1724],"class_list":["post-85781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-argument-from-morality","tag-ethics","tag-evil","tag-god","tag-morality","tag-problem","tag-standard","tag-theodicy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Brueghel's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/06\/Jan_Brueghel_the_Younger_Paradise.jpg\")
<\/a>