The Problem of Evil: A Dialogue

This is pretty long, but I think if you make it through you'll enjoy it. This is a paper for my philosophy class on the problem of evil. I would love to hear what you think.

Erik, a young inquisitive man shortly out of college, enters the coffee shop and makes his way to the counter. He grabs a vanilla steamer and awaits his companion in one of the two chairs in the back corner of the shop. It isn’t long before his mind begins swirling with the issues that pushed him here today. He awaits his pastor’s arrival to discuss life in general, but especially difficulties in his understanding of God. His pastor, a man he had always respected and somewhat admired, clumsily enters the coffee shop. Erik couldn’t help but smile each time he saw Pastor Kire because Kire was always so socially awkward, but never seemed to mind. It was as if Kire lived on a different planet where cool and uncool didn’t exist. In it’s place there was only love. Kire made his way to the back of the shop and sat down in the chair opposite of Erik. After the usually pleasantries, Erik pushed the conversation towards the reason he came.

“Kire, do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Of course.” Kire replied.

“Well, I was thinking the other day that it seems kind of unfair that God created us the way that he did.” Erik stated.

“How do you mean?” inquired Kire.

“Well, as you know I am unmarried, but I have always had the desire to have sex.”
“Ok…you know you’re not alone in that.”

Erik smiled, “I know and that’s exactly my point. You see I have all these desires, all these things that I want to do and half of them I am not supposed to want. I keep thinking about this and it seems so unfair that I have all these desires, which come from deep within me, from the place where I was made. It’s as if God put these things here but then expects me not to act out on them.”

“Erik, you have to understand that sex is a good thing in the right place, but outside of marriage it is destructive.”

“I know, I know, but sex is just a metaphor for everything that I feel but can’t act on.” Erik paused for a second, then continued. “I had a friend in college who struggled with homosexuality. We would pray all the time against it. We would ask God to heal him, but nothing seemed to work. I can’t help but see this in the same way. Why would God give him a desire for other men and then ask him not to act on it?”

Kire reflected and then spoke slowly, ”You know Erik... I have often wondered the same thing. All I can figure out is that we’re broken. We aren’t the way that God originally made us to be. You, me, your friend, we’re all stuck on this planet somewhat doomed and cursed to live according to rules that are in play because one day a long time ago Adam ate that damn apple.”

“Exactly!” Erik resounded, “But that leads me to another question. We always say that God is completely good, completely powerful, and he knows the future. And if these are all true then why would he have created a world that could have gone bad like this? He should have known better. He should have done better, right?”

Kire paused again, a little longer this time, and then responded, “Erik, these questions you’re asking have no easy answers. In fact, I probably can’t answer in a way that will satisfy you completely and in this realm I think each man must struggle with God to find the answer. Having said that I will share what I have found with you. Do you remember why Adam fell in the garden?”

“Yes,” Erik responded, “He took the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and ate it. This was the only tree God said he wasn’t allowed to eat from.”

“Correct, I believe this is precisely why there is evil in the world.”

Erik stared blankly, “We’ve just said that though, you’re just stating the problem. That still doesn’t explain why God wouldn’t have made it better.”

“Why did Adam fall?”

“I’ve just told you because he ate the fruit.” Erik said.

“Yes, but what allowed him to eat the fruit?”

“His decision.” Erik responded.

“And there you have it. God gave Adam the choice. His freewill which led to sin is the reason everything around us isn’t quite right.”

“Ok, but couldn’t God have made us in another way which wouldn’t have resulted in so much pain and confusion?” Erik questioned.

“What would you suggest?”

“I don’t know, maybe he could have made us with more ability to follow him or something so this whole thing wouldn’t have happened.”

“More ability would still denote the ability to disobey. It wouldn’t end our unfaithfulness. It would only make it less frequent. Evil would still be present.”

“Maybe he could of made us perfect.”

“You are suggesting that we should have been made not able to do wrong. That we should have been made with an absence of freewill?”

“For the sake of argument, Yes.”

“Well, would you still consider yourself a Christian Erik?”

“As of now, yea.”

“What is your greatest duty as a Christian?”

“To love God and others with all that I am.”

“Good answer. Now lets change the scenario a bit. You began this conversation stating that you weren’t married. Well, let us pretend for a second that you are married. Would you want that marriage to be a result of your choice to love your wife or not?”

“I would want to choose to love her, but the other way would make it a lot easier.”

Both men laughed and then Kire said, “That it would, but it wouldn’t be real. Everything we have and experience is done so with freewill in mind. Love as we know it exists because of choice. We have the ability to love or not to love. This is what makes it love. It’s the same way with God. He doesn’t want a bunch of pre-programmed objects running around doing exactly what he wants. He wants us to be inspired to follow him. He wants his love to persuade us to fall in love with him. All of this is affected by choice. Take choice from the equation and you haven’t love, only obedience.”

“But scripture says that obedience to God is proof of our love for him.”

“Proof of love it may be, but that is for God to decide. Have you ever obeyed someone and not loved them? Better yet, have you ever loved someone and not obeyed them.”

“Yes on both accounts.”

“I think in scripture God is saying that true love will push us towards obedience. Obedience then is the fruit of love, but it isn’t love and cannot be substituted for it.”

“So what you’re suggesting is that God allows us to make choices. He does this because ultimately love cannot exist without the option of choosing. In this we chose wrong and it has led to our current state.”

“In short, I think that would sum up what I believe.” Kire responded.

“So you believe that freewill is worth it? You believe that our ability to decide is worth more than all the evil in the world.” Erik questioned.

“It’s not so much I think it outweighs the evil as I think there is no other way. I do not think that love can exist outside of choice. I believe that love is the greatest thing God has to give us. I believe that God created us knowing what would happen, but the love that he poured out on this world and the love that we experience everyday with one another is worth any amount of pain and suffering.” Both men sat in silence for a minute and then Kire continued, ”Erik, it’s as I said before, this is something that you will have to struggle with perhaps even for your whole life. There are times when something so terrible happens that I look to God and wonder if he’s really there. There are things so terrible done that I sit and cry and hurt to my very core.” Tears welled up in Kire’s eyes. “As hard as it may be to accept I truly believe it’s worth it. You’re right, without freewill there would be no evil, but would there really be good? Would there really be love? Would there really be joy? I don’t think so; I think we would be robots unable to experience the beauty of life, unable to experience the terror of life. I will take the beauty with the terror even on the worst of days.”

Both men sat and reflected again.

“Does it ever get any easier to accept?” Erik asked.

“Only when I ignore the evil. If I truly open my eyes and look around it is a struggle everyday. On those days I have to trust in God.” responded Kire.

The two men smiled and sat in silence, their minds swimming through the ideas set before them. Kire wanted to make it to his son’s baseball game on time so he left Erik with his drink and a mindful of new possibilities.

Getting up from his chair Kire said, “Don’t forget that life is a journey. God gave you that mind to think, but take the wisdom as it comes. Don’t miss out on life all around you.” Kire paused, he looked fiercely at Erik almost in tears and said, ”Don’t miss out on the opportunity to make life worth living by sharing the love that God has breathed in you.”

As he walked out, Kire held the door open for an unknown customer and greeted them with a smile and an awkward “Hello”.

A Confession

I have a confession.

I haven't been the greatest student lately. And when I say I haven't been the greatest what I mean is I've been closer to the worst.

I came to Seminary with hopes of learning and being molded more for God's sake. I wanted to be challenged and change and grow in different ways. I wanted to take this path of life and walk onward even if the road is strange and the path is hidden.

Unfortunately, what I've done has been much different. I have instead only perservered in the areas that I agree with. If I don't like a book that I have to read I don't read it. I avoid foreign ideas and contradicting concepts almost without fault. I'm doing exactly the opposite of what I'd hoped for. Plus I've just been a slacker in general with my studies.

I realized all of this this morning, I think. It hit me all at once when the work started piling up. I think I've realized out of all of this I feel worst about my attitude. I feel the worst about my heart being in the wrong place. About being more concerned with my opinions and viewpoints than with truth. I guess what I realized is I haven't been who I think I'm supposed to be.

In response to this you might be thinking a couple different things. You may be thinking, "Man, that Erik, he's always beating himself up about something" or "Man, that Erik, I feel so bad for him" or "Man, that Erik, he needs to get his but in gear and do his homework", but there is a chance you might be thinking something else.

Perhaps you're like me and you can't help but compare yourself to others. If this is the case you're probably thinking,"I wonder, along with Erik, if I've been who I'm supposed to be?"

If you ask any question of yourself please let it be this one. Do it not for comparison's sake though, let comparisons be damned for the abomidable contraptions they are, but do it for God. Let Him remind you of who He has asked you to be.

And don't feel bad about it, repent and be free to be everything that God has you to be.

What Would Jesus Eat?

I saw a book recently titled ,"What Would Jesus Eat?"

It is a diet book based on the bible and what Jesus was known to have eaten.

I think that is dumb. Jesus might have eaten unhealthy. I mean if you weren't going to live past 33 would you really not get icecream? Or in my case, lots of meat. I know I would.

This brings me to a new question though. What does it mean to be spiritually healthy?

I'm not sure if I've ever been asked this question directly in these words, but recent life experiences have made me reflect on it. Lately I've been feeling kind of down on myself. I'm in Seminary now and because of this I almost feel like I should automatically be a better person. Someone who doesn't think about himself all the time. Someone who doesn't need the affection of the opposite sex to feel whole. Someone who doesn't choose his own desires over something the Spirit might be leading him to. But I'm not, I'm still Erik, still broken. And I feel terrible because of it.

I didn't know what to do and it was Sunday morning, so I went to church. During the sermon, the Pastor began to speak on shame. He started telling us how Satan used shame from the beginning to seperate us from God and each other. I started realizing that all this feeling bad stuff wasn't coming from God, it was coming from me. I thought to be spiritually healthy meant that you got it all together. But I think it isn't in what we do, it's in who God is, and how we understand that.

This sounds a little ridiculous I'm sure, but hang with me. When you stand before God, will you claim yourself, your achievements, your holiness, or will you fall to the ground and grab the robe of Jesus and claim only the righteousness He can give. If you just realized that you're depending on your own righteousness before God, it's probably time you and God had a talk. As for me, I find it's only when I realize who I am that I am truly free to live. Hopefully these words from "Today" a song by the common ground band will help illustrate the point I'm getting at.

"I'd like to see today. What could happen in my life? When I realize that I'm empty. When all that I can say is Jesus take my heart, my world is in your care."

Everytime I hear those words I realize how wrong I've been about Spiritual Health. I continuously fool myself into thinking that I can make God proud or be good enough to earn my right. Poor me.

Ahh...but the life to be lived in realizing my life lies in the life of Christ. To be hidden in Him.

If this is all old news to you then I hope that when you read this you can rejoice with me that I can see things a little clearer than I used to.

And if this is new to you, then I hope that you will also join me in laying down your facade and embrace the Grace that sets you free.

To be spiritually healhty is to be God's. To stand, kneel, or sit under his banner, not your own.