Beyond Opinion by Ravi Zacharias

Author:Ravi Zacharias
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

THE COMPLEXITY OF EVIL

When one raises the specter of evil, the question encompasses a wide array of happenings. There is the physical side of the problem. Natural disasters, tragedies, and cataclysmic events are ironically called “acts of God.” Oddly enough, a bumper crop, a beautiful day, a close brush with what should have been death but wasn’t, the wonderful joys and pleasures of life are given no such benevolent source. Malevolence is God’s doing; benevolence is “evolutionary wisdom.” Strange, isn’t it? To attribute rational thought to a predicate without a subject provides not just philosophical problems but grammatical ones as well. But that we shall leave for a later discussion. Then there is the metaphysical side of the question. What is the source of it? Finally, there is the moral side of it. How can there be an all-loving sovereign power that permits such events?

Apart from these facets of complexity, there is a “relevance” dilemma in answering the question. There are two main approaches that confront the one who seeks to provide an answer—the logical or intellectual side and the emotional or existential side. Both are vitally important. To address one to the exclusion of the other may meet a particular need but will do so at the cost of ignoring the rational foundation on which an answer must stand. On the other hand, to make it so cerebral that the emotional side is denied is equally troubling. Since so much has been written on the philosophical side of the subject, notably by scholars such as Alvin Plantinga, Paul Feinberg, and others, I will attempt to principally address the existential side of this problem, but will do so without ignoring the logical side. As daunting a task as it may be, I do not for a moment believe it is anywhere near as insurmountable a problem as it is for the skeptic.

It is here that I must point out again that every worldview has the responsibility of explaining this, not just the Christian. What is more, enveloped in each person’s answer is the affirmed purpose of life itself. Evil and suffering cannot be explained without assuming life’s purpose.

As soon as the atheist begins his or her answer, there are three clear challenges placed before the theist. None of them succeeds. Each one ends up in conflict of a major sort.

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