God and Evil: The Case for God in a World Filled with Pain by Chad Meister

Author:Chad Meister
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2012-12-12T05:21:00+00:00

CHINESETHOUGHT: EVIL AS IMBALANCE

Another possibility of addressing the nature of evil flourished in ancient China and has continued to this day. Not just the philosophy and religion that are specifically labeled as Daoism, but all Chinese thought has an underlying concept of the Dao, the way the universe would really be if everything were perfect.27 Various schools differ with regard to the attainment of Dao. Some would say that once human beings have straightened out their behavior and society runs as it should, then Dao will manifest itself.28 Others would insist that the best thing to do, in fact, the only thing to do, is as little as possible. The more we interfere with the present arrangement of things in the universe, the more we throw matters out of balance and the worse the world is going to be. The Dao must be allowed to emerge naturally, as human beings take their hands off trying to straighten things out.29

In either case, the universe represents an extremely sensitive balance of the two fundamental elements, yin and yang. Yin is dark, obscure, wet, earthbound, feminine and passive, while yang is light, clear, dry, heavenly, masculine and active, among other attributes.' he characteristics of yin have led some people to propose that yin is the source of evil because, presumably, in their minds the properties of darkness and obscurity already have a negative connotation. However, someone who makes that judgment would be well advised not to fetch his water from the village well, which, if it is functioning properly, should be dark and wet and deeper than he can penetrate with his eyes. A good well must manifest the attributes associated with yin. Nor can we say that a preponderance of yang would automatically constitute evil. To be sure, a house should not burn, but the fire in one's stove should, so that one's meal can be cooked properly.

As yin and yang are distributed over the world, they must be in balance on the cosmic scale. But on a local level some entities are predominantly on the yin side of the ledger, while others must include more yang than yin in order for their nature to fit in properly with the world. When all things have the right proportion of yin and yang, an examination of the cosmos as a whole should reveal that yin and yang are totally balanced out. At that point, the universe is following Dao precisely as it should be.

It follows logically that evil is not in one or the other of these two elements. Whenever there is an imbalance caused by a disproportionate amount of yin or yang for a given entity or a situation, the entire cosmos gets affected, and this is evil. Immoral or unrighteous actions are also a part of the problem because they are events that are utterly out of balance and throw the world even more into disharmony.

This explanation makes good sense. But why does it make sense? Before immersing ourselves a little

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