I actually disagree with a lot of what the author, whom I assume is speaking from most mainstream atheistic or at least agnostic philosophers points of view, has to say about Evil, and the acceptance of even the Idea of God. I will try to at least raise my objections and arguments here.
The Idea that because evil exist, that ultimately God cannot is flawed in my opinion. It is saying that two things that are supposedly exactly opposite of each other cannot exist. I think that is a false fact.
Both Deserts and Oceans Exist. Both Mountains and Valleys Exist. Both Light and Dark exist. Then why can't both God and Evil exist, one not cancelling out the other?
I think a more accurate description is that both God and Evil cannot exist in the same space, just as the other examples cannot. I believe that where there is God, there is no evil, or at least not as much influence of evil and where there is Evil, there is no God or at least not as much influence of God. This following the thought that there is pre-dawn and dusk, land that is neither ocean nor desert, and land that is neither peaked nor valleyed, but an influence of both, and at sometimes containing a balanced mix of both.
This I think is the condition of Man; neither Godly nor Evil but with the ability to contain both and act on both at any given time, also known as free will.
I also believe that things that are attributed to the idea of "Natural Evil' are over the top, disproven by science, and some can be attributed to man. The text says that earthquakes, floods, and droughts are caused by God, or at least allowed by God. I think this is false. Since man became mobile, we have been monitoring the weather. Farmers in ancient Mesopotamia understood flood patterns of the Tigris and Euphrates. Almanacs were created based on rotations of the sun and rain patterns. Aztecs mapped the seasons and even created calendars based on the sun stretching far beyond their time even unto now. Scientist today have found that earthquakes happen upon fault lines. With all this being known, how can every flood, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane, blizzard, mudslide, natural wildfire, etc be blamed or attributed as the active actions of God?
Thousands of years ago, humans moved along with there food, and according to the seasons. If there was no food in one particular place, then it was time to move. IF there was no rain, or too much, it was time to move. As the populations grew, and people grew from there nomadic ways, and moved into concentrated cities and countries, then we start reporting on great tragedies at the hand of God. If you move into a flood valley, don't you think that at some point it may flood? And then we rebuild on that land? If Fires rage in that area EVERY YEAR, then we keep rebuilding there? Because it has great property value? I think this is human greed, pride, and stupidity. We don't want to admit that we were wrong or that we made a mistake when our homes slide down a mountain, even though we stripped the land of trees and soil that held the land in place during storms. It’s outrageous.
I have never heard of migratory birds freezing to death, or of animals, without human interaction, starving in their natural environments. A lot of our world problems are caused by greed and hoarding, not limitations of product. This is Man.
Furthermore the addition of Disease.
I cannot tell you why babies are born with that skin disease (and neither can the author, although he often use it to try and prove his point), but I can offer some suggestions and examples for others. Aids, for instance, is an actively transmitted disease. If everyone with aid in the world was allowed to die (harsh as it sounds) and not allowed to spread aids to sexual partners, or unknowing doctors, nurses or others who may come into contact with their blood, AIDS WOULD DIE OUT. The explosion of Aids around the world is a testament to the Evil in which men choose, and of their rejection of God. I am not saying all people who have aids deserve aids, or that I wish we would never find a cure or that I hope everyone with aids would just die already.
My mother, in 2006, died of aids and other complications.
I am saying that if the disease was contained and quarantined like ANY OTHER COMMUNICABLE DISEASE, Aids could be stopped, or at least drastically reduced. Secondly, human behavior and choice often lead to the diseases we contract. We know that smoking can lead to skin, oral, throat, long, and other cancers. We know that overeating can lead to all sorts of diseases. Same with drinking, drugs, sex, and all other social ills. Yet billions of people around the world continue to engage in all these activates uninhibited.
Can we blame God the Marlboro man got lung cancer?
Or your 400 lb relative had a heart attack?
Or that your brother, who doesn't have a stable sexual partner (assuming the partner is faithful of course), contracted Aids? How can we blame these on God? Crazy.
Also science has GIVEN us a lot of deformities and diseases as well.
When X-rays were invented, they used to use them to x-ray kid’s feet to size them for shoes. It was a great intention. When these kids grew up and had kids, some of their kids were born without limbs and other deformities. Later it was found that some of these patients had been overly exposed to x-ray, causing mutations in their DNA, resulting in these deformities. On one form of cervical cancer vaccines, girls have been known to pass out immediately and more than one death has occurred. I could go on and on. How do we not know that the additives in our water, food, air, and almost everything we out into our bodies, is not the cause of some of our diseases? And that as we continue to multiply and pass around our deformities and imperfections, that these are not just the direct result of OUR actions?
Of course that can't explain every disease, but no one can explain every disease. So why argue that since we don't know everything, and God does, that God ultimately allows are causes what we don't know about. Bad argument. A couple hundred years ago we believed that the earth was flat and that maggots just "appeared" in meat out of thin air. Isn't it possible that we just haven't figured it out yet? Isn't that where "faith" (believing in things unproven) is supposed to step in?
I agree that The Free Will Theory and the Moral theory provide good answers, but ultimately fall short, since they don't define clearly (as I believe I have at least started) natural evil. But the combination of both, with the facts of humankinds non-migratory and capitalistic habits, provide the best proof of why Evil is here.
Lastly, What "Great Suffering" have animals suffered? An animal may not capable of free will, but he is capable of conditioning and active learning. If an animal doesn't keep doing things that get it hurt or killed, it deserves what it gets. Its only function is survival. And if it is only surviving and not building society, then is it even capable of "suffering" or is that just us applying human concepts to none human beings? Why are we saying that the apples don't taste like orange juice? Duh??!!
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