I have met only one person who asserted that evil does not exist. I agreed with her when my life was at its most analytical. Evil as a force or an entity does not make any rational sense at all. I thought then that it was at most something that we could define as synonymous with 'chaos', the effect of losing control or life's non-conformity with the will of the individual.
But when one confronts the acts of evil, such as the goings on of Nazi Germany, Darfur, or the sex trade, and I will spare us all the descriptions that belong with those few of many available references, one cannot state that evil is something abstract, toothless, or even natural.
Nature is indubitably cruel at times. One need only spend an evening in front of a syndicated PBS show to see the predators of the world devouring their prey. But human evil surpasses this feeding interaction and opens a new category. Subjugation, torture, murder, etc. are somehow connected to the pleasure of the transgressor. But it is certainly a perverse pleasure. And though the pleasure of the one would justify its perpetration of injustice on another in Natural Selection, no matter what strain of Darwinism one adheres to, there is something unnatural in it. All natural drives could be satisfied without the deviant transgression. It is not responsible for food, shelter, or sexual perpetuation of the species. It feeds somethings else, something fundamentally unnourishing and destructive.
Science has taught us that stress actually contributes to the demise of cells, to their inability to accept nutrients and their inability to heal. Stress, as such deviant transgressions would cause, would actually be contributing to the demise of the deviant individual. And indeed this is certainly supported on the macro level with a cursory history review. Infamous deviants have not lived peace-filled lives, by their own choosing, and have died violent, troubled and typically premature deaths. Their engagement in evil did not further their own existence.
So if evil causes the demise of not only the victim, but also the perpetrator, what is it and why is it so pervasive in the world?
We all know that there is a spiritual element to the world. (If you deny it experientially, you are in the distinct minority of humankind, and if you deny it theoretically, you are unscientifically ignoring the evidence.) The matter is there is some kind of void that presents and becomes cancerous in the human experience. Humans require a high level of positive interaction not only with other humans, but also with the spiritual. Research has shown positive health connections to prayer, meditation, a peaceful life, and positive relational conditions. These things are nurturing, and one can assert that the converse are detrimental. Again, when those engaging in evil are examined, there is often a history of violence, negative relationships, and a disconnection from the spiritual.
It is not difficult to extrapolate that these negative conditions would lead to a lack of interest to the true well-being of the self, and the exploration of detrimental and dangerous pleasure seeking. And without self-consideration of well-being, the golden rule loses its meaning. Doing unto others..., when the thing one would have done to oneself is itself depraved, is an open door to depravity.
While knowing little if anything at all about psychology, this progression puts vital importance on the experiences the developing self is taken through and taught about. Peace, positive relationship building, and spiritual connectedness must be demonstrated and encouraged if a child is to develop without the internal door opened to depravity to inflict on itself and others.
This highlights Jesus' insistence that children must be allowed to come to Him, and that any that taught children about sin are condemning themselves.
This condemnation moves beyond the self and is placed on the entire human experience. It places a choking grip on the potential of individuals to be successful and even to survive. With burgeoning birthrates, we are creating more and more individuals to live this experience. And in the last 50 years we have seen several new and devastating courses of widespread annihilation emerge. Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, unstoppable (and behavior-facilitated) diseases, the globalized endorsement of oppression - these put a highlight on an ever-increasing scale and scope of destruction. We are not solving the problems. We are not eliminating the negative factors that contribute to depravity. And we are arming the depraved with more potent, powerful and pervasive arsenals.
So there is little positive to end on. We are tasked with a nearly insurmountable bulk of lives to affect in a positive long-term manner while only a single negative engagement could start the domino effect of self-loathing. But try we must. Speak truth and love to all you encounter. Avoid petty negativity. Reflect goodness to those you know and those you contact. Begin within your own family. Begin with yourself. Speak love and peace and prayer internally so that modelling it externally will be genuine. You may not condemn yourself and meaningfully endorse others. Cast a wide net of these truths that reach wherever your influence can take you. In these far reaches, speak hope. It may have been the first time it is heard, or the time it is finally understood.
Sin and the tragedy we all have lived.
I was doing a little e-research today because I am thinking about sin. I found that the concept as written in the Gospel of John is rooted in the Greek 'hamartia'. The translation is 'missing the mark', as in missing the target entirely in archery, and is an Aristotelian term that describes the type of life course of the tragic heroes of Greek plays.
I know very little about the Greek language, but thanks to my father, I was subjected to a solid dose of Greek tragedy fairly early in life. I had studied the Cliff Notes and sat through Medea, Oedipus Rex, Antigone (am I forgetting any?) by the time I had finished going through puberty. You will notice that I say that I 'sat through them', rather than using enlightened descriptions of participatory theatrical attendance. This is because they are Greek tragedies. They are intended to display suffering and character 'hamartia' to the extent that viewers experience the catharsis of emotional collapse. Viewership is more about an exercise in survival and mourning than it is any kind of delightful theatrical play-going (I am sure there will be some dissent among my more learned readership - so feel free to discuss). I, however, distinctly remember walking out with gut pains from the sickening demise these characters suffered, and I remember lying down in the backseat the whole way home feeling bad. And such is the root of our Lord's concept of sin.
I am also personally an expert on 'missing the mark' in life. Not to the extent of being buried alive with my children, or killing my mother and marrying my father, but to a far lesser degree I am well acquainted with 'hamartia'. (You may pause for a moment and read the title of this blog.) I have to say that 'hamartia' is a brilliant illustration of the experience of sin. In my life, I have been faced by divergent paths and have usually chosen the one that might have been more attractive or even less difficult and have found myself farther away from the life I have known in my gut I should to be living.
In my church we discuss sin very rarely - and when we do it is in abstract terms like 'separation from God.' (Which gives my Dad fits because how can one separate oneself from God?)
These descriptions are not adequate. I work with high schoolers and talking about 'separation from God' to a group intrinsically already separated from most things godly is not illustrative. But 'hamartia' gives another way around this conversation - quite literally. To be missing the point is a concept that anyone can directly relate to. So often we choose and go awry...and for some it does take the course of tragedy. However, in my experience, God moves the target back into our path and gives us another go...and another....and another.
The benefit to not missing the mark is that we get to live the life God created us to live. What a wonderful thing! And the benefit to getting or staying personally connected to God is that even when we do miss (and I believe we all have and will again), we get another go. 'Hamartia' can be a gracious description. I feel it is necessary to reconcile a concept often used to inspire fear, legalism, and retribution with a Savior who modelled and taught grace.
When I think of the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom Jesus witnessed, or the adulteress brought to Jesus for stoning and literally pardoned while her accusers were shamed, I see a Christ committed to refilling the sheath of arrows and encouraging the archers - us - to 'take a better shot'.
I believe that part of our reunion with God will be to see our lives - our missed potentialities -and that will be a truly mournful and cathartic moment for us. But I have lived a life of renewing hope, grace bestowing beauty through pain, and the outpouring of blessings over proud transgression after transgression. And once again now I am reminded and I believe that God is sovereign. God sees and knows us in full. We do not see ourselves in any more than this moment and the moments that we have already come past. Perhaps what looks to us in our limited vision like an unclean miss, is just God routing us towards God through whatever obstacles are coming, in a dance so beautiful and complex that we will weep with joy at the beauty of it all as we reunite with God in the great ever after.
If the woman had not been brought for justice after committing adultery, if she had not so missed the mark, she would never have met God, looked God in the eye, and heard the words spoken from God's own lips, 'Then I will not judge you, either.'
They shamed her
trapped alone,
condemned
surrounded by a crowd of hatred
to die at their hands.
With a simple question
he demanded
shamed them in kind
requiring each to judge themselves
worthy of the same death
they had so willingly charged to her.
One by one they left
alone in their recognition.
And again she found herself
alone
but this time God was standing near.
Is there no one left to condemn you, God asked?
No one sir, she said.
Then I do not condemn you, said the Lord
... and God set her free.
I know very little about the Greek language, but thanks to my father, I was subjected to a solid dose of Greek tragedy fairly early in life. I had studied the Cliff Notes and sat through Medea, Oedipus Rex, Antigone (am I forgetting any?) by the time I had finished going through puberty. You will notice that I say that I 'sat through them', rather than using enlightened descriptions of participatory theatrical attendance. This is because they are Greek tragedies. They are intended to display suffering and character 'hamartia' to the extent that viewers experience the catharsis of emotional collapse. Viewership is more about an exercise in survival and mourning than it is any kind of delightful theatrical play-going (I am sure there will be some dissent among my more learned readership - so feel free to discuss). I, however, distinctly remember walking out with gut pains from the sickening demise these characters suffered, and I remember lying down in the backseat the whole way home feeling bad. And such is the root of our Lord's concept of sin.
I am also personally an expert on 'missing the mark' in life. Not to the extent of being buried alive with my children, or killing my mother and marrying my father, but to a far lesser degree I am well acquainted with 'hamartia'. (You may pause for a moment and read the title of this blog.) I have to say that 'hamartia' is a brilliant illustration of the experience of sin. In my life, I have been faced by divergent paths and have usually chosen the one that might have been more attractive or even less difficult and have found myself farther away from the life I have known in my gut I should to be living.
In my church we discuss sin very rarely - and when we do it is in abstract terms like 'separation from God.' (Which gives my Dad fits because how can one separate oneself from God?)
These descriptions are not adequate. I work with high schoolers and talking about 'separation from God' to a group intrinsically already separated from most things godly is not illustrative. But 'hamartia' gives another way around this conversation - quite literally. To be missing the point is a concept that anyone can directly relate to. So often we choose and go awry...and for some it does take the course of tragedy. However, in my experience, God moves the target back into our path and gives us another go...and another....and another.
The benefit to not missing the mark is that we get to live the life God created us to live. What a wonderful thing! And the benefit to getting or staying personally connected to God is that even when we do miss (and I believe we all have and will again), we get another go. 'Hamartia' can be a gracious description. I feel it is necessary to reconcile a concept often used to inspire fear, legalism, and retribution with a Savior who modelled and taught grace.
When I think of the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom Jesus witnessed, or the adulteress brought to Jesus for stoning and literally pardoned while her accusers were shamed, I see a Christ committed to refilling the sheath of arrows and encouraging the archers - us - to 'take a better shot'.
I believe that part of our reunion with God will be to see our lives - our missed potentialities -and that will be a truly mournful and cathartic moment for us. But I have lived a life of renewing hope, grace bestowing beauty through pain, and the outpouring of blessings over proud transgression after transgression. And once again now I am reminded and I believe that God is sovereign. God sees and knows us in full. We do not see ourselves in any more than this moment and the moments that we have already come past. Perhaps what looks to us in our limited vision like an unclean miss, is just God routing us towards God through whatever obstacles are coming, in a dance so beautiful and complex that we will weep with joy at the beauty of it all as we reunite with God in the great ever after.
If the woman had not been brought for justice after committing adultery, if she had not so missed the mark, she would never have met God, looked God in the eye, and heard the words spoken from God's own lips, 'Then I will not judge you, either.'
They shamed her
trapped alone,
condemned
surrounded by a crowd of hatred
to die at their hands.
With a simple question
he demanded
shamed them in kind
requiring each to judge themselves
worthy of the same death
they had so willingly charged to her.
One by one they left
alone in their recognition.
And again she found herself
alone
but this time God was standing near.
Is there no one left to condemn you, God asked?
No one sir, she said.
Then I do not condemn you, said the Lord
... and God set her free.
The Problem of Evil, The Problem of Good
How can a loving and powerful God allow the deep and profound suffering that seems to pervade life on earth? What is the real fabric of this world given that there are so many instances of evil? Since there obviously IS evil, is there still room for a good & gracious God?
According to a fully scientific worldview, most examples of evil, theft, assault, rape, murder, gang behavior, and social power struggles, are TOTALLY NATURAL so long as they offer satisfaction to the self. Biological drives lead the behavioral way. In order to preserve, satisfy, or advance the self, there is no 'sin' that is not allowed in the name of 'survival of the fittest', no psychology that is deviant so long as it serves its owner's survival and advancement. The advancement of the self and its progeny is the only standard of success. Group organization offers some buffer to deviant individual drives by containing them within a social contract that requires consequence for action that injures another. But as we witness daily, significant occurrences of these transgressions still occur because the natural behaviors of individuals has not been altered.
The other category often referred to as evil are natural disasters and diseases. These are not only explicable, but as ordinary and anticipated as the tumult of nature playing out its surrender to force and chaos. It is simply the illustration of mechanism tumbling upon mechanism. A materialistic world is a world glued together by meaningless cause and effect relationships. Chaos is the only constant with the drive towards entropy ever plodding onwards and only marginally stayed by the mechanisms of organization, complexity, and life.
So where is the problem? Suffering at the hands of these 'evils' is explicable, and even necessary, in the world because the self is immersed in a chaotic place and wholly responsible for itself, its progeny’s, or sometimes its society's survival and advancement. Anything that comes in conflict with that goal must be dispatched! Action as it is carried out to that end does not 'matter'. It is not problematic in a moral sense when it falls into the categories of preservation and advancement.
And this is the world that God created. The science describing this natural condition is describing nothing less than the handiwork of God. Its reality cannot be ignored or denied nor can God's relationship to it be severed unless one asserts atheism.
And to that end, suffering at the hands of evil -and evil itself- only ‘matters’ qualitatively if the extent, the entirety, of the human experience is contained between birth and death, as the atheist contends. If that were fact, then it would indeed matter very much the manner in which one encountered their demise, or the quality with which they experience their days. But regardless of suffering, the fittest must survive, while the demise of the unfit remains the 'natural order'.
Contrarily for the theist, there is far more to the story of God's sovereignty than the time that elapses between birth and death. We exist only partially in the universe God created. Suffering within its (the physical world's) framework is wholly minimized and negated by the glory that one becomes immersed in when one transcends the physical. Earthly life and conflict is not a final statement, not primary, so the manner in which it is engaged or dispatched is only able to be genuinely understood from the perspective of hindsight.
And for the Christian, there is an additional dimension. The God a Christian follows is a suffering God, a God who confronted and was consumed by the world at its worst. Jesus, was created to heal those who suffered and then to suffer an excruciating extermination himself. He told his followers that his demise was imminent and reiterated that death and suffering were to be expected. He explained that life in this world was going to include inherent conflict with evil, but that it was only a passing phase. Jesus was a willing sacrifice of socio-political 'survival of the fittest' because he knew that his ultimate survival was not dependant on humans or nature but was entirely dependent on his spiritual transcendence into the reality of God.
And he taught a different message than 'survival of the fittest.' He named the meek, the oppressed, and the suffering as those who were farthest along the path towards being spiritually fit. He demanded a social order that was not focused on the advancement of the self, but on the love of those who needed most and were most difficult to love.
The follower of Christ is therefore present in and around, but aware of being wholly transcendent of the suffering of this world. This physical world is just a tent, the physical body is nothing more than a shell... its ailments are of no eternal consequence. Ultimately Christ is therefore a triumphant God.
The life experience of the Christian includes tangible tastes of this glory, so it is anecdotally enforced as well as doctrinally encouraged. These experiences of God in life lead towards growth, redemption, and eventual eternal understanding of the 'big picture' of that individual's thread in God's tapestry.
So what then is the quality of God’s presence in this world? Actually it says something quite unexpected, that the real philosophical problem is not evil at all. The illogical condition of the world is not the natural condition of selfishness, rather it is selfLESSness! God presents a much needed problem of good! You see, Darwinism/ materialism cannot explain agape...charity... sacrifice...or valour. There is no biological instinct to selflessness towards a stranger, no 'herd' that would leap to protect its predator should the opportunity arise. And yet the human experience is riddled with as many tales of redemptive grace doled out from within the ranks as there are horrific examples of depravity. How and why, I ask of the atheist? How does the fittest survive to spread its progeny when it lays down its own life for another? Where is the biological impetus to love the contagious, the depraved, the ostracized? A God-less world simply cannot produce these things.
So where is God in this world? God is visible in the world through the defiant actions of God’s people - defiant against the natural condition of this world. The world is a horribly turned-around place, depraved, violent, unsafe. But each day God reaches into the lives of many through the venue of unexpected grace, truth and love. These things are supernatural. These things are Godly. People serve as God’s portal into this place, turning on its head the natural way, and replacing it with a higher standard of being.
Is God still both good and powerful? Yes - but the standard of goodness is not human. And the standard of power is also not selfish. The sovereignty of something other than our selves present NOT to serve our selves is a very difficult, almost impossible thing to understand....because it is so entirely unnatural.
According to a fully scientific worldview, most examples of evil, theft, assault, rape, murder, gang behavior, and social power struggles, are TOTALLY NATURAL so long as they offer satisfaction to the self. Biological drives lead the behavioral way. In order to preserve, satisfy, or advance the self, there is no 'sin' that is not allowed in the name of 'survival of the fittest', no psychology that is deviant so long as it serves its owner's survival and advancement. The advancement of the self and its progeny is the only standard of success. Group organization offers some buffer to deviant individual drives by containing them within a social contract that requires consequence for action that injures another. But as we witness daily, significant occurrences of these transgressions still occur because the natural behaviors of individuals has not been altered.
The other category often referred to as evil are natural disasters and diseases. These are not only explicable, but as ordinary and anticipated as the tumult of nature playing out its surrender to force and chaos. It is simply the illustration of mechanism tumbling upon mechanism. A materialistic world is a world glued together by meaningless cause and effect relationships. Chaos is the only constant with the drive towards entropy ever plodding onwards and only marginally stayed by the mechanisms of organization, complexity, and life.
So where is the problem? Suffering at the hands of these 'evils' is explicable, and even necessary, in the world because the self is immersed in a chaotic place and wholly responsible for itself, its progeny’s, or sometimes its society's survival and advancement. Anything that comes in conflict with that goal must be dispatched! Action as it is carried out to that end does not 'matter'. It is not problematic in a moral sense when it falls into the categories of preservation and advancement.
And this is the world that God created. The science describing this natural condition is describing nothing less than the handiwork of God. Its reality cannot be ignored or denied nor can God's relationship to it be severed unless one asserts atheism.
And to that end, suffering at the hands of evil -and evil itself- only ‘matters’ qualitatively if the extent, the entirety, of the human experience is contained between birth and death, as the atheist contends. If that were fact, then it would indeed matter very much the manner in which one encountered their demise, or the quality with which they experience their days. But regardless of suffering, the fittest must survive, while the demise of the unfit remains the 'natural order'.
Contrarily for the theist, there is far more to the story of God's sovereignty than the time that elapses between birth and death. We exist only partially in the universe God created. Suffering within its (the physical world's) framework is wholly minimized and negated by the glory that one becomes immersed in when one transcends the physical. Earthly life and conflict is not a final statement, not primary, so the manner in which it is engaged or dispatched is only able to be genuinely understood from the perspective of hindsight.
And for the Christian, there is an additional dimension. The God a Christian follows is a suffering God, a God who confronted and was consumed by the world at its worst. Jesus, was created to heal those who suffered and then to suffer an excruciating extermination himself. He told his followers that his demise was imminent and reiterated that death and suffering were to be expected. He explained that life in this world was going to include inherent conflict with evil, but that it was only a passing phase. Jesus was a willing sacrifice of socio-political 'survival of the fittest' because he knew that his ultimate survival was not dependant on humans or nature but was entirely dependent on his spiritual transcendence into the reality of God.
And he taught a different message than 'survival of the fittest.' He named the meek, the oppressed, and the suffering as those who were farthest along the path towards being spiritually fit. He demanded a social order that was not focused on the advancement of the self, but on the love of those who needed most and were most difficult to love.
The follower of Christ is therefore present in and around, but aware of being wholly transcendent of the suffering of this world. This physical world is just a tent, the physical body is nothing more than a shell... its ailments are of no eternal consequence. Ultimately Christ is therefore a triumphant God.
The life experience of the Christian includes tangible tastes of this glory, so it is anecdotally enforced as well as doctrinally encouraged. These experiences of God in life lead towards growth, redemption, and eventual eternal understanding of the 'big picture' of that individual's thread in God's tapestry.
So what then is the quality of God’s presence in this world? Actually it says something quite unexpected, that the real philosophical problem is not evil at all. The illogical condition of the world is not the natural condition of selfishness, rather it is selfLESSness! God presents a much needed problem of good! You see, Darwinism/ materialism cannot explain agape...charity... sacrifice...or valour. There is no biological instinct to selflessness towards a stranger, no 'herd' that would leap to protect its predator should the opportunity arise. And yet the human experience is riddled with as many tales of redemptive grace doled out from within the ranks as there are horrific examples of depravity. How and why, I ask of the atheist? How does the fittest survive to spread its progeny when it lays down its own life for another? Where is the biological impetus to love the contagious, the depraved, the ostracized? A God-less world simply cannot produce these things.
So where is God in this world? God is visible in the world through the defiant actions of God’s people - defiant against the natural condition of this world. The world is a horribly turned-around place, depraved, violent, unsafe. But each day God reaches into the lives of many through the venue of unexpected grace, truth and love. These things are supernatural. These things are Godly. People serve as God’s portal into this place, turning on its head the natural way, and replacing it with a higher standard of being.
Is God still both good and powerful? Yes - but the standard of goodness is not human. And the standard of power is also not selfish. The sovereignty of something other than our selves present NOT to serve our selves is a very difficult, almost impossible thing to understand....because it is so entirely unnatural.
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