EVIL AND SUFFERING ARE REAL

Saturday, March 13, 2010

(The message in this post is not mine. It is from Randy Alcorn's marvelous book, If God Is Good--Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.)

Some pantheistic religions, often related to Hinduism, essentially deny the existence of suffering and evil. It's unreal, an illusion.

Others question evil's reality or define it vaguely. Eckhart Tolle comments, "If evil has any reality...it has a relative, not an absolute reality." He relates evil to denying "my intrinsic oneness" with others.

It's hard to imagine how anyone who looks evil in the face can seriously maintain it's not real. One day I sat on a plane next to a young man, an intelligent college graduate, who told me he believed evil doesn't exist.

"If there's no such thing as evil," I said, "then the Holocaust wasn't evil. Is that what you believe?"

He grimaced, then finally, stammering, said,"Well, I guess the Holocaust was a mistake." I suggested to him that in his heart he must know it was something far worse.

Some worldviews, including Christian Science, argue that suffering doesn't exist. The irrationality of this worldview is illustrated by a boy who visits his family's Christian Science practitioner to ask him to pray for his very sick father. The practitioner replies, "Son, your father only thinks he's sick. Tell him to have faith and believe he's not sick, but well."

The boy did so. The practitioner sees him the next day and asks, "How's your father?"

The boy answers, "Now he thinks he's dead."

(Randy Alcorn delves deep into a profound subject, and through compelling stories, provocative questions and answers, and keen biblical understanding, he brings assurance and hope to all.)