Who wouldn’t rage against the dying of the light when confronted with the devastation caused by floods and tornados and typhoons and earth quakes, and babies with genetic diseases, and anyone sick with cancer, and all matter of natural tragedies!

And don’t even get me started with the eat-or-be-killed life and suffering of animals in the wild.

I’ll tell you what made me come unglued. Back when I was in school, I was reading an article in National Geographic about the latest technology being used in medicine- and there was a special technique picture taken of a fetus- still in its mother’s womb, showing a cancerous brain tumor.

Hadn’t taken a breath yet. Hadn’t even entered this world.  Brand spanking new- with a cancerous tumor.

I raged and ranted for a year, trying to come to terms with what seemed to me a gigantic celestial NoNo! It seemed so unjust and unwarranted and just stinking immoral!

How can any of these tragedies be justified or reconciled?

I’m sure there have been times in each of your lives when senseless evil has soured you on life!

Today we are going to address natural evil as opposed to moral evil.

How in the world can you make peace with the concept of a kind, loving, all-powerful God, and the fact that anyone of us, if we were able, would step in to correct or prevent some of the awful natural things that take place.

  Why doesn’t God?

This is the eternal question!

  “The professional atheists publishing today want us to believe that there is no God because the God of the Bible is not good as they understand goodness. But one does not necessarily follow from the other. What if there is a God, and he is simply beyond good and evil?

Who hasn’t seen the suffering of a child or an elderly parent and said, “If only I had the power . . . .” But God does have the power.

Wouldn’t most of us have mercy on the most vulnerable-the very young and the very old? Can’t it be argued persuasively, as Rabbi Akiba goes on to do, that we have a higher sense of justice in our hearts than does this God we Jews and Christians worship?”  Anthony Sacramone    

The Problem Redefined

It seems to me that the problem is not with God or the world but in how we assume what God ought to be. So, based on what we expect from God, it is we who create the problem.

If something causes us pain, discomfort or suffering, we label it “bad”.

On the other hand, if something brings us pleasure, happiness and gratification, we deem it “good”.

As humans, we tend to take a short-range and personal view of good or bad according to our experiences, and then project those ideas onto God and assume God’s goodness goes by our definitions.

In like manner we assume that God is all-powerful, and therefore should use that power to prevent, circumvent or intervene to stop evil and tragedy in our world.

We think that the world would be wonderful if there was never anything bad happening, and all things were good and pleasing to us.

Spoiler Alert

When we assume God wants just what we want, and if we ask for it, and don’t get it, then we consider God is distant, unloving, or absent altogether.

This is where our own ideas about what God should do and be like bushwhacks us!

It is at this point that some of our most cherished ideas create the problem for us.

Saying, “Well, if I were God I would have…” just further proves the point.

We do not know the mind of God and it is presumptuous to imagine that we do. We only know what we think we would do in such a situation.

The prophet Isaiah 55:8 says:

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond                  anything you could imagine. (New Living Bible translation)

We often seem to be stuck on the idea that a perfect God must surely have designed a physically-perfect universe.

Remember, God called the overall design of the world “very good,” but never “perfect.”

A Look at Natural Laws

The universe must operate by physical laws that are reliable and consistent. These laws ensure that every process is predictable and on-going. This allows us to be able to interact reliably with each other and our environment.

Without these physical laws operating in certain ways, life here on earth would not be possible.

However, these laws also result in pretty much all natural evil

Why?

How?

You can’t have so many different systems and operations happening without there being some kind of interference, cross-purposes, and interactions.

 So, what is a system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. An important function of almost every system is to ensure its own perpetuation.”
― Donella H. Meadows,   Thinking in Systems: A Primer    

Consider- The same weather systems that create tornadoes also create thunderstorms that water the earth and that bring fires to rejuvenate forests. Did you know certain pine cones require forest fire heat to open and release the seeds?

The same floods that destroy buildings and towns are part of the very dynamic of the earth that makes it a living planet. Some rivers used to flood every year, bringing silt and renewing fields.

Some kinds of bacteria make us sick and other kinds yield substances that bring about healing.

Some diseases have stayed in our gene pool because that particular disease affords some protection against something else.

Did you know that the human body contains about 100 trillion cells, but only maybe one in 10 of those cells is actually human?

The rest are from bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms, mostly found in the gut. Not only do these cells outnumber us, but we cannot live without them, for it’s the bacteria in your gut that help digest your food.

How amazing is this?

Your body is constantly replacing old cells with new ones at the rate of millions per second. In several seconds, 50 million of your cells will have died and been replaced by others.

Some are lost through ‘wear and tear’, some just reach the end of their life, and others deliberately self-destruct.

The life cycle of every cell is carefully controlled, so you always have just the right number of each type of cell.

Consider:

“Natural disasters are actually necessary for life. In and of themselves, these “disasters”  are not evil. They actually produce a planet habitable for human life.

For instance, if there were no molten core to the Earth (which produces earth quakes), there would be no magnetosphere around the Earth, which protects us from radiation bombardment. Without electromagnetic radiation, nuclear fusion couldn’t occur and stars couldn’t burn.

Without floods, surrounding lands lack essential silt and minerals. Without lightning, we would not have nitric oxide, which feeds plants in the rain. Hurricanes and typhoons result from uneven heating around the globe –the clashing of high and low temperatures around the Earth.

This problem could be solved, if the Earth was heated by three suns (one at the equator, and two  at each pole). However, three suns would destroy our planet in the process!”  James Rochard, Evidence Unseen

We simply do not know enough about our world even today to declare what is “good” or “evil” in those processes other than from our own personal experience of them.

How Things Work

Each part of creation is set in motion by its own special life codes and designs of how to function.

No cell decides to take a two week vacation.

No reptile decides it would rather be warm-blooded.

No bear decides to fly south in the winter instead of hibernating!

No human decides it would be more advantageous to have two brains instead of one.

The world was created to work in a certain way. Nature is made up of independent forces and a collection of causes and effects.  And because of this, a certain amount of randomness exists.

“I’ve learned a lot about good and evil. They are not always what they appear to be.”  Charles Van Doren

God does not constantly intervene in the working of creation- otherwise the laws of physics would have no validity.

A Poignant Scenario-

Here’s an example of systems colliding-

Imagine-A tree is growing near a stream. It is a tree possessing all the                                                                                      characteristics of treeness.                                                

It may grow for a long time, but it is also vulnerable and can be cut through.

In this stream is a family of beavers. They possess all the attributes of beaver-hood.

They are busy building a dam across the stream for their lodge, because that’s what beavers do. 

And the perfect material? 

Wood! 

Hence yonder tree gets a thorough gnawing in order to fell said tree for said beaver lodge.  All acting in perfect accord with their nature. 

Tree is very nearly gnawed through and beavers continue to chew through final inch or so of trunk.

Meanwhile, wildlife Ranger is driving down the trail bordering the stream.

Ranger is human, with a bony skeleton covered in flesh.  Powerful in many ways, but vulnerable in others.  The body can be injured so severely that harm or death can ensue.

In similar manner, vehicle is made of metal- strong, but also capable of destruction.

Just as Ranger arrives in vicinity of said gnawed tree, the tree topples- because trees can do that- crashes onto the roof of vehicle which collapses- metal is vulnerable- and crushes the Ranger, causing his instant death.

IS THIS EVIL?

Well, of course to him and his family, it is a tragedy!

But it is a simplistic example of systems’ cross interference!

And it applies to many things that happen in life that we call evil.

Other Examples–

A cell mutates. It happens all the time, sometimes for good, often not good.  Cancer is run-amok cells- something set them off to frantically multiply.  Environmental?  Genetic? Habits? Chemical agents?  Who knows?  But a number of systems are colliding and interacting.

Pompeii Destroyed by Mt. Etna- Here are human and nature elements clashing. Mt. Etna is an active volcano- even today.  Pompeii was built beneath it.  Mistake #1.  It had been smoking and reacting for a while but no one evacuated.  Mistake #2.  When it blew, there was no hope of escaping the heat, fire, and ash.

People build houses and towns on fault lines, and in flood plains, beside rivers and seas, or on the sides of step hills, where earthquakes, floods, and mudslides can wipe them out. Opposing systems.

For an excellent example of how interacting systems can work for good, watch Wolves and Yellowstone Park

And folks- if you think about it, you’ll find so many other examples of where different systems interact with each other.

Could God have created a more kindly world with less evil and bad events in it?

Perhaps! 

However, the crucial element was free will, so that we, as thinking individuals, might be able to make our own moral decisions and choices. 

In a perfectly good world, where is the opportunity to choose good or evil?

The opportunity would not be present.  And why is that important?  Well…it all boils down to what is our ultimate purpose here?

And that is fodder for another time.

Divine Purpose

So we look at the difference between what we think God could or should do on some global scale and then we take a look-see at what God has actually done throughout time and human history.

God doesn’t manipulate or constantly intervene in the world just to fit within our own definitions of good. If God were constantly tinkering with nature’s laws, we would inevitably rely on God to bail us out of all difficulties.

No choices equal no growth.

That is not to say that God never intervenes. 

Miracles happen. 

And we may never understand the why and wherefore they happen in some cases, and in most (at least according to our perception) they do not.  Refer again to Isaiah 55:8.

But, God chooses to work with us, helping us to reach our full potential as human beings, even in the midst of a world that we do not always experience as fair or just or good.

Could God have created a more kindly world with less evil and bad events in it?

Perhaps!

However, the crucial element was free will, so that we, as thinking individuals, might be able to make our own moral decisions and choices.

In a perfectly good world, where is the opportunity to choose good or evil? The opportunity would not be present.

And why is that important? Well…it all boils down to what is our ultimate purpose here.

And that is fodder for another time.

Call to Action

Take the time to take some aspect in your own life or someone else’s, or in society, or the world that you consider evil.

Now consciously examine what various systems are colliding.

• Are those systems in and of themselves evil?
• By what gauge are you assuming evil?
• Is there any other way of looking at this issue?
• It can change your outlook on life and the world if you thoughtfully consider this!