Yesterday, Dr. Mohler posted regarding a New York Times Magazine film review of the French documentary, Terror’s Advocate. In his blog, Dr. Mohler asks, “How do we come to terms with humanity without using the word “evil” and meaning it?” Interestingly, in my reading elsewhere at Worship Matters I ran across a discussion regarding the existence of God and the usage of the term “evil.” In the comments section, a gentleman made the following statement in regard to the post about Bruce Springsteen and Meaning and Purpose:
Springsteen is real, god is just a figment of your imagination. Springsteen gives a lot of money to charity (quietly and without fuss). God gives
nothing because there is no such thing as god. Religion is an evil that causes untold misery throughout the world by preying on the vulnerable
and peddling fantasy. Of course you’ll probably delete this post because your belief is so narrow minded that the questioning of this ridiculous
illusion doesn’t warrant discussion. Springsteen pretty much summed it all up in his song ‘reason to believe’.
It always perplexes me to see someone use terms such as good and evil in a diatribe against the existence of God. My initial response was:
“I wonder, what is the basis for “evil” in your eyes? You say there is no such thing as “God” but then decry that Christianity or religion in general is evil. Without a God to declare what is “good” and what is “evil” how can you, with any authority or confidence condemn something as “evil?” You’re borrowing a belief about evil from the very thing you say doesn’t exist!
In other words, how can we define “Evil” apart from an all-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful God? Doesn’t “Evil” just fall into the mire of relativism without an objective Definer to indicate what is Good and what is Evil? Is “Evil” even possible in a world without God? I submit to you that it is not. While the Bible tells us that God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone (see James 1:13) it is impossible to define or even approach a discussion of Evil without the existence of God. Much like morality, or discussions of cultural differences, there must be an objective standard by which we judge all things, including Evil. When Evil becomes subjective, it really ceases to exist (though not in actuality since our subjective view of good and evil has little bearing on the God of the Universe!) for all practical purposes.
Let’s remember, that it is the God of the Universe who has defined evil for us. And the next time someone speaks out about the “evil” of Christianity or organized religion in an argument against the existence of God, let’s lovingly point out the fallacious nature of their statement. And, as we’ve heard this week at our church, Let’s “always be ready” to make a defense, an apologetic, for the Truth and be “known in the intellectual arena!”
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