Evil
It was the beginning of September and you could feel the chilly winter birth pains. I was wearing shorts and a sweater, best of both worlds.
There was a large crowd around a live jazz band. Trumpets, trombones, saxophones, a tuba, an accordion, a small drum kit and a man singing from a megaphone. There were at least 10 in the band.
In the front row to the left there was an artist sitting on a concrete bench with a flimsy fedora/beret with a feather on it sketching the performers. He had a leather-bound sketchbook and a pocket protector on his red stripped button up shirt pocket filled with sketching pencils. He wore a phany pack around his waist like a belt over his untucked shirt and wore green trousers. He had a very well practiced mustache and glasses.
Next to him was a woman in a wheel chair. A familiar woman I had seen several times strolling up and down and crossing the street. She was a cute looking lady with white hair and a crooked neck. She was dark in complexion and missing a few teeth. She wore big shoes, light blue jeans and a oversized blue zipper jacket.
There was a glow on her face as she listened to the band and watched a few awkward dancers.
She leaned into the artist and sneaked a peak at his work and gave him a smile of approval.
He responded with a grin, popped out eyes and a shoulder dance.
She lifting up her hands and wobbled in her chair.
The artist then closed his leather-bound sketchpad, put his pencil back into his pocket protector, stood up and began to dance with her. The artist spun, shook his hips and stomped his feet as the little old lady wobbled and rocked back and forth in her wheel chair.
I have friends who say they do not believe in God because of all the evil that exists in the world. But we have all had moments like these, moments when we see people do genuine good things like an artist standing up to dance with a dissabled woman. In the words of Explosions In The Sky, "the earth is not a cold dead place." It is true that there is just as much good in this world as there is evil. If it is rational to believe God cannot exist because of the reality of evil then it must be fair to say that it is rational to belive God can exist because of the reality of goodness.
If God does not exist because there is evil, then how can evil even be determined if God does not exist? Again, if God does not exist, under what guage do we determine what is evil? If there is no basic source then there is no objective morality. Morality is then reduced to a biological necessity. A claim that athiest boldly stand by.
If morality is a biological necessity in order to continue the evolutionary process then how do we determine what is moral? if this were true, couldn't we simply justify everything we do (may it be good or evil) as 'moral' by saying 'this is all part of nature taking it's course.'? Without God as an objective standard evil is not evil, it is simply bad luck for the victim and/or a sign that he/she is a weak link in the evolutionary process.
But evil does exist and so does goodness.
It's presence and reality is an existencial epistomological concern: We know it, are aware of it, and deep down we know that it is more than a survival instinct.
To use the argument "God cannot exist because there is so much evil" contradicts it's self because the phrase in of itself validates the possibility of its opporite. If evil proves absence then logicaly goodness must prove presence. That is not to say that goodness 'proves' God, it simply reveals that 'evil' does not prove anything as far as this argument is concerned.
The artist sat back down, handed her the sketch and put a cigarette in his mouth.
And the music played on.
