Blog Report 1 - Skeptics over Evil

Just as Bertrand Russell believed we could question Christ’s moral character due to his belief in Hell, I would like to contribute to the skepticism by questioning the moral character of a creator who may be setting his “children” up for failure. He who has faith in the Lord shall be granted entry into paradise in the afterlife, yet what of the individuals who are psychologically incapable of doing so based off of their genetics? My question is not based off of their moral character, but off of God’s moral character to create them as such in the first place.

Mental illness can be temporary or permanent in some cases, but for the sake of this argument, I would like to focus on antisocial personality disorder, which is typically a lifelong mental illness that cannot be cured. This disorder, for lack of better words towards a quick understanding, is more commonly seen as an individual being called a psychopath, and in less severe cases a sociopath. These types of individuals can be impossible to deal with, depending on the severity of their illness. Violent behavior, disregard for others and their safety, lack of self-control, manipulative behavior, and pathological lying are some of the symptoms seen in these types of individuals. In some cases, we would consider these individuals to be “evil” depending on their actions.

My question is: “Why would God knowingly bring life into the world that is incapable of understanding right from wrong when He is meant to be made up of goodness? Does this mean that he is actually capable of mistakes, just like humans, or is this something that was out of his own control?”

I happened to find an article that posed a similar question to my own, which you can access via http://www.str.org/articles/augustine-on-evil#.Vx_0EjArLIU.

“Is God the author of evil or its helpless victim?” is the question posed on this article that covers St. Augustine’s answer to evil. If God created evil, and evil is a thing… then would that not mean that our God made up of goodness created evil? However, what if evil is not something that can be described as a thing? Therefore, it would not need to be created, and our God is good again. The question then becomes, “what is the root of evil?” Which it is known to be the act of choosing to turn away from good, and the cause of evil roots from the free will of the individuals God has created.

To me, this answers my question from the beginning. Evil is that of the free will we have been given and not the creation of God. We have mixed up our own genetics during reproduction to create the truly evil individuals in our world, and from this perspective, that would be something out of God’s hands. He created our original genetics and based off of the mates we choose for ourselves when it comes to our reproduction process, we have screwed ourselves over in the long run.