How Do We Explain The World’s Evil?

by Michael Shackleton · December 8, 2015

One is horrified by the evil that is terrifying all and sundry these days. How can one explain why the human heart can be so viciously merciless in wanting to kill and kill innocent people? Is it due to Original Sin?�S Wright

Imagine the result if the Genesis story of the temptation of Eve turned out differently. The serpent assured Eve that she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit in the garden. This was in contradiction of God�s command, which she and Adam had understood clearly.

Suppose she had preferred to stay obedient to God and enjoy the delights of the garden, and therefore not give in to temptation. The loving harmony and balance between God and his human creatures would have remained intact. The relationship between the uncreated God and his creatures would have been sustained according to his design and will.

Of course, things did not turn out this way. The serpent told Eve that if she and Adam ate the fruit their eyes would be opened and they would �be like God� (Gn 3:5). This sounded so promising that when she took another look at the fruit-bearing tree, Eve saw that it was a delight to the eyes and good for food. She and Adam ate its fruit.

Adam and Eve�s act of disobedience demonstrated that they distrusted God. They wanted to be like him, which no creature could be, and so they destroyed the concord between divine and human love. They not only shattered their intimacy with the Creator. They also scuttled their own mutual intimacy by causing strife between them, which continued in their children. Their son Cain killed his brother Abel.

God willed everything to be good and in good order. The human will in turn was to be directed to what is good in God�s design for humanity.

If Adam and Eve had not sinned, they would have conformed to the principle: It is good to obey God�s truthfulness, therefore I will to do so. Instead, their principle became: I will to distrust God�s truthfulness, therefore it is good to do so.

What is good by divine institution gives way to what is good for me or for us.

Those committing atrocities and inhumane cruelty against others intend these acts as desirable because they see them as good for their own cause. They are unconcerned about the consequences for others.

So, evil is the disharmony of humanity within itself and with God. It is the distortion of the human will.

The death and resurrection of Jesus has overcome evil because Jesus obeyed his Father�s will and became one of us. Until he returns in glory on the Last Day, evil remains among us, and it is, as our faith teaches, the result of Original Sin.