The Understanding of Life

THE GOOD & EVIL FORCES IN NATURE:

Since the beginning of recorded history man has thought hardships and natural disasters were evils. Evils were believed to be caused by some personage released by god to punish men for their sins and cause distress, repentance or death. Example follows: If a volcano erupted ancient peoples threw virgins into the lava to calm the mountain god. Droughts required hours or days of chanting or dancing to plead their relief. To end famine, food was offered to the alters of gods. The Aztecs believed offering a continuous flow of human blood would provide god’s favor and prevent evils from coming to their people. When people fall ill in less educated countries witch doctors are still employed to remove the evil spirits to restore health. Even in today’s modern countries people think that god has forsaken them when tragedies strike.

Man has always been tempted by his partial understanding of nature’s intricacies to judge himself as guilty or his god as angry when things go awry. Simplistic religions tell common man that god controls all things at every moment. So when hardships occur evil has been set free against us directly. This is nonsense. So-called evil events happen to the pious and the wicked alike. When earthquakes, tornadoes, or floods create damage aren’t god’s houses (churches) destroyed as well? Don’t innocent babies of righteous parents die from illness or tragedies as often as to the unbelieving or self-centered parents? Weren’t Jesus and his apostles executed as well as thieves and murderers? So called good and evil events happen to all people regardless of beliefs or righteousness.

The belief that evils occur by god’s punishment should be exchanged for the belief that after the creation of nature god rested and let nature’s method provide for the progression of life. It’s written in Genesis 2: 2, ‘God rested’, after he created everything.

Now that man has sciences that explain why natural calamities occur we can predict some threats and protect ourselves from diseases with medicines, earthquakes with modern architecture, droughts and floods with dams, and pestilence with pesticides. If god intended these natural evils to harm us we would have no chance to fight and win against them or god. Therefore the hardships of life are part of nature’s cycles and not evils dispatched by god.

Many people judge god as unjust after seeing the cruel conditions that innocent children and righteous adults sometimes face. Also, god is harshly judged for the worldly success of the wicked we witness everyday. Since we know that god isn’t directly punishing some and aiding others and that nature’s system sustains these adversities we must ask; why did god create a seemingly unfair system and leave us to deal with it alone? The following comparison explains why: I have a similar system in my home, an aquarium. To the life within the aquarium I am god. I light the sun (lamp) each morning and shut it off each night. I drop food from heaven each day. I clean, organize and regulate their world. I choose who lives and dies.

When I treated them all too well life was dull. They looked bored. They had no challenges and many died. So seeing the error of my ways I altered all conditions each day. Predators were added and I didn’t clean the tank so often. After causing differences, hardships, challenges and fears the fish were much more lively. Life became meaningful. There were many diversions each day and in result less fish died.

We likewise need fears, difficulties, and challenges to feel alive, push us to act, and grow to our full potential. So god gave us an environment of positive and negative balances for a positive result. The Bible says in Romans 8: 28,  ‘All things work together for good to those who love god.’ So if you love god you will also love the understanding that he initiated, and see the purpose of all hardships, then the spirit of peace can’t be separated from you.

We must look for the goodness in all physical events. For examples: Forest fires create new growth, clear away undergrowth and renew the soils. Floods open river ways and fertilize the land with nutrients. Hurricanes spread seeds etc. All things have their positive effects. When you appreciate being filled, having rest, drinking water etc. You should also appreciate being hungry, tired, thirsty, etc. Because without the evil you couldn’t know the good or have the wide experience of life. If you make a practice of looking for the goodness in all of nature’s actions you’ll find it and be freed from negative thoughts, judgments and appreciate the system god has made.

To believe that the origin of sin through the influence of evil was a by chance occurrence is unacceptable. I shall list some of the reasons why:

1. Why would an omnipotent god that was wise enough to engineer and orchestrate all physical matter and the progression of life be unaware of the possibility of Adam’s and Eve’s impending sins when they were even made in the image of god himself?
2. Why would god have placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil directly in the center of the Garden of Eden and make its fruit tempting to their senses if god didn’t want them to eat of it and experience shame and hardship?

By these questions we see that unless evil was intended to be an active force within ourselves and our world for a positive result we could never have hope in god.

God not only placed the knowledge of evil on the Earth and set up the circumstances for evil to occur but also performed the first sin according to the Bible. In Genesis 2: 18, god said, ‘It is not good for man (Adam) to be alone.’ So god performed an action, it was not good and caused the loneliness of Adam. Since the Bible says sin is anything that is not perfect god performed the original sin.

According to our bible god had made other mistakes (sins) as well. In Genesis 6: 6 it is written, ‘God repented his flooding of the Earth to destroy evil.’ Repentance is an element of sin remittance. Later god supposedly realized the error (sin) of his reasoning process and found man’s nature to be evil inherent. In Genesis 8: 21 it’s said, ‘I won’t curse the Earth for man’s evil because man is evil from his youth.’ In result the deaths caused by the great flood had no positive outcome thereby being the greatest sin ever committed.

In Job 1: 6-12, God conversed with Satan in which God’s pride provided a means for Satan to tempt him. The result was that god permitted Satan to torment righteous Job to near death. So according to the Bible, god is aware of evil and permits it through his power.