ARTICLE XI.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

§ 43. Any successful religion has a satisfying explanation for why evil exists in the world and why good people suffer. Too many people have turned their backs on God because they cannot see how the presence of evil can be reconciled with the idea of a loving God.

§ 44. There are two types of evils that need explanation: evils of will and evils of nature. Evils of will result from the choices that various creatures of God make and usually result from deficiencies or weaknesses on their part, i.e., a lack of love, tolerance, or empathy, a lack of knowledge or understanding, a lack of courage, or a lack of resources. Evils of nature, such as natural disasters or unpreventable illnesses are not a by-product of free will, but are attributable to dangers that are built into creation.

§ 45. With regard to the first type of evil, Unitarians Christians are in full agreement. God created the universe and its laws. As part of that creation, we have free will. God does not determine what we will do ahead of time. We can exercise this freedom for good or for ill. Just like a human parent who agrees to allow a child to make some of his or her own decisions, God cannot countermand the choices that his children are free to make by divine permission, even if he knows some harm may befall them. Like a human parent, God can try to persuade them to do otherwise, but ultimately the decision is up to the child. And sometimes the young and inexperienced foolishly get themselves into trouble. Sometimes they actually hurt someone else, someone who may not deserve to be hurt. God can discipline us afterward, but the Almighty cannot prevent it from happening without taking away the gift of free will. God knows that if humans have no free will, then concepts of virtue and the soul have no meaning. If human beings cannot choose to be evil, they cannot choose to be good.

§ 46. The second type of evil is more difficult to account for. All Unitarians reject the belief that God uses natural evils as a form of punishment, a lesson learned from the book of Job. Natural evils are just that: natural. They occur in a more-or-less random manner, and often we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, God, as the Creator, is responsible for the existence of natural evils, and if humans are harmed by these things through no fault of their own, we may wonder why God refrains from protecting them. Indeed, some may say, if God can stop something, but allows it, it is as much his doing as if he caused it willfully. There is no uniform Unitarian position on this issue, because the Deity has chosen not to give us a full explanation. Although the Bible addresses the topic on occasion, its witness is indefinite. It would seem that the only reason an omnipotent God of love would refrain from helping people in these sorts of straits is because some form of restraint exists to prevent such an action. But who or what could restrain God? Since God is subject to nothing, the restraint must be of the Deity’s own design. In other words, there are physical laws and personal principles that God has already set in place and over which God does not cross. God may feel pained to see people experience adversity and may suffer along with us, but God’s own principles prevent him from stepping in and stopping evil (here and now, anyway) because of some greater good. It may be that, in the “greater scheme of things,” the suffering on earth is an acceptable price to pay toward some other aim. In other words, only through a certain amount of suffering caused by forces that God has set in motion is God able to truly achieve his purpose. By interfering, the Divine betrays the Divine. It is a scientific principle that an element of chaos or indeterminancy in the ordered universe serves as a much-needed catalyst for change. Natural evils likewise may be an impetus to necessary change, human progress for example. The great bulk of human advancement has been aimed at overcoming adversities. We are learning to combat sickness and catastrophe. And we are getting better at it as time passes. Some day, we will conquer these enemies to human life. This must be what God wants. We are meant to mature and grow and better ourselves. Without these challenges, we would stagnate. Thus the development of our people as a whole may be the overriding concern.

§ 47. No theory about the problem of evil is entirely satisfying to the human mind. We may never comprehend it. Regardless of the reasons for evil’s existence, the Unitarian way is to have faith and trust in the Creator. It is possible to believe that God is good—even as we understand it—if we accept that God’s goodness and eternal aims transcend what we consider good. “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God is the only one who understands what is really best for the human race, and for us as individuals. We trust God’s judgment. We could never make the sorts of decisions that God makes, and we best not even try. We leave that up to God. The best faith is the faith that accepts and embraces the perfection and infinity of God’s wisdom and judgment, even though we have difficulty understanding it ourselves.