If God is good why is there so much pain and destruction?
April 17, 2007
The alternative to having freewill is an autocratic environment. Lenin, for one, thought that if you take away a man’s freewill the world would be peaceful and loving. Over the centuries man has attempted to control and rule over other humans so that his supreme will and not theirs would rule. History has revealed that this type of autocratic environment does not lead to peace, harmony and smiley faces all-round. Instead the opposite has almost always ensued of one historical bloodbath after another. Mankind was created free and that freedom is a gift as valuable as life itself. There is not a single man, woman or child alive who would think it a good thing to be completely controlled by another. If this were not the case then instead of going to the Bahamas on vacation we’d be vacationing at our local prisons. God did not create a prison but instead gave us tremendous freedom and power. From completely transforming our own planet to building space stations on other planets - our freedom has little bounds. We are not even forced to be good people. We can be as bad or good as we want to be – and this is tremendous freedom. If we were only given freedom to do good, that wouldn’t be true freedom. We’d be happy, but unable to love deeply. In order for love to exist the option to not love must also. Everyone has felt the cost of freewill. Spouses have used their freewill to have affairs and thus broken apart their families and broken the hearts of their children. Young men have used their freewill to take their guns and go on shooting rampages through schools. Companies have used their freewill to dump toxic wastes into the environment damaging the world we live in. Communities have used their freewill against others through genocide. Nations have used their freewill to extend their borders by killing and destroying their neighbors. It is this freewill of ours which is to blame for the evil in the world. And yet, … It is because freewill has no bounds that Love, in turn, can be without end. And as far as evil can extend we know that love can go even further. The reason is because an Ultimate Love, so boundless, even made room for hate and evil to exist – we can hate because we are loved, because God is good.
