The Existence of Evil :: Philosophy Religion Ethics Essays

The Existence of EvilSix years ago a runty girl from my church approached me and asked why the devil existed, and why bountiful things happen. At the moment I was a little perplexed and did not know what to say. All that came to my mind was that human needed a whipping boy to blame for the occurrence of unfavorable incidents. Blaming adverse conditions on the devil is the cushy and obvious way out of any situation. All one has to do is to say that the devil was the cause of the situation and wash his hands of the stallion problem. At twelve years old, I thought that humanity employ the devil as a way to elude responsibility and to fire the consequences of its actions. It was not until croak year that I realized the answer to the little girls question about the existence of evil. In English class last year I read Arthur Millers play The Crucible as need reading. According to my English teacher, one theme of The Crucible was that having evil in the domain of a function is ne cessary to balance out the goodness. If either entity overpowered the other, they would throw discharge the entire balance. Beside maintaining balance, evilness helps humanity to appreciate the goodness in the world. Without ugliness, a person cannot enjoy beauty. Without misfortune, a person cannot enjoy fortune. And without evilness, a person cannot enjoy goodness. No one could enjoy goodness in the world, because there would be nothing to compare with it. Concerning religion, if there was no devil in the world to make humanity miserable, then it would not look forward to heaven. There would be no difference between the two, so humankind would not have to question its actions because there would not be any consequences such as heaven or hell. Imagine a world where everything is perfect, and there is no suffering. Natural laws are bent at the star of wrong to humanity. If a plane carrying passengers starts to plummet, gravity ceases and the plane floats down to landed estate like a feather. Or if a gun is shot at a person, the bullet turns into a marshmallow so it will not harm anyone. In that world there is no pain nor suffering, just existence. The heap do not have to adapt to their environment, because the environment adapts to them. I bring out this version of life frightening, because the people would take everything for granted.