F
Flopfoot
Guest
One reason given why God permits natural evils like diseases and natural disasters to exist is so that greater good may come of it. If true, this must apply to every single kind of natural evil. There are no “accidents” in creation, since God is omniscient and can see them all, and he is also omnipotent and could create a slightly different universe if he didn’t want them to exist.
So what happens when humans solve one of the natural evils that God allowed to exist (for example, the eradication of smallpox)? Does that also take away the good that God intended to come of it? I don’t think many people would argue that humans are not supposed to try and solve problems. So one explanation would be that God intends us to solve these problems, and in solving we somehow get the good that he intended to come from them.
This might not make sense when you look from an individual level. How can it be good for smallpox to exist for someone who lived hundreds of years ago, but also be good for smallpox to not exist for us today? One thing to notice is that human culture and morality advances as time goes on, just as human science and technology advances. We don’t indulge in the same kind of immoral practices that people of the past did. Perhaps the two kinds of advancement are tied together. As we get closer to perfect morality we are simultaneously solving more kinds of natural evils. But it could be that natural evil is of fractal like complexity - the more we solve the more difficult the new problems (like cancer) seem to be. We will always have a “common enemy” to fight which gives us the motivation to unite together rather than fight each other.
So what happens when humans solve one of the natural evils that God allowed to exist (for example, the eradication of smallpox)? Does that also take away the good that God intended to come of it? I don’t think many people would argue that humans are not supposed to try and solve problems. So one explanation would be that God intends us to solve these problems, and in solving we somehow get the good that he intended to come from them.
This might not make sense when you look from an individual level. How can it be good for smallpox to exist for someone who lived hundreds of years ago, but also be good for smallpox to not exist for us today? One thing to notice is that human culture and morality advances as time goes on, just as human science and technology advances. We don’t indulge in the same kind of immoral practices that people of the past did. Perhaps the two kinds of advancement are tied together. As we get closer to perfect morality we are simultaneously solving more kinds of natural evils. But it could be that natural evil is of fractal like complexity - the more we solve the more difficult the new problems (like cancer) seem to be. We will always have a “common enemy” to fight which gives us the motivation to unite together rather than fight each other.
