INTRODUCTION
Good and evil are often qualities attributed to objects, actions, and ideas. Generally, what is good is thought to be beneficial and what is evil is thought to be harmful, Many philosophers and scholars have contributed immensely on the debate regarding “Good” and “Evil”, solutions on problems of evil proposed, but still more, defining good and evil remains a central question of ethics.
As Christian theology began to emerge in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the problem of evil became particularly challenging because Christianity was committed to the existence of an all-powerful, benevolent God but at the same time acknowledged the existence of evil. At the end of the 4th century St. Augustine formulated the solution that has the greatest influence on subsequent Christian thinkers. As a young man, Augustine had accepted the dualistic theology of Manichaeism. The later influence of Neoplatonism prepared him for his conversion to Christianity and his theological reconciliation of the Christian belief in a benevolent God, the creator of everything that exists, with the pervasive presence of evil in the world. According to Augustine, evil has not been created by God, whose creation is entirely good.
TOWARDS A DEFINATION:
Understanding the term Evil and Good is paramount in a study as this.
GOOD: The New 8th Edition Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (International Student’s Edition) sees good as …high quality or an acceptable standard, that which is pleasant that you enjoy or want. e.t.c.
Evil While it (NOALD) sees evil as that which is morally bad and cruel, extremely unpleasant, a force that causes bad things to happened. e.t.c.
Evil is again seen in Encyclopedia Britannica as that which is morally bad or wrong, or that which causes harm, pain, or misery.
Permit me present you with my theological ‘kind’ definition of good and evil. As I theologian that I am not, will see good as God and evil as the absence of God.
GOOD AND EVIL
Many times we mistake good and evil as two distinct entities that exist independently of each other and as created things especially in our study of the terms. Some scholars hold that evil do not exist while others see it as exiting, some see it as a product of the devil while others will say God made evil for a purpose. But others like St. Augustine will say God did not create evil, this his so held as the book of Genesis will forever hold that “everything that God created is good. However, it is this first divinely inspired book’s claim that will cause the problem of evil. This is so because the problem of evil arises if it is accepted that evil exists in a universe created and governed by a supreme being (God) who is both good and omnipotent (all powerful).
The Greek philosopher Epicurus (Epicureanism), in addressing the problem of evil holds that it is either God can prevent evil and chooses not to (and therefore is not good) or chooses to prevent it and cannot (and therefore is not all-powerful)
We can argue all the length but there is one fact we cannot dispute which is that good and evil exist in the world, for instance we cannot dispute the fact that the Lion and the sheep will not see face to face, to the sheep, the lion is an evil creature. Snake and man cannot walk side by side for to the snake man is evil and to man the snake is evil. Back to the human world, some nations, races e.t.c. cannot meet and part in smiles for both see each other as evil. Some see it as a taboo for their daughters to marry the others because of the evil in the former vice-versa. Now, holding these facts will lead us to questioning the root of Good and evil.
But there is yet another fact, that God is the Creator of everything, and everything God created is good, but let us reverse back to the first established fact of the existence of evil above. If God created everything, and everything God created is good yet there exist evil, the question here will be; who created Evil?
Let us suppose like St. Augustine that indeed God did not create evil, for everything God created is indeed good. Let us here revisit my definition of good and evil above however with some modification though without distorting facts, above I defined good as God and Evil as the absence of God. The modification here is that we will define evil by replacing “God” as in the above definition with “good” which will give us the definition of evil as the absence of good, that is, Evil is the privation of good, as darkness is the absence of light. While good is the trueness of a thing or the fulfillment of the purpose of being, that is fulfilling the purpose for which a thing is created. For instance;
A gun is good to it owner when it kills his oppressor or better still target, it becomes evil when in the process of shooting it harms it owner.
A car is good to it’s owner but evil when through it, it’s owner dies.
A dog is good so long as it performs the purpose of protecting and alerting it’s owner in times of danger, it becomes evil when it harms it’s owner or destroys his/her belonging.
This then will mean that, while good is the natural purpose of creation evil is the failure to attain the purpose of creation. This will lead us to the next problem which is to establish if God who created everything with a purpose will turn a hindrance to that goal. Many would already have answered it as impossible but that answer will also pose another question: If not God then who?
As we live in this world, we struggle to make it in life and for a perfect life, we do everything within our power to achieve the goals we set for ourselves, in that struggle there comes a time we must cross other’s boundaries if we must achieve our goals, then we see the owners of such a boundary we must cross into as the enemy of our goal who we must overcome in whatever way there by bringing in the issue of rivalry.
Let us take the risk of bringing God’s purpose for creation and it achievements to the level of man’s struggle to make ends meet. Hence the question, is there an enemy that God must cross into his boundary for the purposes of creation to be achieved? But we have agreed above that God created everything which suggests he owns everything, there by saying there are no boundaries when dealing with God and the created things. If that is the case, but among the created things there is the human who is created above everything else, in him is freedom to do everything, he wills, possibly such a creature giving his freedom and other privileges when backed with pride stand the chance of comparing himself with God, if so, then where God uses his power over man it is possible that such a proud fellow could see God as an enemy to his success. Again the question, has God and enemy?
This lead us into the parable of the weeds Mathew’s gospel 13:24-30, 36-43 where the master (God) is said to have planted (Creation) good seeds (the created things) in the field (world) and his servants (Angels) visiting the field beheld bad weeds (evil) … and God said ‘the Evil one has done this…” who will God refer to as the evil one, is it Man or Satan. Let us presume here it is Satan since he is the highest of all that dare to equal God. But if that be the case what of the second fact established above which says all God created is good. Does it not mean that even Satan himself is a creature of God who created all things and created them good? This then will lead us to the issue of free-will.
THE FREE-WILL
Man as we know is created with free-will, though God has a purpose for all creatures, he subject his creation on earth to man and as if that is not enough he granted man a free-will. By free-will we mean man’s power or ability of using the mind to choose a course of action or make a decision without being subject to restraints imposed by antecedent causes, by necessity, or by divine predetermination.
A completely freewill act is itself a cause and not an effect. The question of human beings’ ability to determine their actions is important in philosophy, particularly in metaphysics and ethics, and in theology. Generally, the extreme doctrine in which freedom of the will is affirmed is termed libertarianism; its opposite, determinism, is the doctrine that human action is not willed freely, but is rather the result of such influences as passions, desires, physical conditions, and external circumstances beyond the control of the individual. Giving the fact of the free-will of man, it is possible for a created good to diminish in goodness, to become corrupted, and evil. He becomes corrupt as a result of abuse of the free-will. Evil crept in when creatures endowed with free will (angels, such lesser spirits as demons, and human beings) turn away from higher or more complete goods and choose lesser, partial ones. This means possibly evil originates from the human world not from creation and if evil originates from the human world, it follows that human’s has the power to destroy evil.
Evil did not begin with the fall of Adam, we trace the origin of evil back to the fall of Lucifer which a close look at will proof such a fall as a product of pride, we can therefore say, evil originate from pride, pride the mother of all evil distort God’s plan and brings condemnation on man. In the scripture we read that the wages of sin is death which suggest that without sin there is no death. It is worth while for Bishop Bagobiri to say “if there is any body among us who have never sinned, he shall not die.” My Lord’s claim is supported by the churches teaching on the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because she was sinless, she never experienced death. With that we can say without fear of contradiction that God created good and man created evil.
WHAT THEN IS THE WAY OUT
We have established that evil is a product of the human world and we are here today gathered resolve to over come evil with good as the theme of this convention suggests. On the way out we must channel the same strength we used in committing evil to doing God. Let us borrow a leave from paul, in his address to the people of Jerusalem in the Acts of Apostles 22:3-16 as Saul of Tarsus defined his root and his early life, but as Paul, he show how he embarked on a mission to Damascus to bring Christians in chains to Jerusalem for judgment and massacre when he hit the Rock which brought Paul to a rebirth where he redirected same energy in preaching the gospel. At his early life it was a matter of misconception a reason why immediately he saw the light he implore equal zeal and commitment. So like Paul our theme today suggest that we have hit the Rock and have seen a light, we must redirect the same strength we use in committing evil into doing good, we must replace hate with love, malice with forgiveness, greed with charity, idleness with hardwork and dedication and more importantly pride with humility but more. By way of summary we must replace the devil in us with God. We are called here to be an example for the world. It is a known fact that even our faith is challenged by evil of the society, however, amidst all this challenges, we are called to live the faith and living the faith amidst the evil of the society on those living such a faith will entail correcting such evil with good. Hence the mega question: How can we do good when all around us is bad? How can we love when the whole community is filled with hate. The simple answer to such questions is; ‘applied faith (faith lived or living the faith)’ and this is the summary of overcoming evil with good. We must not compromise our faith because of challenges we are facing, if it is the nature of evil to destroy, it is our nature to build so let evil not stop us from achieving our nature simply because she (evil) carry out her nature, as evil destroys ours is to built tirelessly.
CONCLUSION
We attempt a look at evil’s origin which we conclude it is in the abuse of free-will a privilege given the human race, however recognizing such a freedom as coming with chains since it is a freedom with responsibility we venture to look at the possibility of overcoming evil which we suggest given it origin from the human world it the solution lays on the human world which is in recognizing it as evil and against nature, we seek to use the fullness of nature in itself who is God to solve it which is using good. With this in mind Let Us Pray: Lord shine fort your light on us gathered here today that we may redirect the strength so far abused and replace our misplaced identities with You and for You that through us others too may find meaning in life. Turn us into instruments of radical conversion which our generation needs now, check our evil desires, silence our evil tendencies that at the dawn of your coming we may with joy awaken to meet you after a life well spend. This we ask through your son Jesus Christ who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
