No matter someone’s belief or lack of belief in God, everyone has to answer for the existence of evil in the world.
In our discussion of evil it is important to realize every worldview, not just Christianity, must explain evil. Christians are often on the defense with regards to this objection, yet the tables can be turned on the atheist, with his naturalistic worldview in tow. Given naturalism, what is evil and how does the atheist account for it?
British philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell once commented, “No one can believe in a good God if they’ve sat at the bedside of a dying child.” Now, I agree that sitting beside a dying child is a heart-wrenching situation not to be treated simplistically or in a cavalier manner. Providing pat answers and quoting Romans 8:28 over and over will not suffice. But what of Russell’s response? What can the atheist say to the dying child?
- “In the grand scheme of the universe your suffering is utterly meaningless—life and all that comes with it has no transcendent meaning or value.”
- “Your suffering is completely pointless since there is no purpose to any of this anyway.”
- “Fortunately, you will soon die and return to dust.”
- “Take heart, you will soon pop out of existence forever and your suffering will be over.”
- “Stuff happens.”
- “Bummer.”
Or let’s try the actual words of Russell:
- “Brief and powerless is Man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure dooms falls pitiless and dark.”
- “Blind to good and evil...omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way.”
- “...no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave...”
- “...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system...”
- “Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins...”
Hmmm...comforting. Russell certainly makes clear for us the absurdity of life without God.
Make no mistake, the problem of evil is not just a problem for Christians—it is a problem for all because evil is fundamental to our human experience. If any worldview is to be considered plausible it must provide us with the intellectual and existential resources to deal with this issue.