After wading into the morass of contemporary evil, it’s a good idea to step back a bit and reach into the philosophical tradition to see what intellectual resources it has to offer us in contending with a very difficult historical moment. In Western thought, this means confronting the classic “problem of evil,” which begins with a theistic premise: if God exists, and God is well intentioned, all powerful, and all knowing, then how can “evil” (let’s say, extreme, seemingly unwarranted suffering) exist? Why doesn’t God do something about it? Is he not so well intentioned, not so interested, limited in his reach, or at times ignorant about what’s going on? None of those options seem plausible for a mainstream adherent of Western monotheism. But something has to give: “evil,” God’s qualities, or maybe even (some would argue) God’s existence itself.
To get the ball rolling on this front, let me offer two quotations that have done the rounds in philosophy of religion circles, both (coincidentally) from 19th century French literary types. First, “The greatest trick that the devil ever played was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” This is Baudelaire, and many will recognize this statement from the fabulous film, The Usual Suspects. When we inspect traditional attempts to account for evil in the world, what we often find is the suggestion that what we think is evil really isn’t; in fact, evil doesn’t really exist. Perhaps this is an even greater evil, the greatest trick that evil can play, because it leads us to suggest that terrible occurrences (genocide, tsunami, abuse, etc.) are actually part of some greater plan…
The other quotation comes from Stendhal. In the face of all the suffering in the world, “God’s only excuse is that he doesn’t exist.” Kind of speaks for itself…
