 Chapter 1
Why does Evil Rule?
OUR DILEMMA
In his book God’s Problem, Bart D. Ehrman starts his first chapter, “Suffering and Crisis of Faith,”12 with this important question: “If there is an all-powerful and loving God in this world, why is there so much excruciating pain and unspeakable suffering?” In other words, we can ask, Why does evil rule our world if our creator—God—is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, loving, benevolent, and compassionate God? Believers of all faiths and the nonbelievers alike—in fact, all of us—are caught in this bottleneck. No matter how we look at human plight, it reminds us of the same age-old question. Does God care? Is God dead? Questions such as these people from all walks of life have inquired for centuries and held God responsible for human misery. Is God responsible, or is it the result of our own choices? This is our dilemma.
However, before we go into this direction, it is befitting that I first make an important proclamation and affirmation that will serve as a foundation for my discussion.
AFFIRMATION
I state and affirm that our God is the God of original principle, whichincludes both spiritual law and the physical or material laws. The word principle originates from the Latin princeps, which means the very first in time, position, and authority.13 God is the creator first in time, position, and authority; inherent in God’s nature, the principle originates in God; hence, it precedes the creation and contains law and order, which is reflected in all His creation.14 Thus, the principle is divine. God maintains His own existence within the principle, and that God never violates His own principle. Because God is perfect and eternal,therefore, His principle is also perfect and eternal. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” (Ps. 19:7) We determine our moral and ethical standards through the principle, for God is the source of all values. I affirm these truths as the basis of my belief in God.
PROCLAMATION
When we study the Bible and the scriptures of all religions, we read statements such as, “I am who I am”15 (the Bible); “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God”16 (Judaism and Christianity); “Lord of the Worlds” (Islam);17 “Sole Supreme Being of eternal manifestation,Creator, Immanent Reality, without Fear, without Rancor, Timeless form,Un-incarnated, Self-existent”18 (Sikhism); “All things are made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me”19 (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints); “My shape is un-manifest,but I pervade the world . . . I am omnipresent as the storm wind, which resides in space. All beings exists in me, remember that.”20 (Hinduism); “I am Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (the Bible); “I am the father and mother of this universe, and its grandfather too; I am its entire support. I am the sum of all knowledge, the purifier, the syllable Om; I am the sacred scriptures, the Rik, Yajur, and Sama Vedas;21 and so on . . .”
This suggests that for some important reason, God repeatedly proclaimed His existence and lordship over the creation throughout the scriptures. If proclaiming Himself is important to God, then proclaiming God must be important to us also because we believe in Him.
Human beings exist in two dimensions—physical and spiritual. This view is not new by any means; history is our witness that people of all ages have aspired to know and understand the spiritual dimension of our existence. For this reason, religions have been the most important aspect of nearly all traditions throughout history. In universities today, however, students are taught evolution alone; in fact, other hypotheses are entirely excluded from the curriculum. In this way, young minds are deprived the opportunity even to investigate the idea of a transcendent creator in order to balance their outlook. The theory of evolution since its inception, although it has never been able to surface above its hypothesis status, has exerted such a strong influence that it has turned our culture around. As George Wald puts it, “We are products of editing, rather than of uthorship.”22 Indeed, the theory of evolution appears to be altering the proven, time-honored beliefs by tailing off the authorship of God,the reator.Both atheists and evolutionists have generated great influence in our times but never seem to be 100 percent convinced of their own ideas, for they continue to struggle endlessly to prove themselves.
It seems so ironic; an atheist watches his shadow on the ground and knows there is light above that caused it,altogether missing a causal being behind the light. Is a shadow possible without a substance, or a substance without an origin? Can shadow be projected without light, or can light proceed without a source? If a shadow were possible without light, and substance without an origin, we would surely not exist to know the difference. In Albert Einstein’s own words, “Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem—in my opinion—to characterize our age.”23 Therefore, believing strongly in our hearts, it is for the strengthening of our faith and for the benefit of our young that we should proclaim the existence of God over and over again.
To proclaim God, however, we need a more tangible explanation; and what could be a better source than science itself, the very source through which they deny the existence of God.
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