What is (the) Good? – pt 1

This weekend has brought up some interesting discussions about the problem of evil. One of my dearest friends validly, I think, questioned the assumed connection in perfect being philosophy between the all powerful/all good god and its consequent “necessity” to act in all situations so as to avoid impunity. Of course this is where the criticism comes in and the existence of the christian god is denied due to the existence of senseless evil in the world. If the connection is invalid, the “problem” falls flat on its face.

My wife and a friend brought up another interesting example from the real world of “senseless evil.” Young boys sold into slavery at VERY early ages (sometimes 4 years old) to ship captains in Africa. The manual labor they do is inhumane for a child. Many times they never see their families again. Some die without the world ever knowing about it. Often the parents don’t know what’s really involved in their “sale.” Sometimes they do. In our discussion the notion of what I can only call Utilitarian Evil was offered as an explanation. Maybe God uses evil to show or teach me something and develop me spiritually. Maybe evil happens to me and I’m used for someone else’s development spiritually. Of course, their is an observable end in this. But what about the kid who dies on that slave boat and all the persons on board are heartless persons who aren’t impacted one way or another? And what about the other kids who become psychologically damaged and hardened/deadened themselves? I see no usefulness in this. And please don’t tell me that God gets “glory” from this sort of thing. If this is really believed, then Marx was right.

In the next few posts I will develop some potential answers and contemplations to this important question of “What is (the) Good?”