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From: rf@wu1.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Good and evil
Message-ID: <224@wu1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Jan-84 20:24:09 EST
Article-I.D.: wu1.224
Posted: Tue Jan  3 20:24:09 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Jan-84 01:27:05 EST
References: <447@ihuxq.UUCP>, <448@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: Western Union Telegraph, Mahwah, NJ
Lines: 35

A nit first: the belief in free will is orthodox *Catholic*, not
orthodox Christian!  

Now for the the meat of the matter: why is the world such a
harsh place?  Please note: these are not answers I necessarily
like.

A Calvinist answer: to strengthen the faithful.  If people are
to become morally strong and yet independent of their creator,
they must live in a place where they can learn moral strength.
Beings with free will could not become morally strong in a
gentle world.  The world must be dangerous and even a bit harsh,
or it is useless.

A pagan answer (I think it's that old, anyway): the world wasn't
made only for man.  Our distress over the world's harshness may
be analogous to the rabbit's complaint over coyotes; insigni-
ficant in the scheme of things.

Another pagan answer: the material world is fundamentally evil.
All that is good is spirit.  Gnostic (Christian heresy) variant:
the world was created by the devil when god wasn't looking.
Another variant of this is found in Judaic Kabalistic mysticism:
god created the world by withdrawing himself from part of it.
The world is what rushed in to fill the void.

A spiritualist answer: the world was created by imperfect
spirits newly cast out of the godhead; ignorant and innocent as
babes.  By creating the world and incarnating themselves within
it they shall return to the godhead.  When first incarnate, most
spirits prefer learning the hard way--therefore the harshness of
the world.  When old, wise, and ready to leave the world, they've
learned better ways--therefore the joys of the world.

				Randolph Fritz