From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Subject: Existence of Concepts (was Poverty)
Organization: Glassboro State College
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 21:06:08 GMT


Lonnie Schubert replied to my earlier article, but the reply seems to be lost
in confused sentences.  These topics are easy to scramble without careful
attention to every implication of the words, and a realisation that figures
of speech cannot be analysed exactly.  For example:

> I believe God was acknowledging the existance of evil by saying that He
> allowed its existance, and thus by default only (being the only possible
> responsible party) "created" it, and the only reason He has held back His
> absolute holiness and goodness from destroying evil, is because that would
> have destroyed so many of his beloved human creations who were (and are)
> clinging to that evil and rejecting God.

I think this is right, but because of the way it is stated it is wrong if read
literally.  If I was going to write a literally-exact version of the ideas in
this paragraph, it would come out like this (_underscores_ indicate the
changes):

  I believe that God was acknowledging _that evil actions are committed_, and
  that he _allows people to do evil_.  He has not destroyed _the people who
  do evil things_ because so many of his beloved human creatures _do evil
  instead of obeying God_.

We talk about `clinging to evil', but that does not mean that evil is a
kind of telephone-pole-shaped object you can cling to.  Evil _does_ exist, but
NOT as a physical object.  The best way I know of to keep one's writing clear
on this is to use evil _only_ as an adjective.  Try it, you might find it
helpful.

People exist, and rocks exist; if I throw a rock in the lake to make ripples,
we might say that was good.  If I throw a rock at you, that would be evil.
But that does not mean that `good' and `evil' exist in the same way that the
people and rocks do.  Evil is a concept, it does not have a physical
existence.

In some ways, this is isomorphic to the concept `round' -- if I take a ball
and show it to you, we would both agree that it is round.  But that does not
mean that `round' exists in the same way that you & I and the ball do.  Round
is a concept, it does not have a physical existence.

I deny that evil is self-existent -- if there were no sentient beings around,
there would be no evil.  Evil can only exist if some self-aware creature does
something intentionally harmful.  If there were only rocks, and no people,
could anything evil happen?  How would you know?


Literally speaking, God does not "allow evil to exist" -- God "allows people
to do evil".  God does not "allow round to exist" -- God "allows round objects
to exist".  The reason I think God did not inspire the Biblical writers to
literal exactness is that literal exactness takes a lot of words and doesn't
help to live as you should.  Most people know when they've sinned regardless
of whether they ever think about sin as an object or an abstract concept.

Literal exactness is very hard to achieve in discussions of abstract concepts,
doesn't help much, and is usually not necessary.  We can use figures of speech
to discuss morality, salvation, the Gospels, and many other things, without
any problems at all.  The problems start when we try to read statements about
evil (like the one from Isaiah) literally.

The two things I have noticed most often when we start to do literal things
with those passages are these:

 a) people start saying absurd things because they are literally reading
    figures of speech,
&
 b) people start fighting over worthless details.  Everybody knows what it is
    to do something immoral; we all know that we are, in some way or another,
    evil.  Arguing about which philosophy is right, instead of focusing on the
    message of the Gospel, is just a waste of time.


Darren F Provine / kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu
"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know
 they produce quarrels." -- 2 Timothy 2:23
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