Evil as proof for God?
I just recently watched the movie: Devil. It is an interesting movie. Basically, at the end of the movie, the narrator said, "if the Devil exists, then it means God must exist too".
Before I move on, I will like to recall a particular incident sometime back regarding a conversation with one of my YRC friends. We were walking down from Bukit Panjang to Railway Mail for chill out on a Saturday late night (the last bus had left, that's how late it was). Along the way, I dun know it came to that but he commented that he believes in evil spirits because he has seen them working, but he has not seen God, so he doesn't believe in God.
Note the contrast?
What my friend is saying is that God does not necessarily need to exist for evil spirits to exist. In essence, good does not need to exist for evil to exist.
There was another encounter which I have read. It's an incident that Ravi Zacharias likes to talk about: a student who commented about immorality. I shall not go into too much details except that Ravi's answer correctly positioned the issue of good and evil in this world.
You see, when we talk about evil, we are implicitly assuming something, whether we like it or not. Lao Zi, the founder of philosophical Taoism, once mused that we wouldn't know what is soft if there is no hard stuff. We will not know what is short unless we know what is long. We will not know what is selfishness unless we know what is selflessness. Extrapolating the logic, when we talk about evil, we are assuming that we know what is right and what is good. But how do we know?
Evil can only exist in a world where we know clearly what is absolutely good, when we have a point of reference. So where is that point of reference? I wasn't that clear at that time, but my answer now to my friend would be that there cannot be evil spirits, if there is no point of reference from which I can know what is good! If evil cannot have been known if not for the existence of God from which all definitions of goodness are derived.
The point can be simplified as this, the moment we talk about evil and good, we assume that there is something in this that defines some sense of morality such that we intrinsically know that something is good or evil. We assume that there is a moral law in this world. Now, every law has a lawgiver... may I ask what kind of law giver will give the moral law from which we are able to distinguish good and evil?
That is why I find the conclusion of Devil super fascinating. The existence of Devil, seen and felt throughout the movie, proved the existence of God who, surprisingly, was never in the picture, not seen, not felt, not even heard. Fascinating conclusion for a movie like this.
Before I move on, I will like to recall a particular incident sometime back regarding a conversation with one of my YRC friends. We were walking down from Bukit Panjang to Railway Mail for chill out on a Saturday late night (the last bus had left, that's how late it was). Along the way, I dun know it came to that but he commented that he believes in evil spirits because he has seen them working, but he has not seen God, so he doesn't believe in God.
Note the contrast?
What my friend is saying is that God does not necessarily need to exist for evil spirits to exist. In essence, good does not need to exist for evil to exist.
There was another encounter which I have read. It's an incident that Ravi Zacharias likes to talk about: a student who commented about immorality. I shall not go into too much details except that Ravi's answer correctly positioned the issue of good and evil in this world.
You see, when we talk about evil, we are implicitly assuming something, whether we like it or not. Lao Zi, the founder of philosophical Taoism, once mused that we wouldn't know what is soft if there is no hard stuff. We will not know what is short unless we know what is long. We will not know what is selfishness unless we know what is selflessness. Extrapolating the logic, when we talk about evil, we are assuming that we know what is right and what is good. But how do we know?
Evil can only exist in a world where we know clearly what is absolutely good, when we have a point of reference. So where is that point of reference? I wasn't that clear at that time, but my answer now to my friend would be that there cannot be evil spirits, if there is no point of reference from which I can know what is good! If evil cannot have been known if not for the existence of God from which all definitions of goodness are derived.
The point can be simplified as this, the moment we talk about evil and good, we assume that there is something in this that defines some sense of morality such that we intrinsically know that something is good or evil. We assume that there is a moral law in this world. Now, every law has a lawgiver... may I ask what kind of law giver will give the moral law from which we are able to distinguish good and evil?
That is why I find the conclusion of Devil super fascinating. The existence of Devil, seen and felt throughout the movie, proved the existence of God who, surprisingly, was never in the picture, not seen, not felt, not even heard. Fascinating conclusion for a movie like this.
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