Q&A: The Evil of Human Nature and God
The Evil of Human Nature and God
Question
Hello.
The Bible hints that God created us flawed: "the inclination of the human heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8), "for there is no person who does not sin" (I Kings 8; II Chronicles 6), "no living being will be justified before You" (Psalms 143), "for there is not a righteous person on earth who does good and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7). Freud sums this up in his work Civilization and Its Discontents: "Man is not a gentle creature who wants to be loved and who, at the most, can defend himself if he is attacked; rather, he is a creature among whose instinctual endowments there is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness. As a result, his neighbor is for him not only a potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts him to satisfy his aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity for work without compensation, to use him sexually without his consent, to seize his possessions, to humiliate him, to cause him pain, to torture and to kill him. Man is a wolf to man. In view of all the experience of life and of history, who will have the courage to dispute this assertion?"
A. Why did God create human nature this way? Was it so that He would have an excuse to harass him, abuse him, and destroy him again and again—as we see throughout the entire Bible? Whom should He complain to about the work of His own hands?
B. Why destroy rather than repair?
C. Did He really not think things through to the end when He created the world?
D. You claim that it is not God who causes evil, but man. If man is a creature of God and God created him this way, then what exactly are you claiming here?
E. Throughout the entire Bible we see God's cruelty and capriciousness—is that not sufficient proof for a believer? (Especially since for me even one "small" thing like death by burning that came by His command was enough to sever all connection with Him.)
Answer
The Holy One, blessed be He, created us with two inclinations and with the ability to cope with them. The decision whether to do evil or not is ours. If we had been created good (that is, only with a good inclination and without choice), there would be no point to our existence. We would be machines. It is impossible to create human beings with free choice and also ensure that they will do only good. That is a contradiction in terms.
Discussion on Answer
I can't understand the sentences you wrote. What is choice and what is nature? Are you a determinist? If so, then we have a disagreement. If you are not a determinist, then you agree that a person has choice; in that case, the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot know in advance what he will do. The choice is his.
Since there are consequences on the scale of suffering resulting from free choice, including the evil of human nature being what it is and not otherwise, and the world being more ready-made to encourage evil (after all, it's not for nothing that the righteous person suffers), it seems more logical to me that there is no creator who chose things this way, but rather that this is a result of nature. That was my intention. I have no decisive view on determinism or free choice, since it's a subject that involves a lot of knowledge and I lack it. But I tend more toward determinism. According to what you're saying, God does not know the future? Is everything unforeseen and permission granted? To conclude, I'll say that I can't testify about myself that I am someone who seeks truth, but I do notice that my movement is toward the truth—and I keep reading and reading and remain unconvinced by religion.
Fine. You see this as choice; it seems more logical to me that this is nature. Unless God is not all that wise and not aware of the implications and dimensions of the suffering He created. If you have better proofs, I'd be happy to hear. As for God's character according to the Bible, I don't know whether you've studied the entire Bible objectively—but if you have, and you attach the sharp questions I asked about Him, it's hard for me to believe you'd remain religious. There, by the way, for saying nonsense—destruction.