Good and Evil.

Today I received and email with a number of optical illusions in it. The following one had a comment stating that it was a graphical representation that good cannot exist without evil.



If you look carefully you can see that the word "Good" appears in black lettering. However inside this word there are white letters that spell the word "evil".




The concept, that has been phrased in many ways, simply claims that there is a necessary co-existence of good and evil. As widespread as this belief is I think that it is fallacious.
I think we can all agree that good and evil are polar opposites. That is, they are at either ends of the scale to each other. There can be no good in evil and there can be no evil in good. This is by definition. In order to ascertain whether or not a thing or action is good or evil, a set of standards must be agreed upon. This morality then is the basis of discernment of the goodness, or badness of something.

Without this universal moral foundation, any talk of good or evil is futile as the discussion will only end up in subjective relativism.
So once we have established a set of rules, or standards by which everyone can agree on, we recognise that there is both good and evil in the world. We could hypothesise what the world would be like without one or the other, but ultimately our reality is that both exist, at least as concepts based on our definition of morality.

However for the sake of the argument let us assume that the world, and universe is without good. Is this a plausible scenario? If the universe was without good then everything would be evil. Since there is a lack of comparable opposites, or alternative concepts to evil, then there could be no moral framework. This is because the moral framework requires a discernment between good and evil. Since there is no good, there can be no morality. Since there is no morality, everything is morally neutral. Therefore what you might call evil, would in fact not be evil, it would just be. Without a conception of good or evil, then nothing is either good nor evil, it simply is. Therefore the initial assertion that everything was evil would be false, because evil cannot exist if there is no such thing as morality. Clearly from this reasoning, evil cannot possibly exist without good. From another perspective, one might say that all things that are evil are really just perversions of distortions of things that were originally good.
For example evil sexual acts are just perversions of the pure and good sexual act that occurs between a man and a woman that act purely with love in unison. Murder is a distorted expression of mans good nature of ruling over the lower forms on the earth. When it is practiced with selfless concern the outcome is good. When it is exercised with selfish ambition the outcome is evil. So if evil is a distorted version of what is good, then if good does not exist, then it follows that evil also cannot exist. For if the object you wish to distort does not exist, then you are left with nothing to distort, so no corruption can take place. Therefore evil cannot exist without good.

But is the converse also true. Initially it would seem so. However if we attempt to conceive of a world without evil, somehow it seems not only plausible, but maybe remotely possible. In fact it is the dream of mankind to attain some sort of perfection (goodness) in life with everything he does. The concepts of enlightenment, Nirvana, Heaven etc are evidence of this. So from mankind's point of view is would seem plausible that good can exist without evil, and much of our energy in life is expended in attempts to make this happen.
Assuming there is no evil in the world, then we propose that everything is good. Next you might say that if there is no evil then there is no morality due to the lack of contrast, and so without morality there can be no good, only neutral, inert realities.

Here I will disagree on the following basis. If there is a God, and this God created the universe, and this God is purely good, then everything that he creates is also good. If he had decided that he would not allow anything to exist in the universe except goodness then that would be the ultimate truth. Since goodness is a thing of itself, and not a distortion or adjustment of something other than good, we can conclude that good does not depend on the existence of evil. Someone might argue that this depends on God being completely and perfectly good. Based on their observations, the world does not fit the description of being entirely good, therefore God cannot be wholly good. But this puts the horse before the cart. I assert that since God is the highest being, then whatever he creates, or does, or is, by definition is good. If for instance God contradicted himself, purposely made beings to fight each other, and was capricious in his dealings with those creatures, then the following would be true: Contradiction, war, and unpredictable behaviour would be purely good. In behaving with these characteristics, we would in fact be emulating the God that created us and in effect be paying homage to and worship God. In fact, in a universe where evil is prevented by God, we would have no free will. We would by natuer be compelled to be good all the time because the instant that we were about to do otherwise, God would stop us in order to maintain perfect goodness in the universe. We would be merely puppets of God. The freewill and ability to rebel creates the situation where evil can exist.
If there is no God then concepts of good and evil are ultimately futile and reduce to sheer pragmatism based on the prevailing circumstances of the time. If this be the case then concepts of good and evil would be just that, concepts that had no real meaning in reality except to allow one group to manipulate another.
To accept God, even in the most abstract way is to affirm that goodness exists. And this goodness is not dependant on evil, rather evil is dependant on good, for without it evil cannot exist and has no meaning. If there were no such thing as evil, then the concept would be foreign to us (even though God could conceive of such a thing) and we would know everything as being good.


Ultimately God created Lucifer (or satan) who rebelled and set himself up in opposition to God and in so doing set himself in opposition to everything that God stood for. Satan then could only mangle, distort and destroy that which God had created, since he could not create anything himself. In order to cease worshipping God through being good, he had to do, and be the opposite, which by definition is evil. To conceive of a purely evil world without good, is tantamount to saying that Satan could exist without God. Since Satan is a created being, his existence is conditionally dependant upon Gods existence. The opposite cannot be true, simply because there was a time when Satan did not exist, though God did.

Evil cannot exist without good, but the existence of good does not depend on the existence of evil.

Did God stuff up?

Oscar Wilde obviously thinks so.
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability." - Oscar Wilde

I think most people would know what Oscar was talking about when he said this. It is no mystery that man can be a wicked debased creature. That his capacity for cruelty, corruption and malice are second to none. No thing in creation so perverts itself as comprehensively as man. it seems that there is no place or action too disgusting for some person on earth to wallow in.
However that is not the sum total of man. Man also has the exceptional ability to display unmitigated selflessness. To express love to the unlovable, compassion to the underpriveleged, grace to the ungraceful. Man, more than any other thing in creation has the capacity for love, respect, honour, passion, and just plain goodness. Mark Twain wrote “God has put something noble and good into every heart His hand created.”

So here we have this dichotomy of character that at different times manifests itself to varying degrees in all of us. The question some people ask is "Why did God create us with the ability to be at once so noble and yet so base?". However I think the real question is "How could God have created us with freedom, yet at the same time forced us to always be good and perfect". In fact the two concepts are mutually exclusive, because as soon as you inhibit bad behaviour you are at the same time inhibiting freedom. The more freedom you give, the more chance there is to misuse that freedom for evil purposes. Why do people choose bad behaviour? The same reason they reject Gods ways. Man has an innate desire for complete autonomy and God gets in the way of that selfish desire. The result is that God allows us to be consumed by our own evil desires because he loved us enough to let us choose. But make no mistake: we choose our own behaviours and our own destiny. How about we stop blaming God for what is clearly our fault.

Oscar Wilde was most certainly being facetious, and probably meant something like "clearly there is no God, for who would create such a flawed being, and if he did so then he would certainly not be a perfect God, therefore God is either fake or flawed, and in either case worshipping him is not justified". But I believe that mans pervertedness is just proof of mans pervertedness and evidence that God will not interrupt us in our quest for freedom and autonomy. Yet still he stands by the side of the road offering safety and redemption from our own foolishness. God created us with the ability to cause lots of problems, yet in his love he gave us to perfect solution for all of them.

The difference between Oscar Wilde and myself is that while he states that God made us that way because of His lack of abilities, I believe he made us with freedom to choose either way, out of His divine wisdom.

Freedom of speech?

Mark Twain wrote "It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."

Perhaps it applied when he penned those words, but I doubt whether such a sentiment could be applied to todays world. It seems that everywhere you go there is someone spouting their opinions and their right to express them. Anyone it seems is allowed to not only have their opinions, but also express them in any way they choose as long as it is according to the golden rule.
Freedom of speech is interpreted today as being able to say whatever you want. In fact it has been extended to cover other ways in which to express ones thoughts and beliefs so that it could be rephrased as the freedom of action. Freedom of conscience has been interpreted as the freedom to choose what is right or wrong in your own mind to the point that we now have a million different ways in which to frame our morality, hence the marginalisation of absolute truth. How can be curb what basically constitutes a move towards complete anarchy?

The interesting part of Twains phrase is the beginning where he states that it is by the goodness of God that we have these three things. Today however it seems the third is sadly lacking. Prudence is something that is very rare in todays society. In fact I suspect that most people find the word prudence to have negative connotations, and certainly is not a trait that many people aspire to have and exhibit.

The natural consequence of kicking God out of the 21st Century is that we will suffer the foolishness of our actions. Wisdom is left in the wake of the death of God and prudence along with it. It seems there is a lunatic on every street corner proclaiming their version of life and personal rights and few people exercising restraint.
You may speak about and be an activist for any cause it seems except for the one that champions the one true God of heaven and earth. If that be the case then you will be vilified for breaching the one exception to the rule of freedom of speech, and that is "God doesn't belong in public dialogue"

I believe however that removing God from the public dialogue will prove to be the worst thing that man has done this century.

Getting Closer to God for Youth

I think for young people one of the coolest things to do today, is to constantly be in contact with friends.

Who has a mobile phone?
Do you call your friends very often? (assuming you have credit)
Do you send many SMS messages?
What about email. Who has their own email account? Who has more than one?
Who has MSN Messenger or Myspace or Bebo or some Blog site?
Who has met someone new on the internet?
Did you then get to meet them in real life?
Were they exactly the sort of person you thought they were, and the sort of person they told you they were?
Can you get to know someone from their blog site?

Assuming they are telling the truth about themselves I think you can learn a lot about a person from their blog site. They can tell you the sort of things they like, and the sort of things they don't like. They can tell you their opinions about a lot of topics and even tell you real life stories about their lives.

Some people put poetry on their blog site, or tell you about things that have happened in their lives. They might even write some philosophical things about what they believe in. The more you read an honest persons blog site, the more you get to know about them.
Well, did you know that God has his own blog site. Its called the bible. In the bible God has written stories about what He has done and the relationship He has with His people. He tells us all about what he likes and what he doesn't like, and he gives us the best answers to struggles in our lives. The more we read Gods blog site – His bible, the closer we get to knowing God.

What else can you do on a blog site? Well you can write comments about what you think. You can add your thoughts, agree with points in the blog or ask some questions about it.
You might think that you can't do that with Gods blog, but the truth is that you can. God told us that we can pray to him. In that way we can post comments to God, agreeing with Him, thanking Him for his blog, and even ask questions about it.
And the amazing thing is that God will respond to our comments and in His way even reply to our questions by
making us aware of something we hadn't noticed before or
acting in our lives in obvious ways, or
even making a change in our hearts.

And there are lots of ways you can pray to God.

I have broken it down to 3 main forms of prayer:
SMS prayer
You can send Him a spiritual SMS. This is the sort of prayer that you can do at any time no matter where you are. You could be at school, or on the bus, or at dancing class, or soccer training, or even washing the dishes at home. This sort of prayer only takes a few seconds and hardly takes any effort.

Here are some examples:
"hey God, cool 2 have U in my lyf. thanks 4 watchin ova me. luv ya heaps xoxo"
"thanks Jesus for makin my day so gr8. cant w8 to get into ur word tonite seeya"
"father God. im havin a rough day 2day. pleez help me 2 b patient n loving. Talk l8r"

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus


Personal Message Prayer (or comment prayer)
Then I think there is the type of prayer that is more like a comment or personal message on a MySpace site.
"Hi God, I was reading about how you want me to be wise in my decisions. I think that is a good idea. Can you please help me to know what to do and say today so that I can be wise and bring glory to you. Thanks heaps that you love me so much and that you are teaching me through your word. You rock God."

Email Prayer
Then there is the sort of prayer that is more like a well thought out email. It might go like this:

"Dear Father God
You are all powerful, and I just want to give you the glory for everything beautiful that you are and that you have done. You created the heavens and the earth and made them so good. You are so loving that you are merciful to everyone who wants to know you. You are full of wisdom, and only you have perfect truth. You never fail to keep your word and I adore you for being so faithful and reliable.

I confess that I have stuffed some things up today Lord. I was mean to that unpopular kid at school and I am sorry. Help me to be nicer to them and not be so concerned about what my friends think. I am sorry for getting angry with my parents too. Please forgive me and make me a better person.

Thank you Lord that you were willing to sacrifice Jesus to take the punishment for my sins. Thank you that you have forgiven me by your grace and love, and thank you for being patient with me and making a change in my heart. Thank you that you care about even the silliest things in my life. Help me to be worthy of Your name.

Lord I pray that you would help me to be patient and kind to my family and friends. I pray especially now for Uncle George who is sick with cancer. I ask that you would heal him and remove the cancer from his body. I pray also for my friends that don't know you. Please show yourself to them in a way that has meaning for them so that they can also come to know you and the joy that they can have in your salvation. . I pray that you would watch over our family and keep us all safe from harm and close to you.
In Jesus name,
Amen."

Colossions 4:2 (NIV)
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.


So is it clear that if we want to get closer to God we need to do some things. We need to actually make an effort to have communication with Him.

So now we know how to get closer to God. We just need to keep in communication with Him by reading the Bible daily and praying daily. When we do he reveals things to us and helps us to understand more about Him.
When you spend time with God you actually develop a deeper love for Him, and strangely you find yourself happier and more fulfilled in life.

Of all the things in life that you will try out to make you happier (popularity, clothes, cars, bikes, money, being famous, sexual gratification, drinking alcohol and getting drunk or trying out drugs), nothing will make you happier than getting to know the God that created you and loves you more than anyone ever will.

God rewards people who put effort into getting to know Him. He wants to reveal to us many things, but unless we decide to make the effort to get close to Him, he will just let us go on our way.

He will give us what we want.

If we want to avoid God then he will wait patiently nearby. He will let us go our own way and even let us wreck our own lives if we choose to reject Him.

If we want to know God more then he will come to us in the secret place where we approach Him. In our bedrooms, or a bushwalk, or in fact any moment in our life when we stop and focus on Him with the desire to get closer to Him.


What is the biggest problem that we face in relationships with our friends?
What causes friction and arguments between friends?

Selfishness (choosing your on desires over the other person)
Bad or false communication (gossip or lies about a person can destroy relationships)
Unfaithfulness (giving attention to someone or some thing else that is not worthy)

Selfishness – Life is a struggle between the choice or doing what you WANT to do and what you OUGHT to do. You see the problems arises when they are not the same thing. When the thing that you want to do is the same as what you ought to do (or what you know is a good thing to do) then life is sweet and everyone is happy. BUT when what you WANT to do is different to what you know you SHOULD do, then you will have to face an internal conflict. You will have to actually fight against yourself. Because whether you are aware of it or not, you have a built in nature that is selfish and wants to please itself. Selfishness when you are with your friends will cause them to hate you, because they will see that all you do, is think about yourself. And God is the same. When you ignore God and do what you know he would be unhappy about, you are breaking down the closeness you have and destroying your relationship with Him. When we are feeling selfish we need to remember that nobody likes a selfish person, least of all God, who has the most right to be offended by this selfishness, and we need to make a conscious effort to think of other people first, and especially God first above everyone and everything else.

Phillipians 2:1-4
If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor:
Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top.
Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand


2. Gossip – Have you even had someone say a lie about you to other people. Very quickly there are all sorts of problems that occur. People will think badly about you and perhaps think that you are horrible or ugly or a slut. But when those rumours are lies it can make you feel very bad. It can very quickly wreck your friendships, especially when your friends believe the lies.
Well it is the same with God. People will tell you lies about God all the time. If you believe the lies then your relationship with God will be wrecked. We need to always keep in touch with the truth about God so that we know when people are lying about Him. The easiest way to deal with this is to keep reading the bible and making sure we know the truth well enough so that we recognise lies when we hear them.

Proverbs 16:28
Troublemakers start fights; gossips break up friendships.

Proverbs 18:8
Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you really want junk like that in your belly?


3. Unfaithfulness – If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend then you will understand this, but if you don’t, imagine you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Now imagine that your boyfriend or girlfriend kisses someone else. How would you feel?
This sort of thing usually wrecks a relationship very quickly. Now if a kiss can be so damaging, then how much more damaging would it be if your boyfriend or girlfriend had sex with someone else. I know that sounds extreme but this is how God feels when we choose to ignore Him and seek pleasures with other things and other people. God talks all the time in the bible about how He is hurt by the unfaithfulness of His people. And he talks about it as if His people were prostitutes who would sell themselves for pleasure instead of staying loyal to God. Whenever we choose something else over God, this is what we are doing. We need to choose that we are going to be faithful to God and resist the temptations that will eventually destroy us.

Hosea 1:2
The first time God spoke to Hosea he said: "Find a whore and marry her. Make this whore the mother of your children. And here's why: This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God."

Colossians 3:5-8
And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger.


How do we do this?
How do we not be selfish, avoid damaging gossip and remain faithful to God?
By reading the bible daily. By praying daily.

I have never met a person who reads their bible and prays daily that is unhappy.
If you want a simple formula for lifelong happiness and fulfilment and a life more exciting and enjoyable than anything else anyone can offer then follow this formula:

(Bible + Prayer) x EveryDay = The Best Life you can have.

1Timothy 4-5
Everything God created is good, and to be received with thanks. Nothing is to be sneered at and thrown out. God's Word and our prayers make every item in creation holy.

James 4:7-10
7-10So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.





*References from the "The Message" version of the Bible.