From here, Ravi addresses the claim that “the presence of evil equates to the extinction of God,” demonstrating how illogical this claim is. In this section he tells a really great story that clearly shows the fallacy of those who claim moral superiority over God. Since this was such a good story, let me let Ravi tell it:
Some years ago, I was on a radio talk show at Ohio State University, answering questions…. We were talking about some theme related to the origin of the universe when a woman called in quite angry and attacked us with a volley of words. Her basic charge was that all this discussion was nothing more than a smokescreen for reversing Roe v. Wade and taking away the right to abortion from women. The outburst was odd since that was not even the topic of discussion. She continued to repeat the line, “It’s my moral right to do what I choose with my body.” Finally, I said, “All right, ma’am, since you brought it up, I’d like to ask you a question. Can you explain to me why if a plane were to crash and some die while others live, that a skeptic calls in and questions God’s moral nature if he at his whim chooses some to live and others to die; yet when it is your choice to allow a child within you to live or die, it is your moral right to make that determination? Does that not sound odd to you? When God decides, he is immoral. When you or I decide, it is our moral right.” There was pin-drop silence.
Ravi goes on to examine the idea that there is no moral order in the universe. In order to contradict that idea, this leads to a discussion on what Ravi calls “Life and It’s Story.” He says, “When all that the Scriptures have said is pulled together, there are six elements that combine to give an explanation that is coherent and unique. No escape is sought, either in the denial of the question or in the implications of the answer.” The six elements include:
1. “The Author of the Story.” God is the author of morality.
2. “The Script of the Story.” “God is not only the author in description, but he is also the author in prescription.” He tells us who we are and why we are here. “God has fashioned us in his image: we reflect a moral and self-determining propensity.”
3. “The Point of the Story.” “If there is a story, what is at the heart of it? Not only is God holy, but he reveals to us the sacred nature of love, to which he beckons us. And from this sacredness of his love must flow all other loves. The important aspect of this logical flow is that intrinsic sanctity provides both the reason and the parameters of love. The inability to understand the mystery of evil leads to an inability to understand the sacredness of love. A deadly mistake I believe our cultures make in the pursuit of meaning is this illusion that love devoid of the sacred, a naked love, is all we need to carry us through life’s tests and passions. Religions that promote polygamy confuse love with compassion and benevolence. Islam is one of those. Muhammad himself had multiple wives and concubines. The reasoning runs something like this: he was caring for their needs and provided for them. Without that care, they would have been destitute. All that sounds very gallant, doesn’t it? But love is greater than that. Muhammad could well have cared for these women without the consummation for himself. Love binds itself, and it is the nature of love to bind itself with exclusion and demarcation of relationships. The very statement that we are to love God with all our heart and soul tells us that we shall have no other gods beside him. Love that is pure transcends itself by making God supreme.”
4. “The Centerpiece of the Story.” “How is it possible for the sacred to acknowledge the reality of evil and still be able to offer a morally justifiable explanation?" Ravi then takes us into the message of the Cross as he winds through “Evil, justice, love, and forgiveness.”
5. “The Shock of the Story.” “Evil is more than an exterior reality that engenders universal suffering. It is an internal reality from which we run.” Ravi then tells of an encounter he and a friend had with a wealthy businessman. The man kept raising the question, “But what about all the evil in this world?” Finally Ravi’s friend said to the man, “I hear you constantly expressing a desire to see a solution to the problem of evil around you. Are you as troubled by the problem of evil within you?” I thought this was an excellent point to raise, and it is a question I will be using the next time I am faced with the same question by a skeptic. Ravi says, “One may as well ask, what would you do if you found out you’d never be found out? Imagine a world of such deceit.” Ravi’s final point of this element is, “The evil that we get so upset about doesn’t seem to upset us very much when we perpetrate it.”
6. “The Sting in the Tale.” “The surest evidence that evil is not the enemy of meaning is this inescapable existential reality: meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain but from being weary of pleasure…. It is not pain that has driven the West into emptiness; it has been the drowning of meaning in the oceans of our pleasures. Pleasure gone wrong is a greater curse than physical blindness. And blindness to the sacred is the cause of all evil.”
Ravi’s chapter conclusion can be summed up in this statement he makes almost at the end: “I reject the notion that suffering is the cause of meaninglessness in this world. There are many who have experienced no suffering, for whom life is still empty. That by itself ought to be a clue.”
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