A while ago, my brother-in-law sent me an email with the subject “This makes sense.. No?” and with the following in body of the email:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
– Epicurus [341–270 BC]
Given two qualities (willingness & ability) I like how he covered all combinations (00, 01, 10, 11)!!
My brother-in-law is a self-proclaimed atheist. He also loves humor in many forms. So, needless to say, he thrives on atheist satire. So, this wasn’t the first email of this nature that I received from him. However, this time I was called to respond. I replied back to him saying that I actually knew the answer to this one.
Before I get to my response, I would like to clarify a few things.
My response is based on a lower to mid spectrum of what “evil” could mean. While what is being said here could theoretically be extrapolated to heinous crimes, it addresses baby versions of evil (more like challenges) like “I always end up being betrayed in relationships”, “Regardless of how hard I am working, I always have more month left than the money I am making”, “I have serious health challenges”, etc., as a first step, and as it maybe more relevant to most people reading this.
Here is what God means to me. For me, God is not necessarily an invisible human being that resides somewhere in the skies, although personifying sometimes makes it easier for me to connect. For me God is Universe, a higher power, higher intelligence.
Here is my response based on my experience of God.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1: 26-27)
As the above quote suggests God is able and so are humans. God is omnipotent and at the same time has empowered everyone. God is also willing but not coercing. We have a free will. We are all part of a universal energy field. And we are all equally empowered. However, each of us has our own path of evolution / learning / growing. I believe that we are spirit having a physical experience. I also believe that spirit can have several physical experiences and the current physical form is just one of them. And our current physical incarnation has a purpose. We are here this time around to learn specific lessons and through these lessons / experiences we get closer to rediscovering our true nature. So, why do we have to face challenges and why do we need to rediscover our true nature?
Here is an analogy I once heard. Lets say we are playing hide and seek. The person that is seeking closes her eyes, counts from 1 to 10 and announces ‘Here I come!’ . She opens her eyes and finds everyone right in front of her eyes. Would that game be any fun? Would you want to play that game over and over again? I think I would get bored pretty quickly. For me, the game is exciting when there is some what of a challenge that I can handle.
I believe that life is a spiritual adventure. The challenges we face are opportunities for us to learn and grow. We are empowered to handle those challenges. There are laws of nature and processes that when understood and practiced enable us to live in harmony and in the flow. Most of us were not taught to access our innate power. It takes intention and practice to understand the laws of nature and be in the flow. Ancient practices like Yoga and Qigong provide us tools, guidance and a framework for practice. There are modern techniques as well such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and Sedona method that provide tools for relief in a shorter time.
In my personal experience, after gaining this perspective on life, using the available tools, I have been able to move from a place of discouragement to a world of discovery of what is truly possible. I have been able to overcome many chronic challenges and the process has allowed me to learn and grow and live a happier life. The process of learning and growing will continue for me as I continue my journey of this life time.
Albert Einstein once said the most important question a human being can ask is “Is the universe friendly?” My experience is that this is a benevolent Universe.
Mindful Musings 
I am glad you addressed this difficult topic. Here’s my 2 cents worth –
The original Epicurean Paradox was addressing overwhelming majority of people who believe in a personal god who gets involved in day to day activities – punishing bad people (like the ones who type “god” instead of “God”) and rewarding good people who praise and pray to him or her. Your view of god as a just a power/universe etc is a minority view and is really not the cause of worldwide strife in the name of deity/religion etc.
How does the view that “we live in a benevolent universe” – square with ground realities today? How do you explain to the parents of the 200 Nigerian girls that got kidnapped by Boko Haram – that this is a benevolent universe? At what point will the benevolent universe involve itself with the beheadings of innocents by ISIS? or the abuse of children by Catholic priests? or the massacre of muslims by Buddhists in Myanmar? or the massacre of Sikhs (after Indira Gandhi’s assassination)? While I listed some examples of religion based evil from the news.. it does not have to just be evil perpetrated in the name of religion. How do you explain all this in the context of a “benevolent universe”? You could say – what about all the good in the world , like “beauty, rivers, flowers, mountains, charity, kindness etc”. If you want to attribute all of these to “benevolent universe” , then you have to find some other “XYZ universe” to explain all that is unpalatable around us.
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I am having trouble connecting the benevolence of the Universe to the willingness and ability of God but let’s leave that aside for the moment. I agree with the statement that the Universe is friendly but mind you, someone who has had a very difficult life might not see things the same way. Clearly mankind has been given powers that no other species has (at least on our miniscule planet considering how big the Universe is). So I agree that for “this” life, we should use our powers to learn/discover as much as we can.
I don’t quite agree with your statement about spirit and multiple incarnations. If we are supposed to accumulate knowledge over multiple incarnations, how is it that no one is able to remember anything from their past incarnations? Why did I have to start from scratch? Why are there babies born with multiple complications who die within a day of their birth and don’t even get a chance to learn/discover? Perhaps someone will find answers to these questions. I don’t think I will.
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Thank you for your comments. I completely agree that it may not be everyone’s experience that it is a benevolent Universe especially for those that have been victims of incomprehensible atrocities. I can only speak from my experience. While it can’t be compared to the severe cases, there was a time when I used to feel like life just happens to me and I have no control over it. Gaining this new knowledge/perspective, allowed me to move from a place of feeling powerless to a place of feeling empowered, having tools and being able to overcome some long standing challenges.
As for multiple incarnations, may be a topic for a different blog post at another time. About your specific example about babies who die within a day, my take on it is that in this case, the baby may have come here, to support the parents in their journey.
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From my simplistic perspective, it’s what you sow is what you reap. I concur with the benevolent universe concept. If you believe in reincarnation everything else falls into place, consider time as a continuum through your past, present and future lives. Sow more kindness and do more good you don’t return back to this world, you get ‘moksha’ or ‘nirvana’…think about it!
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As the saying goes ‘ beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ I do strongly believe that things are the way you look at it. Or should I say things are they way how one experiences it? But the universal is definitely not a benovelenf place in my view.
It’s like a lottery, you are a piece of a puzzle, when put together makes the whole world. ‘You’ as a piece in the puzzle can be a corner piece or one of the billion pieces which takes time to figure out. The corner piece is someone who has it all, born with a golden spoon. While the rest are given challenges which come to them in all shapes and modes. Maybe to make you a better soul as you mentioned but whose to say if the super natural power is just having fun at the cost us going through different challenges in life?
To make it a better journey one has to take all his/ her positives and put it to a greater good cause so as to help the lesser fortunate to rise higher than where they are.
I’m not sure if it’s being added as a positive point in your chart but it surely makes you feel positive as a person and thus makes you feel this universe as a benevolent place.
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