| The pain, violence and waste that is engendered by the evolutionary process--hereafter referred to as natural evil--is discussed in terms of its possible relationship to the perfectly good and all-powerful God of traditional theism. Specifically, the focus is on whether the existence of such a deity is indeed logically compatible with the existence of natural evil.; In order to answer this question in the affirmative, the author first undertakes to demonstrate how the latest scientific evidence is strongly suggestive of an intelligent designer. This is accomplished through a rigorous analysis and subsequent interpretation of the various scientific facts surrounding the evolutionary process. It is concluded that the design hypothesis provides by far the most plausible and compelling explanation of the scientific facts.; In the second part of the manuscript, it is argued that the natural evil that is generated by evolution is indeed fully consistent with the existence of a perfectly good and all-powerful God. This conclusion is reached through the use of an essentialistic paradigm, which asserts that a process of psycho-physiological development is logically necessary or essential to the human definition. Insofar as this is the case, and insofar as this developmental process further necessitates the existence of a larger process of evolutionary development in the world itself, then it follows that any human-containing world will be "evolutionary" by its very nature, which in turn would seem to imply that some form of natural evil is simultaneously necessary.; It is concluded that this type of natural evil is ultimately "good" in an instrumental sense because it is alleged to be an essential prerequisite for human existence, which itself is deemed to be a sufficiently good thing in itself to justify all the prima facie (or only apparent) evils that were necessary to lead up to it. |
