Frank: I am convinced that humans have free will and when that free will is abused for evil actions, those individuals either could not hear or were incapable of listening to the God within them.They are nature’s genetic mutation of the conscience. Their genetic wiring lacks the necessary elements of “God like” behavior. Their DNA is still evolving to achieve this higher purpose.
How else is one to understand or explain the evil actions of humanity? How else is one to explain the Nazi Holocaust that caused the extermination of six million Jews? God did not do this. It was perpetrated by individuals who were unable to listen to the God within them. I believe that even this behavior of evil will eventually evolve into DNA that will allow all humans to be able to hear that Still Small Voice and display goodness and righteousness in their actions. As the late president, Ronald Reagan once said, “I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.” Humans are still evolving and someday, Regan’s words will come true.
This concept of a conscience within most of us that strives for goodness in life is not a new one. Neuroscientists have explained that humans experience pain when we see pain in others and we call this trait, empathy. According to these neuroscientists, humans are moral animals, and it is this morality within us that is the God that lives within our DNA. The famous German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasized this point. “God has given everyone a conscience and with this conscience he/she is God.”
I am aware that my explanation of why evil exists is not an easy one to accept. What is your opinion on this?
Mark: Evil is as old as the Bible itself; it is as ancient as the earliest recorded stories of the creation of humankind. Despite God declaring that God’s creation was “Very good,” the introduction of evil and the declension of its consequences follows immediately after the creation of the first human beings.
Cain murders Abel in the heat of anger, Noah and his family are the only ones saved in the face of a morally bankrupt society, and Abraham argues with God, unsuccessfully, to save the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, if at least ten righteous souls in the entire area can be found. Which they are not.
According to Jewish tradition, every one of us is created with two internal impulses: one that encourages us to be good, to do good; and the other one, its opposite, the one that creates and sustains the evil inclination within us. The challenge of being given free will is to hopefully often, if not necessarily always, choose good over evil.
Why is there evil in this world? Why was it introduced? Why does it continue to exist, and even at times, to thrive? I wish I knew. I truly wish I could understand why God would allow it to enter our world and continue to inflict the damage it causes to so many. Evil acts, large or small, cause immeasurable pain and suffering, both to individuals and to whole groups of people.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, of blessed memory, offered a radical yet compelling theology that provided comfort to millions. He proffered the notion that God does not or cannot control everything and therefore evil exists right alongside goodness. Maybe or maybe not.
This is what I believe: Religion, done right, is neither judgmental, nor repressive, nor punitive. Religion done right makes us better human beings. It harnesses our goodness, as the best counterweight, to the evil that exists around us, and even, at times, within us.
Religion, done right, sustains the Divine flame within each of us, in the way a single flame can help keep darkness at bay. It can make us more kind, more caring, more sensitive human beings, who respond as God’s partners to alleviate pain and suffering, to offer solace and sanctuary to the wounded souls among us.
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Repeatedly, it is this overwhelming collaborative goodness, which can inevitably prevail over evil. As Dr. Martin Luther King offered: The arc of the universe is long, but it inevitably bends towards justice.
Frank, does this resonate with you?
Frank: Mark, I do not believe we are exactly on the same page, but there is an element of faith and belief that overlap, at least to some degree.
You believe that each of us is born with two internal impulses, one that encourages us to be good and to do good and the other that is the exact opposite. I, on the other hand, believe that while most of us are born with the will to do good as decided by our DNA, there are others who have moral mutations who have difficulty in hearing the Still Small Voice that urges us to do and act good.
Your theory allows you to believe that religion plays an influential role in helping us to act in a moral manner, while my theory also allows for religion to play a role, but a much less significant one.
The individual who lacks the ability of the God within to be heard, may be influenced to do good and act good by a process of nurturing using the principle of epigenetics. That process is defined as a stable change of cell function induced by nurturing, which happens without change to the DNA sequence.
In other words, the evil DNA can be overridden by the nurturing aspects of several factors, including religion.
Not everything, when it comes to genetics can be considered black or white. There are many influences on behavior, but it seems reasonable to assume that nature makes up approximately 80% of who we are and nurture making up the remaining 20%, and that this 20% can be significantly influenced and mollified by religion.
Mark, what’s your reaction to all of this?
Mark: Frank, I agree with what you have written and what you believe about the role of nurture over nature, in the way that perhaps the nurturing of the good can override the inclination to do harm. While this may not hold true for some who are possessed by an incorrigible evil or heinousness, it can certainly hold true for many others.
Truthfully, even those who normally strive to lead good lives require occasional reminders to guard against apathy or indifference.
The Passover Seder rituals recall our suffering and forced servitude under Egyptian bondage. Those rituals could focus our thoughts on our own trauma and embitter our hearts to refrain from our care and concern for others. There is a choice we then must make: Our painful past can either make us bitter, or better.
Time and again, religion helps us choose to be better, to harness our suffering to make us more empathetic to others in distress, to let the good impulse within us prevail. That is how God works through us to counter the evil around us, wherever it may exist.
Rabbi Mark Schiftan can be reached at mschiftan@aol.com
Dr. Frank Boehm can be reached at frank.boehm@vumc.org
