Why so much evil in the world??????

Why so much evil in the world??????

We sometimes hear the question, "Why does God allow so much evil in the world?" The author quoted below is saying that we must freely choose to be good, and at the next level of existence only good people will be allowed in. We must allow people here at this level to be good or bad, so they can make that choice freely:


"And then the question arises - as I know it arises in many minds, for it has been put to me both in the East and in the West over and over again - why so much difficulty in the evolution, why so much apparent failure in the working, why should men go wrong so much before they go right, why should they run after the evil that degrades them instead of following the good that would ennoble them? Was it not possible for the LOGOS of our universe, for the Devas who are His Agents, for the great Manus who came to guide our infant humanity - was it not possible for Them to plan so that there might be no such apparent failure in the working out? Was it not possible for Them to guide so that the road might have been a straight and direct one instead of so devious, so circuitous?

Hi Keith,

The quote is from Annie Besant, in her book The Path of Discipleship

Besant, Annie, The Path of Discipleship, paragraphs 3-4 (online)
http://www.anandgholap.net/Path_Of_Discipleship-AB.htm

Besant, Annie, The Path of Discipleship, pages 9-11 (hardcopy)
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=82

When I post this quote, I like to post three paragraphs.:

"We sometimes hear the question, 'Why does God allow so much evil in the world?' The author quoted below is saying that we must freely choose to be good, and at the next level of existence only good people will be allowed in. We must allow people here at this level to be good or bad, so they can make that choice freely:

"And then the question arises - as I know it arises in many minds, for it has been put to me both in the East and in the West over and over again - why so much difficulty in the evolution, why so much apparent failure in the working, why should men go wrong so much before they go right, why should they run after the evil that degrades them instead of following the good that would ennoble them? Was it not possible for the LOGOS of our universe, for the Devas who are His Agents, for the great Manus who came to guide our infant humanity - was it not possible for Them to plan so that there might be no such apparent failure in the working out? Was it not possible for Them to guide so that the road might have been a straight and direct one instead of so devious, so circuitous?

"Here comes the point that makes the evolution of humanity so difficult, having in view the object which is to be gained. Easy in truth would it have been to have made a humanity that might have been perfect, easy to have so guided its dawning powers that those powers might have travelled towards what we call the good continually, and never have turned aside towards what we call evil. But what would have been the condition of such an easy accomplish­ment? It must have been that man would have been an automaton, moved by a compelling force without him which imperiously laid upon him a law which he was compelled to fulfil, from which he could not escape. The mineral world is under such a law; the affinities that bind atom to atom obey such an imperious com­pulsion. But as we rise higher we find greater and greater freedom gradually making its appearance, until in man we see a spontaneous energy, a freedom of choice, which is really the dawning manifestation of the God, of the Self, which is beginning to show itself through man. And the object, the goal which was to be attained, was not to make automata who should blindly follow a path sketched out for their treading, but to make a reflection of the LOGOS Himself, to make a mighty assemblage of wise and perfected men who should choose the best because they know and understand it, who should reject the worst because by experience they have learnt its inadequacy and the sorrow to which it leads. So that in the universe of the future, as amongst all the great Ones who are guiding the universe of today, there should be unity gained by consensus of wills, which have become one again by knowledge and by choice, which move with a single purpose because they know the whole, which are identical with the Law because they have learned that the Law is good, who choose to be one with the Law not by an outside compulsion, but by an inner acquiescence. Thus in that universe of the future there will be one Law, as there is in the present, carried out by means of Those who are the Law by the unity of Their purpose, the unity of Their knowledge, the unity of Their power - not a blind and unconscious Law, but an assemblage of living beings who are the Law, having become divine. There is no other road by which such goal might be reached, by which the free­will of the many should reunite into the one great Nature and the one great Law, save a process in which experience should be garnered, in which evil should be known as well as good, failure as well as triumph. Thus men become Gods, and because of the experience that lies behind them, they will, they think, they feel, the same."

Theosophy teaches much about our own evolution, although we can only hazard a guess at how this fits into the evolution of the intelligent/divine universe. But on our own little path we must learn wisdom and compassion, we must rise above the animal instincts that drive us to selfish and unthinking acts. To do this we need to learn the art of discernment, to make better choices, which we cannot do without free will. With free will comes the potential to make bad choices. We find it easier to attribute the consequences of these bad choices to a separate and malevolent power of evil, but we should look instead to man’s greed for power and material status.

Harvey,

I agree. Many people blame the Devil for causing people to do evil. I do not see evil as something put upon us by a Devil, I see it as a conscious choice to go against their progress along the path to enlightenment. Many people make a conscious decision to move in the opposite direction from enlightement, and that is what 'evil' really is.

It seems to me we ALL were in the state of Evil, which would be simply an extreme degree of density, as a natural course of evolution (spiritual.) And we through karma and reincarnation move from one polarity to another over time (evolution.) That said, I should think ALL OF US have made bad choices consistently in the beginning, and simply get better with these choices as we progress. I am thinking far outside the current scope of man, and both before, and long after. We are like a chemical process ... it may take time, there may be stages of conversion, but we eventually fall out of solution.

Wouldn't our supposed evil be relative to our general and overall state of "density" of consciousness - the current "Nature" of the Universe?

Thus, evil is a reflective measurement, or result indicating our state of progress towards perfection.

If so, and not saying it is - just speculating - then instead of a major focus on "evil," perhaps we should rather have a worldwide focus on consciousness.

Christian,

There is another aspect of evil which needs to be mentioned. As we all know, Christianity teaches that there is a Devil, and he intentionally tempts us to do bad things. Many people in Christianity believe this idea very strongly, and use the idea of "the Devil made me do it" as an excuse for doing bad things. (Many Theosophists reject such an idea.)

But one Theosophical writer has a similar idea. He said that we humans are sharing space here on the physical plane with what he called Elementals. According to the theory, Elementals are evolving downward while we humans are evolving upward. (Elementals are the 'soul essence' that will incarnate into minerals, plants, animals, and humans in future manvataras.)

Acccording to the theory, these Elementals want strong, violent 'emotional experiences', and the stronger (more evil) the better, and it is their natural, normal, and 'good' way of being to want these things. These Elementals are after the exact kinds of 'evil' excitement that get us humans into trouble. The idea is, these Elementals can influence us to do bad things, which gives them the violent emotional experiences they need to accelerate their downward stage of spiritual evolution (and cause us humans to actually lose progress on our own upward path of spiritual evolution). So, according to this idea, there actually is a type of 'devil' which 'tempts' us to do bad things.

Is all of this true? Who can say. But it is a fascinating idea that there really are Elementals out there intentionally trying to 'tempt us into sin.'

Yes, this [idea] is true, and demonstrably so - as long as we don't confuse Elemantals with Nature Spirits, Nature People. I'll come back and explain my view when I get a travel break.