300.40 UNLEASHED EVIL (p.91)
hard cover page 91
“Natural evil” and “moral evil” would consequently forever- more plague and challenge man.336
Increased potential for good implies increased potential for evil.337 As mankind exercised the option of Tree of Knowledge, the component of “unleashed natural evil” came into play, along with the component of “higher potential for moral good, moral evil.” Along with the extensions of other potentialities, the potential exercise of evil is far greater. As mankind can no longer count on the Divine to shield him from evil, by virtue of the freedom aspect of Tree of KnowledgeIPotential, man had best be strong, because the forces of evil can be quite strong.338
The Garden of Eden saga is shortly followed by Cain’s killing of Abel. Fratricide. Not only is man one of the very few speci.es in which members kill one other; man will literally kill his own blood brother. The species with the highest potential for knowledge is internally, and apparently moraIly, the most dangerous. Man has the audacity to ask, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).339
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336 See Hick, Evil and the God of Love, p. 12. “The working vocabulary of theodicy, compared with that of some other branches of theology, is in a state of imprecision. In English ‘evil’ is usually, although not always, used in a comprehensive sense, and we then distinguish under it the moral evil of wickedness and such non-moral evils as disease and natural disaster. In German ‘Ubel’ is a general term, covering both moral and non-moral evil, though it can also be used specifically for the latter; whilst ‘Buse’ refers more definitely to moral evil. In French ‘Ie mal’ can be used to refer to all types of evil.”
337 See Berdyaev, The Destiny of Man, pp. 30, 158.
338 See Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God, p. i. “The Gothic word ‘evil’ refers to the force in the universe that gives rise to wickedness, sin, misfor- tune, disaster. The presence of evil, its reality, makes a hole in the heart of the believer.”
339 See Sarna, Understanding Genesis, pp. 30-31.
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