OnlineBookClub.org

I didn't really understand what the author means when he says "There is no problem of evil." Was not the holocaust evil? Was not the genocide in Rwanda evil? Was not Stalin's mass killing evil? What about 9/11? What does he mean when he says, "it is what it is"? Can someone enlighten me?

This is just me interpreting it here but I believe he's recognizing that evil exists as a fact of life. But I wasn't too sure about what he meant in this context. I'm curious to see what other people think about this.

Thank you for bringing this to light. There are some things written that I completely disagreed with in this book. Maybe he didn’t express himself clearly, but this quote was one of several that made he cringe.
The reality is this: there is evil in this world. As a believer, It’s hard to ignore somebody say evil is here so we just need to accept it. Of course it is here. But I’m not going to sit around and accept it. I’m going to try to do my best to bring good into the world through my belief in what Christ has done for me.

I agree with what others have said. I think it’s hard to deny that evil things have happened to people. Some people have behaved horribly to others. We think of that as evil. I believe the idea is that we have to accept our life circumstances at face value because you can only control yourself. You can’t force people to be kind to one another. This exact same thing was something I mentioned in my review as something I found difficult to accept as well.

Thank you all for your replies. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one who had difficulty with this concept.

I think that the idea of going, "It's here, nothing you can do about it..." bothers me the most. Is the whole concept of human nature not that we are to fight against our baser selfish instincts and thus create a better world? All things are perpetually moving towards entropy. Thus we need to have an active input to prevent the downfall. The idea of free will is not that we ignore all things wrong in the world, and just keep ourselves happy.

I understand your question and agree that evil things have happened in this world. However my take on this chapter is that if you lack an inner peace and fail to see the beauty in the world - focusing only on the harshness - then you will only ever see ‘evil’ because that is the filter through which you view the world.
With regards to evil acts that you mentioned like the holocaust and genocides, I believe that these acts take place because the people who start them/participate lack an inner peace. They have inner turmoil which causes such events to take place.
Arguably the focus of this chapter was on a God’s view of the world. As a whole, not on the individual level of a singular person, act, moment in time or even a country. Rather, to view it like astronauts do in its entirety, and recognise the beauty that such a fragile system - that isn’t to date replicated elsewhere in the universe - exists.

I am aware that my interpretation of this chapter may be different to others, and welcome this fact.

There is definitely a lot of evil out there in the world. However, a lot of this book emphasizes the concept of the heavy levels of focus in the elements of evil when there just regularly just as many good things happening too

"Evil" is a human concept. It's also a religious premise. Life offers us what life offers us, and we decide whether it is good or evil. We see the rain as good when it waters the spring flowers. We see the rain as evil when it floods a small village and dozens drown. The rain is the rain in both cases. We evaluate the rain according to our concerns. Is that not what Scott is saying in his own unique way?

This idea of "Evil" is unique to humans. It also has a religious foundation. We choose whether what life delivers is good or bad based on what it offers us. When it waters the spring flowers, we consider rain to be good. When rain floods a tiny community and many people perish, we perceive the rain as wicked. In all scenarios, the rain is the rain. We assess the rain in light of our worries. Diverse perspectives exist among people.