\tAttempts to answer the question of evil traditionally accept the charge that the world is an awful place.<\/p>\n
\tBut, is this popularly believed perception an accurate perception? Is evil running rampant and is life barely more than miserable? Why would I even ask such a question? Am I some kind of blind fool? Let\u2019s consider.<\/p>\n
\tA 1996 article in Scientific American<\/em> (\u201cThe Pursuit of Happiness\u201d, by David G. Myers and Ed Diener, May, 1996, pp. 70-72) indicates that 93 percent of the world\u2019s population feel happy about their lives as a whole. The percentages of happiness remained relatively constant regardless of income, education, or the place individuals happened to live. <\/p>\n \tIf things are as bad as Voltaire and just about everyone suggests, then why aren\u2019t more people unhappy? Think about your own life. Are you suicidal? Chances are, you\u2019re pretty comfortable and generally content just now. Think you\u2019re unique? Think again. Only a tiny fraction of the human race even thinks about committing suicide, let alone follows through. <\/p>\n \tThe world\u2019s population stands at around 7 billion. Many think this is a bad thing. But why are there so many people? Have birth rates skyrocketed? Not at all. They are actually going down. So why so many human beings?<\/p>\n \tBecause not so many people are dying. <\/p>\n Life expectancy, health, and education levels are all up worldwide. According to CIA statistics (CIA World Factbook), in 2011 0.9 percent of the world population died. That\u2019s less than one percent. Or to put it another way, 99.1 percent of the human race didn\u2019t die last year. And that’s death from ALL causes. <\/p>\n \tSo lets consider some obvious implications.<\/p>\n \tThe number of people who have died this year because of crime? Less than one percent of the human race.<\/p>\n \tThe number of people who have died because of natural disasters? Less than one percent.<\/p>\n \tThe number of people who have died because of terrorism? Less than one percent.<\/p>\n \tThe number of people who have died because of starvation? Less than one percent.<\/p>\n \tThe number of people who have died because of diseases? Less than one percent.<\/p>\n \tThe number of people who died as a consequence of war? Less than one percent. <\/p>\n \tStatistics like those would seem to demonstrate that the world\u2019s not quite so awful as we might imagine. (Stopping to consider the last time one heard of a life insurance company going bankrupt might be another bit of evidence.) Certainly there is suffering and evil and doubtless the headlines on today\u2019s paper are filled with ugly information. But the real reason the news is almost always bad is because bad is unusual and newspapers and television are interested in novelty.<\/p>\n \tConsider: do the newspapers or television report on the millions and millions of people who went to work today, did their jobs, came home, kissed their spouses and children and had a quiet evening? Of course not. That would be boring. They\u2019ll report on the single whacko who went to his job and machine-gunned all his coworkers. That\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n \tHumanity is warlike and violent, right? Then why, according to the CIA, is only two percent of the world\u2019s gross economic production devoted to defense spending? That means that ninety-eight percent of what the world spends each year is for stuff other than making guns and bombers. <\/p>\n \tHard as I try, I have difficulty thinking that this is the worst of all possible worlds.<\/p>\n \tStill, the presence of evil in this world remains a problem that needs to be addressed, even if it’s smaller, statistically, than most people realize.<\/p>\n If God exists, and he is good and all powerful, then why is there so much evil? If you were good and all powerful, is this the world you would create? The eighteenth century philosopher Voltaire wrote a story called … Continue reading ![](\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\")
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