Divine Neutrality

Is there a “Problem of Evil” when there is no God? i.e. Is there evil in the world? Can any act be said to be evil, the concept being completely subjective? Do people who do evil agree that they are doing evil? Why then do they do it? What does evil mean?

Was it David Hume, the eighteenth century British philosopher, who best stated the logical problem of evil, in the following inquiry about God?

Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent.
Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent.
Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?

How do you measure evil?

If free will is an illusion then so is evil. They are both the result of natural process in the individual experience.

The interesting thing about suicide bombers is this: that they are so dedicated to their community - islam, anarchism in a former time - that they kill themselves for it.

Let us distinguish the practice from the mechanisms by which they are persuaded. The mechanism requires a world view - a belief in the supernatural, in an afterlife, in unseen powers around us which we must placate, a belief in a greater good.

What persuades the ants to kill themselves for their community? Do ants have a world view?

In Is Life Worth Living? by William James James says: “Pessimism is essentially a religious disease.”

He clarifies thusly: This “is why I call pessimism an essentially religious disease The nightmare view of life [arises from] the contradiction between the phenomena of Nature and the craving of the heart to believe that behind Nature there is a spirit whose expression Nature is.”

He is expressing a simple thought which I’ll compress thusly:
Life is worth living if you are undisturbed by pointlessness.

James is right but it is not the root of the matter. Pessimism is a purely chemical phenomenon. Proof: Smoke a little marijuana and life becomes worth living. What happens is that the chemical produces a change in philosophical outlook!

From depression, where nothing is important (is worth undertaking)

to elation, where anything is important (is worth undertaking).

And sometimes to anxiety, where everything is important (must be attended to immediately).