Does Religion Cause Evil

When I look at all the atrocities going on in the world, I am filled with sorrow. I suspect that most of the world’s people feel that way. For when it gets down to brass tacks, most of us can see evil for what it is and we do not like it. We even go so far as trying to assess where it comes from. Some blame religion. Some blame politics, racism, etc. We could probably agree that evil will manifest itself in any of the above. But it is violence manifested in religion, and therefore blamed on God, that I am the most interested in.

Why is that? It is because when God is blamed as a source of violence, blame is usually assigned without regard to all the available information. I’ll give two biblical examples:

God is attributed as being evil when he caused the flood. Here are a few biblical facts:
• God created the world, and in Genesis 1:31 it says, “God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good.”
• By Genesis 3:6, man had rebelled against God by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
• In Genesis 4:8, Cain slew his brother Able.
• In Genesis 6:5 “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.
• The flood happened in Genesis 7:11
So, was the flood evil? Or was it to remove the evil people from the earth and give everything another start?

God is said to have been evil when he sent terrible plagues on the Egyptians. But it is clearly stated in Exodus that God had been watching how the Egyptians were treating the Israelites and told Moses that he had promised to rescue them from their enslavement (Ex 3:16 & 17). Moses was then sent to speak to the Pharaoh. Ex 5 is the account of that meeting, and it is not pretty. In Ex 6:1, God states that he will deal with the Pharaoh. From there through Ex 12, God sends plague after plague on the Egyptians to force the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. Each time the Pharaoh’s heart remains hard and he will not release the Israelites. So, were the plagues sent because God was evil? Or was each sent as a response for the Pharaoh not following through with his side of a deal with God negotiated by Moses?

What I really find ironic is when someone who does not believe in God, takes statements from the book that is all about God (the bible) to prove he is evil. I find no credibility in that approach.

So, here is my bottom line. Yes, there is evil in the world; far too much of it. But, is it caused by religion, politics, racism, etc.? I think not. I think evil originates in the heart of man and goes on to manifest itself in whatever endeavor man is involved with.