Paradise Lost and the Problem of Evil
Stories have substructures. The same narrative patterns and character types occur in many different stories. “Paradise lost and regained” is a common narrative pattern. It is the substructure of Christianity, The Lion King and The Lord of the Rings. The narrative begins in paradise. The paradise is stable and natural. But then something (EVIL) casts the main characters out of paradise. From that point onward, they struggle to regain or restore the lost paradise by defeating the forces of evil.
This narrative pattern is part of the subconscious worldview of most people. They have experienced it hundreds of times in stories, and they use it to interpret real events. They expect reality to fit the pattern.
In fiction, paradise is the natural state of the world. It is relatively stable, but it can be destroyed by bad choices or evil agents. In The Lion King, the pride-lands are supposed to be ruled by the lions — specifically by Mufasa and his heir Simba. That is the right and proper state of affairs. The movie begins by establishing the initial state of paradise. The animals are all happy: dancing and singing. Simba is growing up in this paradise as the rightful heir. Everything is as it should be.
But then the paradise is lost, due to the evil agency of Scar and his hyena allies. Scar deceives and kills Mufasa, and then exiles Simba. Scar and the hyenas take over the pride-lands. For some reason, this causes a drought and makes the other animals unhappy. They stop singing and dancing. Sad music plays.
This is absurd, of course. Zebras are no more happy to be eaten by lions than by hyenas. Lions normally fight for territory and mates. Male lions kill infant lions. Most lions die young from infanticide, predation or disease. The African savanna is not a paradise, and it has no heavenly ordained rulers.
In reality, life is hard. The balance of nature is created by competition for finite resources. Organisms naturally reproduce to excess. This creates competition for the resources needed to survive and reproduce. An ecosystem is stable when excess reproduction is balanced by premature death, so the populations of species are neither growing nor shrinking. The balance of nature is not a utopia for any species. It exists when life is equally hard for every species.
A temporary utopia can occur when an ecosystem is out of balance. For example, a forest fire creates a temporary utopia for light-loving plants. Suddenly, there is an abundance of light. This causes an explosion of growth. But the paradise does not last. Plants beget more plants. Soon, light is scarce again. Good times are not stable. Populations increase until life is hard. Nature does not have stable utopias.
However, our culture assumes that goodness is natural and stable. This creates a problem of explanation. Why is the world not good?
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The classic problem of evil arises in a theistic worldview. In its simplest form, it is just the question “Why does evil exist?”.
In this context, the word “evil” denotes more than just moral evil (the immoral acts of humans). It also includes natural evil: the aspects of life that are viewed as bad by most people, such as death, suffering, competition, predation, disease, violence, etc.
If God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good, why would he create a world full of evil?
Christians will give two responses, neither of which really answers the question.
They will explain natural evil as due to the “fallen” state of the world. Eve ate an apple after talking to a snake, so everything went to shit. But this makes no sense. Why would God punish the entire world because a woman ate an apple? Christianity has the promise of a better (non-evil) world that comes after death, but if God has this better place already created, why bother with the “fallen” world at all?
Christians will also say that God gave man free will, and thus man can commit moral evil. This also makes no sense. Even if God gave humans free will, that wouldn’t explain why they would want to commit evil acts. Free will is not random. People do what they want to do. Their choices arise from their natures. Why would God create beings that naturally want to do evil?
The problem of evil exists for religions other than Christianity, and it also exists in most atheistic worldviews, such as secular humanism.
Humanists assume that human nature is essentially good: altruistic, kind, compassionate, empathetic, etc. But if human nature is good, why does moral evil exist? Why do people murder each other, cheat, steal, go to war, etc?
Humanists try to explain some moral evil as due to “sociopathy”, but this term has no explanatory power. Essentially, a sociopath is just someone who commits actions that are considered to be evil. The concept presupposes evil, and thus it cannot explain evil.
Humanists struggle to explain the prevalence of war in human history. They blame bad ideas, such as traditional religion and ethnic bigotry. Supposedly, if we reject those bad ideas (and embrace humanism), we can live together in peace and harmony. But why did people find those bad ideas so appealing?
Perhaps human nature is not perfect, but we are making moral progress. That is the belief of many humanists, such as Steven Pinker. In The Better Angels of Our Nature, he argues that violence has declined in recent history due to moral and intellectual progress: an expansion of empathy and reason.
However, the more plausible explanation is that violence has declined due to food production outpacing population growth, with the nuclear deterrent being an important secondary cause. With less competition for resources, people are less violent. An incentive structure that makes violence more risky, whether it is law enforcement or the nuclear threat, also reduces violence.
Any natural explanation for evil makes humanists uneasy, because it requires that we view human nature from a scientific perspective. This desacralizes human nature. The brain is a mechanism that evolved, not a magical essence.
Humanists not only believe that human nature is essentially good; they also believe that nature is essentially good. So, like theists, they struggle to explain natural evil. Why is life full of suffering? Why must we die? Why do organisms need to struggle and fight to survive? Why doesn’t the lion lie down with the lamb?
Humanists tend to ignore the problem of natural evil by idealizing and romanticizing nature. They view nature from a distance, through rose-colored glasses. That’s another luxury of the modern world.
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The paradise-lost narrative pattern is linked to the problem of evil. The problem of evil is based on the assumption that goodness is natural and stable. Evil thus requires an explanation. A paradise-lost narrative explains evil as due to some historical error, which can be corrected, because it is not intrinsic to the world. The narrative holds out the promise of a return to paradise.
Most ideologies and religions have a paradise-lost narrative:
- Christianity: The world has been cast out of paradise because Eve ate an apple. We can regain this paradise by correct belief and action. Also, we are all sinners, but we can repent and be saved by God’s grace. We can regain our lost innocence.
- Communism: The natural condition of humanity is peaceful brotherhood, without greed and selfishness. We were cast out of this paradise by capitalism. We can restore it with communism.
- Wokism: The world was a paradise before European colonization, Western civilization, the patriarchy, whiteness, etc. We must eliminate systemic racism, sexism, transphobia, etc, to restore this lost utopia.
- Anarcho-capitalism: The natural condition of humanity is peaceful cooperation. This was destroyed by the state, and it would be restored by abolishing the state.
- Nationalism: The nation would be a utopia if it wasn’t for evil outsiders who rule over it or subvert it. By defeating the evil out-group, we can restore the utopia of nationhood.
- Traditionalism: There was a utopia in the past, which was essentially stable, but nevertheless was destroyed by leftism or modernity. We can return to this previous state by restoring traditional religion and morality.
- Primitivism: Our primitive ancestors had a more meaningful, satisfying life than we do. Modern technology and civilization have cast us out of a mental utopia. We must return to a primitive state to restore this lost paradise.
- Environmentalism: Nature is a paradise. Humans and/or modern civilization have cast the world out of paradise by destroying natural ecosystems. To restore the natural paradise, we must eliminate or reduce the human impact on the natural world.
- Pop psychology: Humans are naturally happy. Unhappiness is caused by psychological problems that are imposed on human nature by outside forces, such as society, culture and parenting. To restore ourselves to the natural condition of happiness, we must eliminate “neuroses”, “hang-ups” and other psychological problems with therapy or other practices.
These narratives are all false. In each case, the imagined paradise never existed.
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The paradise-lost narrative pattern is a special case of the moralistic fallacy. People project their ideals onto nature. They assume that what they view as good must also be natural, and vice versa. This assumption creates the problem of evil, which is then “solved” by a paradise-lost narrative.
The truth is that nature abhors a paradise.