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Understanding Evil: When Bad Things Happen to Good Pagans
Even at the best of times, "bad" things can--and do--happen even to the "best of Pagans!" Why?
The topic in this article is commonly called 'Theodicy' -- in other words, how do you justify the existence of evil in a world created by a 'good' god?
One common argument about "evil" is that evil is in the world for a sense of balance. The argument here is, rather simply put, you cannot know good with there being evil to contrast good with. You need this sense of balance, then, in order to see good! An example of this is if you were to take two pieces of cloth, one white and one black. If you hold the white up to the light, by itself, you see it as a white piece of cloth. If you hold it up to the light, however, next to the black piece of cloth, the whiteness of the first piece becomes even more vivid and sharp. It takes the contrast between the white and the black pieces of cloth to make you appreciate the individual color more and to maintain the proper balance. The white piece of cloth and the black piece of cloth form the boundaries for each other when viewed in this fashion.
Another argument regarding why bad things happen to good people is the lesson of appreciation and not just taking the good for granted. If things are too easy, then people start taking them for granted. In order to appreciate the good in life, everyone must have that little bump in the road! (Additionally, that little bump in the road further serves to remind us that even on our darkest days, the Goddess and God are with us to share our joys and our sorrows!)
As bad as things get sometimes, it's important to remember that things happen, not to hurt us, but to teach us lessons and strengthen us. You would have no balance within yourself if nothing bad happened to you.
Now, let's move away from the traditional argument that bad things happen because of karma. People who make this argument often use the word karma as a form of punishment for misdeeds in past lives. This has the unfortunate tendency to cause many Pagans and Wiccans to be karma fearing pagans and to lose sight of their positive returns in life! One person once stated that "reincarnation would even out the good and bad luck if we learn the lessons." This gives the idea that bad things happen because we did not learn certain lessons. This goes against the very concept of karma representing action rather than reward and/or punishment. Karma isn't all about reward and punishment; it is a learning process!
One different way to look at times when "bad things happen to good people" is to think back to a phrase that Richard Bach once made, "there is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you ... we seek problems because we need their gifts." In other words, bad things may happen, but they do not and cannot happen without a compensating good thing or gift in our lives! I personally believe that those same gifts tend to tie into the bad things just so we have an extra tool or resource or strength to handle those bad things in our lives!
Another consideration for the cause of evil in people's lives, or bad things in people's lives, is the concept of lack of balance. In other words, certain evil acts are the acts of an unbalanced mind. Consider the existence and actions of such people as Charles Manson. In his mind, his actions and the actions of his followers made perfect sense, but what sense from a balanced mind could be made of the murder of a pregnant actress and her fetus? Obviously, in this instance, this act of "evil" was the act of an unbalanced mind.
Another common reason for bad things to happen to good Pagans, to good Wiccans, to good people all over is that often these “bad” things are done by someone doing something that results in temporary gain, which has disastrous repercussions down the road, and they know it. They choose the temporary good over what they may perceive to be the long-term disaster. Of course, often times, the people that are on the receiving end of these bad things see themselves now faced with their own long-term disasters!
Sometimes, "bad things" happen to people out of random chance. Being Wiccan does not eliminate the possibility of things happening at random; being Wiccan does not give us total control over our environments or Universe. Starhawk and Valentine (2000:6-7) point out that:
"We all live in a world in which many things are wrong. The Goddess tradition does not preach perfection. The universe may be perfect in its inception, that instant before the big bang when all existed as one incredibly tiny, multidimensional point of perfect symmetry. But that perfection isn't much help to us on a day-to-day level. And ever since then, things have been unfolding with a high degree of randomness and a certain amount of chaos, with plenty of room for mistakes to be made. We honor that imperfection, because it is that very quality of randomness that slows for freedom, for creativity and spontaneity. But the price we pay for living in an exuberant, unpredictable, surprising universe is about the same as for attending a wild, unpoliced party where you can crank the music up loud and smash your glassware in the fireplace: there's a certain amount of cleaning up to do."
I would point out that living in this spontaneous universe also implies that, along with our freedom, you can have an unlimited number of risks, both for "good" and for "bad to happen to you.
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