Natural Versus Moral Evil
Jean Jacques Rousseau responded to Voltaire's criticism of the optimists by pointing out that the value judgement required in order to declare the 1755 Lisbon earthquake a natural evil ignored the fact that the human endeavour of the construction and organization of the city of Lisbon was also to blame for the horrors recounted as they had contributed to the level of suffering. It was, after all, the collapsing buildings, the fires, and the close human confinement that led to much of the death.
The question of whether natural disasters such as hurricanes might be natural or moral evil is complicated by new understandings of the effects, such as global warming, of our collective actions on events that were previously considered to be out of our control. Certain such disasters, however, such as damage caused by a meteorite, cannot be ascribed to the actions of humans.
Another common argument, espoused by Alvin Plantinga, is that everything that appears at first glance to be natural evil could in fact be moral evil committed by freely acting supernatural beings, such as fallen angels.
Read more about this topic: Natural Evil
Famous quotes containing the words natural, moral and/or evil:
“Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible; no one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time—is the same thing as time; if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next.”
—Cesare Pavese (1908–1950)
“You have both said well,
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have glozed, but superficially—not much
Unlike young men whom Aristotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“This spirit of mob-law is becoming as great an evil as a servile war.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)