Is Cancer Evil?

No, cancer is not evil. It is many terrible things but it is not evil in the traditional sense of the word because it lacks moral premeditation. Evil is usually defined as “the quality of being morally bad or wrong.” Evil requires a moral agent behind the action.

 

Evil does exist, as both presidential candidates recently acknowledged and as most people would readily agree. Its reality is underscored by its ubiquity, which extends from the selfishness of infants to the megalomania of dictators. But where does it come from?

 

According to the Bible, evil started as a rebellion in heaven and meteored into Earth between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The initial impact was a single act of disobedience that became the fountainhead of all evil on the planet. Death spread to all humanity and the second death – eternity in hell – became a possibility for unprepared billions.

 

Read that last paragraph again. Does that seem right? Does all human evil and suffering, for time and eternity flow from a single spring: a personal choice made by our first ancestors?

 

And what had God done to prevent this tragedy? What precautions did the heavenly Father take to protect his innocent children? The only barrier between them and the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a verbal warning. It’s like a parent leaving a deadly poison on the table and telling a child not to touch it. Remember, Adam and Eve had no prior experience with the consequences of disobedience. Talk about babes in the woods!

 

And the consequences were severe! The “death” sentence was swiftly executed, with no appeal process and no way to make amends at the time. Paradise lost. Fellowship broken. Guilt imputed – according to theologians who follow Augustine’s lead – and all subsequent humans born genetic sinners. Evil is the fruit we bear as inexorably as an orange tree produces oranges. Some trees are more prolific but all share the same nature.

 

The Genesis account is a straightforward, yet frustratingly incomplete, explanation of the origin of sin and evil. But is it a true story?

 

I think so.

 

Did the events actually happen in real time and space?

 

I think not.

 

Wait a minute! How can something be true but not real?

 

Easy, just ask Jesus. He told all kinds of true stories about unreal events. The parable of the Prodigal Son is true, but you can’t visit the ruins of the village where he lived. Nor can you find the spot on the Jericho road where the Good Samaritan helped the wounded traveler.

 

[THEOLOGICAL ASIDE – For all the damage he caused, Adam is hardly mentioned outside Genesis. His name comes up only twice in the Old Testament and seven times in the New, cited mostly by Paul and never by Jesus. Paul seems to treat Adam and Eve as real people and builds part of his doctrine of sin on them (Romans 5). But perhaps Paul is using a “synecdoche” – a figure of speech where a part is used to represent the whole. The Hebrew word “Adam” can be translated “man” or “mankind.” Granted, there are problems with this approach but not as many as with a historically-literal interpretation of Genesis: a talking snake, knowledge and immortality growing on trees, a wife for Cain and inhabitants for his city, etc.]

 

The Garden of Eden story tells how evil entered the world and infected humanity. It’s a simple tale told in a simpler time. The details aren’t as important as the message:

 

Evil exists.

 

So does sin.

 

We need to be rescued from both by someone bigger than ourselves.