A Random Thought

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='Aug 25 2004, 08:57 PM']Yes, we agree. By natural evil I meant those things, typically called evil which have no moral content. Physical evils being the primary culprit. And I also hold that this is evil only in an analogical sense, but I would qualify that to some degree because the idea I presented above suggests that such "evils" are in fact rooted in moral evils. There are distinctions that need to be made, but in general terms I would suggest that things that are perceived in a way which is antithetical to the Divine Perfections are in fact related to moral evils in the supernatural order and expressive in a remote way of them. St. Paul says that death entered the world because of sin. So death, which in itself has no moral content, is connected with morality remotely as an effect of sin. I am saying that the constitution of the cosmos bears a stamp in remotely expressing the effects of sin in the higher created order, namely the rebellion of the angels and the heavenly milieu of which we really know very little. I am also confident that I could find Scriptural support for these ideas.
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As far as physical evil and death are concerned, I think we may not completely agree with each other. Now, before I moved to a more Eastern theological position, I would have held that physical "evil" and "death" were the result of the fall, but now I tend to see "death," and many other physical "evils" as natural, and so the fall in itself didn't cause created nature to degenerate; instead, that is natural to the created world. The fall removed the supernatural grace that was sustaining creation in a non-degenerative state of being, but it is natural for the created world to decay. In other words, once supernatural grace was removed, nature took its proper course, and in a certain sense this is a good thing, because it inhibited the growth of moral evil, and stopped it from advancing unchecked. Thus, even man's death, seen in this way, is a good, in that it lessens the growth of moral evil over time, at least until the Divine Redeemer can come and by death conquered death, and grant life to all those in the graves.