By Rudy
Barnes, Jr.
Evil
is an impossible reality for monotheists.
According to the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, those who believe that God is
all good, all powerful and the creator of all things cannot be monotheists and also
believe that Satan’s evil exists independent of God’s goodness. That would make them dualists rather than
monotheists. Dualism originated with the
Gnostics of ancient Persia, who believed that the forces of darkness (evil) were
in a cosmic battle with the forces of light (good); and Sacks acknowledged that
dualism is found in both Judaism and Christianity.
Rabbi
Sacks addressed dualism in the context of religious violence, and he explained
that “Dualism entered Judaism and Christianity when it became easier to
attribute the sufferings of the world to an evil force rather than to the work
of God.” For Sacks, God is the source of
the bad as well as the good, judgment as well as forgiveness, and justice as
well as love, so there is no room for Satan in Sacks’ monotheism. Sacks explains that “…the bad God does is a
response [punishment] to the bad we do.”
Sacks
articulates a dualistic concept of an omnipotent God universal in matters of
justice (Elokim) and particular in
His compassion for the Jews as a chosen people (Hasham). God loves and
judges, forgives and punishes, and Sacks acknowledges the complexity of such a
concept, and that dualism simplifies it.
Sacks attributes religious violence to a “…pathological dualism that sees humanity as…divided between the good
and irredeemably bad.” It is the Us versus Them dichotomy that is associated with fundamentalist and
exclusivist religions that assert one true faith, one inerrant and infallible holy
book, with all others false and condemned by God.
Jesus
was a Jew who, according to the Gospel accounts, was tempted by Satan before he
began a public ministry that predicted a coming kingdom of God based on love
and mercy rather than on divine law, judgment and fear. It was a spiritual kingdom opposed to Satan’s
worldly domain. Jesus and the Jews of
his day spoke of Satan’s evil as opposed to God’s goodness, and Jesus exorcised
the demonic minions of Satan. In The Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught his followers
to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, and to deliver
us from evil. And like Jesus, Muhammad spoke
of Satan as evil and the spiritual enemy of God’s goodness.
According
to Jesus, neither God nor Satan favors one religion over others. Jesus taught that all who do God’s will, as
summarized in the greatest commandment
to love God and one’s neighbor as oneself, are his spiritual brothers and
sisters in the family of God. The Hebrew Bible teaches that those who fear
God and obey God’s Law are rewarded, while the disobedient are punished. The Qur’an also teaches that those who fear
God and obey God’s law (shari’a), and believe in the Qur’an as the final,
perfect and immutable word and law of God will experience eternal paradise,
while all unbelievers will be condemned to eternal damnation.
Such
exclusivist views give rise to what Sacks calls altruistic evil, which is based on the belief that God saves His
chosen (Us) and condemns all others (Them).
Satan uses that theme of fear and condemnation and does a convincing
imitation of God, and Satan does some of his best acting in the synagogue,
church and mosque. How do we tell the
difference? God uses love and mercy to
reconcile and redeem, while Satan uses fear, hate and violence to divide and
conquer.
All
religions—and for monotheists, even God—can be the source of good and
evil. The seeds for the evil of Islamist
terrorism germinate from a fear that reason and advances in knowledge are a
threat to their traditional beliefs, and that fear has spawned a virulent form
of Islamic fundamentalism that motivates hate and violence toward unbelievers. But most Muslims, like most Jews and
Christians, are not religious fundamentalists and share belief in the greatest commandment as a common word of faith. It is the love of our neighbors—even our unbelieving
neighbors—that distinguishes God’s goodness from Satan’s evil.
In
a world of increasing religious pluralism and danger from Islamist
fundamentalism, true justice depends on Islam embracing the values of
democracy, libertarian human rights and the secular rule of law. Those secular values have been embraced by
Western religions but rejected by Islamism.
Unlike Moses and Muhammad who taught the supremacy of holy law, Jesus
taught the supremacy of love over law. The victory of the light of God’s love over
the dark forces of Satan’s fear, hate and violence will require a mix of the
powers of persuasion and coercion, with the ultimate objective of undermining
the legitimacy of Islamist fundamentalism, so that religious reconciliation and
lasting peace are possible among all people of faith.
Are
good and evil spiritual forces engaged in a great cosmic battle, or is God the
source of all good and evil? Rabbi Sacks
was right to blame religious violence on a pathological dualism that considers
unbelievers as evil, but wrong to reject the idea that evil can be a spiritual
force separate from God that motivates devout believers to harm unbelievers. It is ironic that Islamists share a belief
with fundamentalist Jews and Christians that their ancient holy laws are God’s
standard of righteousness and that the immorality prevalent in libertarian
democracies is sin—the product of Satan’s evil—and should be punished. To that end Islamist terrorists consider
themselves instruments of God’s judgment and kill unbelievers and sinners.
The
challenge for people of faith, whether monotheists or dualists (or both), is to
learn to love all their neighbors,
including unbelievers and strangers, and in a dangerous world that includes the
tough love of protecting their
neighbors from those who would do them harm.
Notes
and References to Resources:
Previous blogs on related topics
are: Religion and New Beginnings:
Salvation and Reconciliation into the Family of God, January 4, 2015; The Greatest Commandment, January 11,
2015; Love over Law: A Principle at the
Heart of Legitimacy, January 18, 2015; Jesus
Meets Muhammad: Is There a Common Word of Faith for Jews, Christians and
Muslims Today? January 25, 2015; Promoting
Religion Through Evangelism: Bringing Light or Darkness, February 8, 2015; Is Religion Good or Evil, February 15,
2015; Religion as a Source of Good and
Evil, March 1, 2015; A Fundamental Problem with Religion, May
3, 2015; Religion, Human Rights and
National Security, May 10, 2015; Fear
and Fundamentalism, July 26, 2015; Politics
and Religious Polarization, September 20, 2015; A Containment Strategy to Defeat Islamist Terrorism, November 1,
2015; Tough Love and the Duty to Protect,
November 8, 2015; and American
Exceptionalism: The Power of Persuasion or Coercion, November 15, 2015.
The quotes from Rabbi Jonathan
Sacks are from his book, Not In God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence
(Schocken Books, New York, 2015) at pp 49, 51 & 53. For a review of Rabbi Sack’s book, see http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/books/review/islam-and-the-future-of-tolerance-and-not-in-gods-name.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share.
On the origin of Satan as the
personification of evil in 1st century Christianity, see Elaine
Pagels, The Origins of Satan (Rndom House, New York, 1995).
The Editorial Board of The
Washington Post characterized the Paris attacks as evil. See https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/facing-evil-in-paris-and-beyond/2015/11/14/c0f82606-8afd-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines. The editorial asks, “What can containment
mean in a war like this?” For my
response see A Containment Strategy to
Defeat Islamist Terrorism, November 1, 2015; Tough Love and the Duty to Protect, November 8, 2015; and American Exceptionalism: The Power of
Persuasion or Coercion, November 15, 2015.
Paul Waldman refers to the debate
over whether to use the words “radical Islam” or to avoid using the word Islam
in referring to Islamist terrorism as a “silly, distracting” debate. See https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/15/the-silly-distracting-debate-over-whether-to-use-the-words-radical-islam/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_opinions. It is a legitimate and important debate since
Islamist terrorism must be recognized as a fundamentalist (and evil) form of
radical Islam, or Islamism, in order to be effectively countered within Islam.
In the battle against ISIS and Islamist terrorism,
experts have explained how global powers
can smash ISIS and agree that it will take religious reform within
Islam. Maajid Nawaz, a former Islamist,
has criticized those who say that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with
Islam as disingenuous. It will also take
putting the defeat of ISIS ahead of ousting Assad from power in Syria, and establishing
legitimate governments in Islamist cultures which provide “fair justice” (that
must include libertarian human rights, beginning with the freedoms of religion
and speech). See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/middleeast/envisioning-how-global-powers-can-smash-isis.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0.
On the objective of Islamist terrorism to polarize
Western society by destroying the “grayzone” of tolerance to pave the way to
Jihad, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hating-muslim-refugees-is-exactly-what-the-islamic-state-wants-europe-to-do/2015/11/15/dfe0ca84-87d1-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_opinions.
On the Paris attacks as “precisely chosen targets”
chosen by ISIS, with Paris as “the capital of prostitution and vice,” see https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/we-are-everything-they-hate-mourners-gather-at-paris-attack-sites/2015/11/15/c09acbbe-8b39-11e5-bd91-d385b244482f_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines.
On the Paris attacks as a precursor of an
apocalyptic Jihad and the end times sought by ISIS, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/for-the-islamic-state-paroxysms-of-violence-portends-apocalypse/2015/11/16/7020482e-8c99-11e5-baf4-bdf37355da0c_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines.
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