I admit that explaining the existence of evil from a Christian perspective isn’t that easy. But, although even the best attempts tend to leave some loose ends and intellectual explanations are not necessarily emotionally consoling, Michael Ingham has not brought the Christian understanding of evil to new heights in his musings on the Japanese tragedies.
According to Ingham: “Natural evil is the result of things over which we have no control” and “We call them evil because they are evil” and “Natural evil is random. It is not planned”. Eat your heart out, Thomas Aquinas.
From here:
Bishop Michael Ingham told the audience that disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are examples of “natural evil,” which happen randomly and can’t be explained by any divine plan.
“Natural evil is the result of things over which we have no control — earthquakes, tsunamis,” Ingham said during the 90-minute service.
“We call them evil because they are evil. They wreak havoc upon the innocent and the defenceless. … Natural evil is random. It is not planned. It afflicts us without reason and without human deserving.”
In the face of such unspeakable horror, Ingham said, the world must come together as a community of neighbours.
“We must cultivate the virtue of compassion,” said Ingham. “We cannot survive as isolated individuals or isolated societies. The pain of our neighbours is our pain. When neighbours suffer, neighbours respond.”
Has Ingham said anything the Humanist Canada society might not have said? No.
I think your last comment is right, a Humanist explanation would be no different. But you could start with a statement not dissimilar to Ingham’s, but see it in Christian (or Judeo-Christian) terms: 1 Disasters such as earthquakes are “natural”, rather than specific acts of God, but are the result of God’s giving freedom, not just to people, but also to nature (freedom, in this case, to be governed by natural/physical laws) and 2, such disorder in nature/the world are consequences of the Fall (like human evil). 1 & 2 have the advantage of being good theodicy – they absolve God from a charge of causing unmerited suffering and death(for Japanese people, in this case).
The existence of evil is easy to explain. People are bastards. End of story. This is true whether Christianity is true or not.
The great news is, if Christianity is true, there is really someone out there who can help.
If it is not true, the world is still full of bastards tormenting the rest of us.