20
!
The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 in the Kingdom of Portugal
52
precipitated
the now-standard distinction between moral evil and natural evil; because until that time,
there was no distinction between evils caused by human’s moral depravity and evils over
which humans have no control.
53
Unlike the problem of moral evil, there is no moral
agent that can be blamed for natural evil. The Lisbon earthquake, like other natural
disasters and diseases, involves the very impersonal elements of nature.
54
Dostoevsky thought of evil as the destructive aspects of human freedom, which
can only be bound by God.
55
Eagleton, in his article “The Nature of Evil,” writes that:
“evil is not something positive, but rather a kind of lack or defectiveness, a sort of
nothingness or negativity, an inability to be truly alive.”
56
Hefling, in quoting Francis
Spufford in his book, unapologetic, thinks of evil in his discussion of original sin as: “the
human propensity to fuck things up.”
57
N.T. Wright reports that evil can be understood as
it is outwardly manifested in pedophilia, terrorism, death, genocide, tribalism,
Balkanization and other such atrocities.
58
Some people also use the term “evil” in a way
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
52
David Bressan, “1755 Lisbon Earthquake,” Scientific American, November 1, 2011, accessed
December 17, 2017, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/november-1-1755-the-
earthquake-of-lisbon-wraith-of-god-or-natural-disaster.
53
Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, 20.
54
Stephen Beale, “The Problem of Natural Evil,” November 23, 2013, accessed December 29,
2017, http://catholicexchange.com/the-problem-of-natural-evil.
55
Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Problem of Evil,” Dostoevsky Research Station, trans. Constance
Garnett, 1879, September 17, 1999, accessed December 17, 2017, http://www.kiosek.com/ Dostoevsky.
56
Terry Eagleton, “The Nature of Evil,” Tikkun, 2011, accessed July 3, 2017,
https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-2246899461/the-nature-of-evil.
57
Francis Spufford, “What Sin REALLY Is (The Human Propensity to F**k Things Up),”
Huffington Post, January 23, 2014, accessed July 3, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/francis-
spufford/what-sin-really-is-the-hu_b_4164852.html.
58
Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, 29–34.