H. Bathó Edit – Gecse Annabella – Horváth László – Kaposvári Gyöngyi szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 16. (2007)

God, Man and Evil

LÁSZLÓ ZSOLNAY GOD, MAN AND EVIL Chapters from the cultural history of the Evil One (The complain that there's something wrong with the world is as old as mankind) I. Kant In Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky's works there is a universal spirit working in the Russian interests and in all human interests. As opposed to divided existence presuming an ethic centre, both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky stated the eternal human One, however, from merely different points of view and in totally different forms: Tolstoy on the grounds of social justice, while Dostoyevsky on that of freedom as a metaphysical dilemma. Both of them were trying to find a united world in improving the divine capabilities hidden in human existence, but while Tolstoy on the basis of the idea of religious anarchy, and the rejection of all ecclesiastic authorities, Dostoyevsky did it in the name of the Church. But this Church was not the Church in power, serving the Emperor, but that of the Kingdom of God. Both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky viewed that the world was living in breaking the law. While talking about the Kingdom of God, Tolstoy really meant obeying the divine order. He advocated the perfection realized in love, that he thought an inner command inside man, since "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17,20,21), that is to say the divine sign on man. In his experience, the Evil attacked Man from the outside in a spectacular way, mainly by tempting his body; among other things, that is why Mereshovsky called Tolstoy the "viewer of secrets in the human body". On the other hand, Dostoyevsky revealed the Evil sitting and built inside Man, doing damage from the inside: the misconceptions and the illusions of liberty, knowing that it is exactly the freedom embodied in Christ that Evil is afraid of. Both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky spoke on behalf of a European utopia. One of them believed that Evil would be destroyed by the lack of violence, the other one that Man was able to create a free and theocratic world order. But this is a utopia: the hope of Man. It might be a paradox, it certainly is, but without this hope human existence would lose its higher meaning that is supposed to be inherent. At early thinkers the presence of Evil in the world did not cast doubt on the existence of God, later, however, it became one of the most significant counter-evidence of God's existence. The problem of the Evil was of extreme importance for the theists. Theists say that God, being omnipotent, knows everything and is perfectly Good. Therefore the problem of Evil raises the question: How can the existence of God be reconciled with all the sufferings and ethic corruption that we can experience in life? One possible approach of the problem of Evil is to deny its reality. According to this view, despite all its appearances, Evil is only an illusion. The presence of the Evil in the world is inevitable, it is the condition of the perfect improvement of Man. Furthermore, since Man has a tendency towards sin, because that is how God created him, he is still able to raise himself in a world that contains evil elements because he is capable of development against Evil. It was a goal to extend the protection of the freedom of will over the problem of sufferings and pain that are independent of human actions. For instance, St Augustine stated that is the work of fallen angels, who can, based on their free decisions, ruin the material world. 419