The case of Ariel Castro - where do we locate the problem of evil?

Who’s to Blame for Human Depravity?

by Regis Martin

If ever you find yourself about to be eaten by an alligator, or sat upon by a hippopotamus, it is probably not a good idea to appeal to the better angels of their nature in hopes of securing your release. In the first place, there are no better angels lurking about the animal world, nature never having gotten around to inscribing beasts with rational souls. In the second place, they are behaving exactly as denizens of the jungle and swamp are supposed to behave, which is why your destiny may well be their dinner. What else can one expect of creatures so utterly unlike us that neither the image nor the likeness of God will ever be found in them?

The light of reason illumines only creatures of sense and sensibility, to use the language of Jane Austen; so give it a good and brisk workout from time to time. God intended the exercise to flood the mind with all that elevates us above the animals. However cute the cocker spaniel, or cozy the koala bear, their hearts will never soar beyond the stars, nor respond with tender mercy to the anguished cries of the poor. But our hearts may well be moved to do so. Yes, and free to refuse as well. And in that refusal we see unmistakable evidence of that terrifying compliment, citing a lapidary phrase out of C.S. Lewis, paid to us by a God who takes so seriously the freedom he confers that he is willing even to run the risk of men spitting in his eye. If to be free is to have the capacity for making wise and virtuous choices, pursuant to an end far beyond mere appetite, it is at the same time the right to lose oneself in sin and damnation.

This is not a truth of peripheral importance to the Christian faith. Of every man made by God, Lewis reminds us, we must say, This also is Thou: neither is this Thou. What can that possibly mean but that man, even before his bearing the mark of Cain, bore the image and likeness of God. And that the resemblance is not anything we can possibly erase; that even in choosing to go to hell, we shall carry the connection with us straight into the pit. “Simple faith leaps to this fact with astonishing ease,” says Lewis. “I once talked to a continental pastor who had seen Hitler, and had, by all human standards, good cause to hate him. ‘What did he look like?’ I asked. ‘Like all men,’ he replied. ‘That is, like Christ.’”

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