Humanity Is the Devil: Faith and the Responsibility for Evil

Humanity is the Devil: Faith and the Responsibility for Evil Every religious movement faces the contradictions posed by the existence of evil in a universe supposedly under the dominion of a loving and benevolent God. It is one of the most debilitating questions posed to every faith, in fact, and requires rationalization in imaginative ways. Explanations vary from attributing the presence of evil as a test presented to humanity by God to sift out the worthy from the masses, a challenge conjured up by a malign force which opposes God, an illusion of the human condition, or some variant of the above designed to placate the questioning faithful. Not many religions have turned the blame from alien figures of darkness to humanity itself. Though faiths such as Protestantism delegate blame onto humanity for the moral failings of the race and the suffering that exists in the world, still Satan or some corresponding figure is placed as the root of all evil, the tempter who led humanity out of the good path into darkness. Nevertheless, the Process Church of the Final Judgment does attribute the propagation of evil to a human origin: in their belief, the existence of evil comes from humanity. Evil was especially attributed to the disconnection of humanity from God, humanity 's flouting of God 's plan, and the division of God from the unity that once was into four parts which allowed the universe to exist. In his essay "Social Construction from Within: Satan 's Process", Bainbridge asserts the rational aesthetic and intellectual integrity of the Process Church, espousing their construction of a richly mystical religious community. However, amongst Brainbridge 's excellent and valid observations on the Process Church, he neglects to elucidate the maturity and sense of responsibility reflected in the philosophy of the Church. By their acceptance of the darkness within human nature and within God, the Process Church took on a rationalization of evil that demanded

Cited: 1.BainBridge, William Sims. "Social Construction from Within: Satan 's Process." The Satanism Scare. Ed. James T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. Bromley. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991. 297-310 . 2.Duvall, Kathryn L. The Religious Movements Homepage: The Process. 16 July 2001. 7 November 2007. 3.Lachman, Gary. The Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups, and Movements: Sympathy for the Devil. 28 February 2007. 7 November 2007. 4.The Process Church of the Final Judgment. Humanity is the Devil. 10 October 2004. 8 November 2007.