Revulsion

The images of Syrian men, women and children choking for breath and suffering from a Sarin gas attack in the outskirts of Damascus are etched on my mind, and I am sure they will be on yours too. I have heard many words which have been used to describe this atrocity, no matter who any of us think may be responsible. Words like; horrific, inhuman, unethical, immoral, and evil. Where does this sense of natural revulsion come from, because I have heard them used by people of great faith, some faith, and no faith at all?

The theory (yes it is just a theory) of evolution suggests that we have evolved initially from a big bang, and then by chance mutations, through single cells to the complex human beings we are. So where did our inbuilt, inbred and natural feelings of immorality and evil come from? Did that happen by chance in every part of the globe, and in every human being?

I do not think the feelings of revulsion are an accident. I believe God has placed in each of us the ability to know right from wrong, and good from evil. There is no coincidence that the word ‘evil’ is just one letter short of the name for the father of evil, the ‘devil’. So here is an observation and another question. Why do we see the evil of extreme acts of depravity so easily, but we are slow to recognise the same root of immorality and evil when it is closer to home, and in our own lives? Is it because it is so much easier to point the finger at another place, than to see our own shortcomings and sin?

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20 NIV