21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

it home to individuals. How can a perfect soul commit evil? The only alternative I can see is to accept the universe as random and then the problem of evil vanishes (although not, of course, evil itself). But with a random universe, in place of the question of evil there are the questions of where did all this complexity and order come from and how has consciousness come about? An intermediate position might be to say that consciousness has evolved with the universe and it must try to discern what is for the best just from the development of life. Then, souls are not perfect and individual character might not be all it could be and genuine evil becomes a distinct possibility. But the question of order — and where consciousness came from in the first place — still remains. Whichever way we look at this — and whether religious or otherwise — we are forced to accept paradox.

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