Imperfection from Perfection

As we know, the world that we live in is far from perfect. In light of all the beauty that theists love to point to in attempt to prove the existence of their god, the ugliness of nature perfectly matches if not exceeds that so called beauty. In this article, I will not go into detail regarding the specifics of our imperfect world, such specifics will be discussed in the argument from scale. If anything, this article will discuss and rebut one of the objections against the argument from scale, which is Christians appeal to the fall of man in the garden of eden.

In normal atheist vs theist discussions, anytime the issue of the chaotic nature of our world is brought up, Christians immediately retort to man's free will choice to disobey God which resulted in nature becoming corrupted and chaotic. But the theist fails to realize that such a response does not account for the problem, he/she is merely just presenting the same problem in a different but more subtle form. When atheists point to the imperfections in the world, the rationale for such questioning is that it makes no sense to believe that the universe was designed and is maintained by a perfect being but yet the end result is imperfection and chaos. With the case of Adam and Eve in the Garden, the problem remains: How can an imperfect creation come from a perfect God?

Of course the theist will retort and state that man was originally created upright and good and then chose evil and became imperfect as a result. But such theistic reasoning is backwards. We do not become imperfect because we choose evil, but we choose evil as a result of imperfection. If you have a human being that is perfectly righteous and good and has not even a stain of sin or evil in his/her heart, then how do you get from that perfect state to evil and wickedness? In order for evil to be committed, there has to be a source. Appealing to free will choice does not solve the problem because free will choices are performed in accordance to ones own nature, human choices are not random events with no source. Either the source is good or evil.

Interestingly, the Bible supports my argument. In Matthew 7:18, Jesus says that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. If Adam was originally created good, how then could he have produced a bad fruit? In Matthew 15 Jesus also speaks of how that which comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. So it is man's nature, not free will, that is responsible for our actions and words.

We can present this argument in a logical syllogism.

1. In theism, God is defined as a perfect being who originally created everything good and perfect.

2. Imperfection cannot come from perfection.

3. Man is imperfect.

4. A perfect God does not exist.