“Natural evil” and moral evil are incommensurable and incomparable. Only humans face the problem of evil, because they — and only they — are called on to be good, and they are capable of responding to this call, and to judge their own choices on the basis of this call.

They are called on to be good by God. There are four possible responses to this call. (1) To question the God making this call. How can God be perfectly good, loving and knowing? Ignore the call, because such a God can’t be imagined. (2) The call does not come from God. It comes from other humans engaged in evil, just like me. Therefore, I can negotiate or ignore the call. (3) We are animals unable to rise above our animality. Therefore, we can’t respond to the call. (4) I hear the call and I respond to the call. I’ll admit that I can never fully rise above my animality, but, listening to and following the call, I’ll gain the faith to do less evil and to help others do less evil, to do more good and to help others do more good. I’ll admit that no matter how much I know the Author of the call, He will always remain a mystery to me. All I know is that the call comes from beyond me. No matter how much evil there is in the world and where it comes from, I follow the call. It becomes the compass of my life.