Odyssey
project tackles evil
By Todd Leland
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Odyssey Seminar Series hosted a panel of
four Cal State Long Beach professors for
a conference on evil Tuesday in the East
Library.
The conference was the last in a miniseries
held this past month to incorporate the
idea of evil into the Odyssey Seminar Series
theme of “The World We Make.”
“We were not sure if the topic of evil would
attract very many attendees,” said Mary
Caputi, a political science professor and
conference co-organizer. “The turnout could
not have been better.”
Al Spangler, a philosophy professor and
co-organizer of the event with Caputi, said
he agreed that the conference was a great
success.
“We wanted to have the entire Odyssey Series
focus on evil,” Spangler said. “But most
people wanted to go with ‘The World We Make’
theme, so we decided to have our own little
mini-conference.
Attending the conference as panel members
were CSULB professors Thomas Schmidt and
Ed Quest, from the philosophy department,
literature professor Robert and religious
studies professor Tony Battaglia.
Each professor had his own personal opinions
about the concept of evil and argued a number
of points they felt were pertinent to the
understanding of evil.
“Evil provides a logical reason that an
all-powerful, omnipotent god does not exist,”
Schmidt said.
Schmidt also said that the moral obligation
of all humans is to avoid pain and, in a
sense, thereby avoid evil.
Battaglia made a case for the difference
between the sick and healthy-minded individual
and how the healthy are sheltered from evil
while the sick-minded deal with it at an
early age.
“One of the Buddha’s noble truths is that
everything suffers,” Battaglia said. “Life
is a cycle … you must begin by recognizing
there is evil in the world.”
Brophy concentratef his comments on the
Bible and especially the aspects of Job.
“Job is a breakthrough. He suffers both
physical and moral evil,” Brophy said. “God
says to him, ‘It is not all about you.’
Job’s response is he has experienced God
and does not need an answer.”
All the panelists did agree that evil is
at times beyond the rationale of human thought.
“How can something so good,” Quest questioned
about God. “Create a universe so flawed?”
The conference came to a close with attendees
asking the panelists about the role evil
has in our society and world.
“This conference showed that there is an
intense and lively intellectual presence
on this campus,” Spangler said. “The turnout
and the conference have been an overwhelming
success.”
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