Becoming

Absolute evil is non-being. But non-being is inconceivable since whatever we conceive is conceived as at least potentially being. Non-being is not and has no potential to be.

Relative evil, however, is alive and well and its headquarters seems to be Planet Earth. War, genocide, deadly pandemics, natural disasters, poverty and injustice seem to be all around us: relative evil is all around us. Were it not for relative evil, we would be living in Paradise…which apparently we are not!

But relative evil is not absolute evil; it’s not absolute evil because things that are ‘relatively evil’ nevertheless actually are. What partakes of being cannot be absolute non-being. Relative evil is most definitely a ‘privation of being’ but not a total privation of being.

Evil (non-being) is what constitutes conflict. Event A is not event B and vice versa. A lacks some of the being of B and B lacks some of the being of A. By themselves, A and B are mutually incompatible. It is either A or B but never both.

But A and B are not by themselves; they are surrounded by other events (collectively let’s call them ‘C’) that partake both of A and of B.

A and B mutually compatible in C and when A and B are compatible, the conflict between them becomes ‘contrast’. What we call ‘becoming’ is the progressive transmutation of conflict into contrast.

But becoming is an entropic process. The transmutation of conflict into contrast generates heat and eventually erodes all order. In the end, becoming undermines being.

Fortunately, however, contrast is merely a way-station between conflict and something infinitely better: harmony. The transmutation of ALL contrasts into harmony is the function of the unique event (D) that we call God. In God, all things are more than just compatible; they are mutually enriching. When universal conflict becomes universal harmony, Paradise is realized. Harmony is the ultimate order. It is the eternal aspect of temporal events.