By Tin-chee (TC) Lo; June 16, 2014
Last Saturday (June 14, 2014), my wife and I went to the Danbury Mall in Connecticut for a pastime. After we had lunch, she went her way to get her bargain and I walked to the neighboring Barnes and Noble to browse among some art books. As I entered into the book store, I saw a desk set up near the entrance and few chairs in front of it. It was obvious to me that this was the “Meet the Author” event. Behind the desk was a middle age man in suit with fullness of salt and pepper hair, gentle and scholarly. He was the author of a book he tried to promote and he made himself available to autograph the customers’ copies. I saw few people came to converse with him and I found him articulate and knowledgeable as I stealthily listened to their conversations. From what I overheard, these people who talked with him were writers or book lovers trying to learn some writing technique from him or simply exchange knowledge. While they were still talking, I approached the desk and picked up one copy from the stack and started to flip over the pages. I found the title of the book, Zodiac Deception, was quite outlandish, and I found the author’s name was Garry Kress (GK). After all people had left the desk, I initiated a friendly conversation with the man behind the desk.
TC: Hi, Gary! By the title of your book, may I guess this is another Da Vinci Code type book?
GK: Not quite.
TC: Is it a novel?
GK: Yes.
TC: What is your philosophy?
GK: What do you mean?
TC: Do you agree that the work of an author or of an artist reflects his or her worldview in some way?
GK: Umm…
TC: OK, what about just the philosophy behind this particular novel?
GK: Well, the main idea of this book is “A little good is able to destroy the biggest evil.”
TC: Interesting. But my problem is “What is good?” (I borrow Jesus’ question put to the rich young ruler.)
GK: Any act of altruism is good.
TC: Yes, altruism is good but it is a bad-good because human good is inevitably contaminated with bad elements. For example, if I gave 1 million dollar for a noble cause to a not-for-profit organization, it is hard for me not to nurture a secret spirit of wish hoping to be well known—if I am absolutely honest to myself.
GK: Where this bad element comes from?
I sensed Mr. Kress knew the classic argument against Christianity: “If evil exists, the good God cannot.” So I attempted to answer an unasked question.
TC: Do you agree that love is the highest level of virtue?
GK: The greatest (of these) is love. (GK might be quoting 1 Corinthians 13:13)
TC: But we all agree that free-will precedes love because a forced love is not real love. So, free-will is the noblest gift ever endowed to mankind.
GK: I agree.
TC: Freedom of choice opens the possibility of choosing bad as well as good. If we are programmed to choose only good then we are not free.
GK: Pretty standard answer! Now you are talking about Supreme Being.
TC: We have converged to a common point. I also agree with you when you said earlier that small good prevails big evil—but I must qualify my agreement: This small good must be the good good (divine) and not the bad good (humanistic).
GK: OK. My book is on-line. Read it.
As I left the bookstore and walked back to the Mall to meet my wife, the phrase “small good overcomes big evil” hovered over my mind. Turn it into a question: Can small good prevail over big evil? I think the answer is “Yes” and “No”.
- If the small good is the bad good, the answer is “NO”. Bad good (humanistic good) can never prevail over evil even it is big. It has been tried throughout the entire human history and proven true.
- If the small good is the good good, the answer is “YES”. Good good (God’s good) can triumphant over evil.
God’s good which has been demonstrated by His forgiveness can never be small. If your sin and my sin multiply by a limitless number, then we begin to get a glimpse of the cost Christ paid on the cross. The human heart is the greatest evil and Christ’s love is the ultimate good.
