About the problem of evil

The Auschwitz concentration camp

In a previous article on the hunting hymenoptera I mentioned the problem of evil, often called the problem of pain, the well-known title of a book by CS Lewis. Although this question is mainly ethical or philosophical, it also has some relationship with science, as will be seen at the end of this post.

We can consider two different types of the problem of evil:

1. Human evil, caused by man. The Auschwitz concentration camp has become its most mentioned paradigm.
2. Natural pain, the fact that natural processes can cause severe pain to humans and other living beings.

The case of the hunting hymenoptera

Jean-Henri Fabre

In 1879, the French entomologist J. H. Fabre studied many species of hymenoptera (solitary wasps and bees) that hunt other insects as food for their larvae. This is the reason for their name (hunting hymenoptera, also called -improperly- parasite hymenoptera). Before laying the eggs, the hymenoptera paralyze the prey by injecting with their sting a drop of poison in every nerve ganglion in the un-centralized nervous system of the prey. In some species, such as Ammophila hirsuta, which hunts caterpillars, the number of ganglions may be large (up to twelve, one per segment in the caterpillar). The hunter seems to know where exactly its prey must be stabbed with the sting.

Once the prey has been paralyzed and the egg laid, the minute larva of the hymenopter digs inside the prey and starts devouring it, showing an apparent innate knowledge of the prey anatomy: it starts feeding on the parts less necessary for life, leaving the vital organs to the last. In this way, the prey does not die and rot, which would make it improper as food and lead to the death of the predator.

Ammophila sabulosa carrying a hunted caterpillar