People are forever asking why God permits this or why He permits that. I don’t pretend to understand it all but some of it is obvious. As the title says, men prefer darkness. Darkness has many advantages for those who wish to do wrong. Mostly, it helps to hide their deeds. But more than that, darkness represents the evil itself. And when people are given the choice between light (good) and dark (evil) they prefer the dark (evil)

Now, let’s look at the entire verse that the phrase came from and maybe you will understand.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

However, though it doesn’t say as much, I perceive that it is collective. When all men prefer the dark, then there is nothing but evil. This country has just about totally turned it’s back on God (the source of all light) and has chosen to do evil.

When we are young, more often than not we are afraid of the dark. We are afraid of what might be hiding in it. As we get older, we have a tendency to prefer the dark, as it is easier to hide that which we do. And so it is, as humans, we prefer the dark rather than the light. We certainly don’t want the world to see what we are doing.

Thieves and murderers love the dark. It is why I keep my porch light lit, as most do. It is why many have the motion detectors that turn on bright lights when they detect something moving in your front yard. The darkness helps to hide the evil men do and so men prefer darkness, which according to the verse is the condemnation of men. And choosing darkness (evil) is certainly one reason why evil is in this world.

The two seem inseparable. Evil follows darkness and darkness follows evil. Only the Light of God can break the chain.

I wish I could say this all better, bring it to light, so to speak. It would be better for you to read it rather than what I write about it. Better yet, if you never read another word of the Bible, read the first three chapters of John. It won’t take long and, if you pay close attention, you will learn a lot.