Here's an issue hotly debated for centuries, and still goes unanswered. The issue: if God is good and all powerful, why do bad things happen? Is it because God is indeed not good, or is it because, though God is good, he is incapable of stopping bad things from happening?
Well, the problem seems divided into two categories, one of which is rather simple, the other a bit more complex. Either a bad event occurs due to a human cause, or a bad event occurs due to a non-human cause.
The first case is easily explained in a way that fits inline with the notion of a loving and all-powerful God. Or rather, potentially all powerful God. The truth is that in giving fickle humans freewill, God donated some of his power to us, limiting himself, and empowering us. You see, if we choose to disobey our moral code, God could not possibly stop us if he has truly given us free will. If God were to stop us, then we never had the chance to choose good from evil, which is to say, we never had free will to begin with. If we were not given free will, our lives would be akin to this analogy. I'm sitting in the testing center taking the GRE, and Stephen Hawking is sitting beside me. Before I click on an answer, I tell him, and if it's right, he lets me click. If I'm wrong, S.H. takes the mouse from me and clicks on the right answer. In the end I score perfectly. But who really took the test? Was I given the choice of which answer to pick? No. I was able to look at the choices, tell S.H. which I would have chosen, but S.H. took the test. I had in reality no choice. The right answer would always be chosen. Similarly, if God maintained his power, which I have no doubt he could do if he desired, we would never have choices to do right or wrong, and thus no free will. Since obviously I for one have sinned, this demonstrates that God has given up some of his power to me. Unfortunately, we often misuse this power. This is what leads to these bad occurrences due to human behavior. God will not stop us from hurting one another. Likewise, he will not stop us from helping one another. This is the beauty of God's plan, that contains both dark and light hues in our lives, that allows us to experience the contrasting stuff of hate, love, rudeness, kindness, etc.
I can imagine the counterargument- "Forget contrast, I think the world would be a better place if it was filled with Mother Teresa's." However, the flaws in this argument are abundant. First, if the world were perfect, there would be no need for M.T. to fulfill, and thus no one would experience her love and kindness. Second, even if it wasn't paradoxical to have such a need in a perfect world, would anyone really feel loved by, or feel respect for M.T. had she been working under compulsion, much like a slave?
The second category is indeed difficult to explain, if nothing more than the opposite views to everything. Without ocean storms that cause tsunamis, the earth would quickly become an arid and uninhabitable planet. Without bacteria's ability to mutate into destructive organisms, bacteria crucial to our survival would not have been able to survive through the ages. Without plate tectonics that lead to earthquakes and volcanic activity, we would not have continents, fresh soil and nutrients, and a planet with a habitable atmosphere. So while these things seem very malevolent to those directly affected, they are celebrated by the rest of humanity.
So it would seem that the following are the possible conclusions one can draw from natural disasters (which I am including biological ailments as well). 1) God does not exist. 2) God does exist, he created the world, and now he's watching it spin. 3) God created the world and will intervene when we ask for it. 4) God created the world, and everything has a purpose (in other words, those who suffer got what they deserved).
I cannot convince myself there is no God, or that there is a malevolent God. I won't discuss this option here. The other three I will discuss, in reverse order.
I counter this argument with two simple things: First, we all know good people, more than that, incredible people, who have suffered greatly due to causes not human in origin. Second, Jesus himself said (in Luke 13) that people who had recently suffered were no worse than those He was speaking to. This seems to counter any idea that bad things happen because God wanted them to happen.
The second possibility seems plausible, and may in part be accurate. However, anyone who's been struck by lightning didn't necessarily have time to ask for God's intervention. The fact that this is usually the case with disasters seems to indicate that this is not the way God works. The fact that sometimes in regard to a disaster with a longer duration (i.e. cancer) we ask for help, and yet it doesn't arrive. This also seems to indicate that this explanation is inaccurate.
Our last option is that God takes a hands-off approach to our world. As stated previously, many if not all of these disasters benefit the majority of mankind. The earth is so extraordinary, so regenerative, so stubborn to carry life, it is, for me at least, not difficult to imagine God creating matter, watching planets and galaxies form, watch as earth was formed around the sun, watch as life began to develop, and see how it led ultimately to man, saying, "It's good." Everything we know about the origins of the universe seem to tell us that God did something similar to setting up a sequence of dominoes and tipping the first one over. This gives leeway to bad things happening to the good and bad alike. Credence is also given to this notion in recognizing our own capabilities. God gave us the most powerful tool in order to deal with what could and often do become catastrophes. We have solved many of these problems, and are continuing to increase our abilities to protect ourselves. This is another way that God showed us that he loved us- by giving us these capabilities.
These conclusions, I'm sure, will be in stark contrast to many if not most others'. However, this is where I find the evidence leading. It, by the way is not necessarily what I would wish to be the truth, as I would much rather have the idea that God's angels are ready to stop my electron polarity next time there's a thunderstorm, or provide a distraction for sharks if I were to fall in the ocean. This would obviously be more preferable than the idea that God gave me a certain set of capabilities and it's my responsibility to use them and keep myself out of trouble. So if anyone would like to convince me I'm wrong about God's seemingly aloof characteristics, I'm very willing to listen.
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2 comments:
I know you wrote this post a long time ago, but I'm just now reading, so I do have a few thoughts about it. In your fourth option for the second category of suffering (in the third sentence of the eighth...oh, sorry.), you said that if suffering has a purpose, that solely means that everyone gets what they deserve. I don't think that is true. Suffering can have a purpose other than a punishment for people who sin. Look at Job! The ultimate purpose for his suffering was to bring glory to God. There are also so many examples in the Bible of suffering used to teach and to train people. Paul and James, especially, talk a lot about being content or joyful in suffering because that is what brings us to maturity in our faith, what makes us like Jesus. These, I believe from what I read in the Bible, are the two main purposes for our suffering (when it is not due to our own sin, of course): to bring glory to God and to chip (or bludgeon!) away our old nature so that we are molded into the person God wants us to be: 'mature and complete, not lacking anything.' (James 1.4).
My other thought is that if God does not intervene, does not take away suffering EVER, why would the Bible tell us so often to pray and ask for help or intervention? It seems self-contradictory. James 5.13-18 and Ephesians 6.18 are just two examples of this. It seems that if God was going to do nothing in response to our prayers for help and intervention, it is very cruel to tell us to ask anyway.
I completely agree that it would be cruel to tell us to ask for deliverance if not is forthcoming. So it would seem that if God wants us to do this, he will, at least sometimes to some degree, intervene. There are instances in my own life where this seems very plainly to be true, not necessarily to rescue me, but to provide for me.
As far as suffering for the intent of growth, I think your point has validity, and I certainly will not say "I'm right you're wrong." My belief would be more inclined to be along the lines of this: crap happens, but God can make the best of it and can help us grow from it. I say this because so many potential disasters were inherent in God's original plan, and secondly because so many bad things happen that really cannot be explained, like Kristina's best friend Maggie, or a good friend and a great man I knew from Harding who just passed away very recently, Eric Meyers.
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