Theodicy
In the wake of the senseless shootings in Tucson last Saturday, it is understandable to ask, "How could God let this happen?" The question of why bad things happen to good (or innocent) people has occupied men and women for countless millenia. It is, in fact, such a ubiquitous question that theologians and philosophers have given a name to the various attempts at an answer: Theodicy (which comes from the Greek theos,meaning God and dike, meaning "justice"). When bad things happen to innocent people, we wonder how a just God could stand by and allow it.I am not a great thinker or a sophisticated theologian/philosopher, so for me the answer to the question of why God allows bad things to happen is relatively simple, though perhaps counterintuitive: Love.
This is my Theodicy: God loves each one of us and desires that we love Him (and one another) in return. But love cannot be forced--it must be given. And love can only be meaningfully given if it could have also been withheld. Love is a gift. God could have, I suppose, made mankind without the capacity to choose evil, but that limitation would have made us mere puppets. It would have made God be like the character J.F. Sebastian in the film Blade Runner, a genetic designer who lives alone in an abandoned building and surrounds himself with automatons of his own creation. There is no love there, only programmed behavior.
Many years ago when I asked my wife to marry me, if I had drugged her so that she had no willpower to refuse, it would have been a sham. Likewise, if she had chosen to spend life with me because she feared me and what I might do if she refused, it would have been a monstrosity. Thus, I am grateful that Carla accepted the gift of my love and reciprocated with the gift of her love. And when our child was born, he was the recipient of that shared love.
The Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. We have the God-given capacity to love unselfishly and extravagently; to give of ourselves sacrificially; to overcome hatred with love. We can choose to give our love to God--and to those He loves--or to withhold it. We can choose to do evil. Love requires that the choice be there.
We see all around us the effects of choosing evil and death instead of love and life. Some choose to build machines designed to hurt and kill people. Some chose to sell and buy and own such machines. And some choose--as a man did last Saturday--to point one of these machines at the objects of God's love, and pull the trigger--firing, I suspect--into the very heart of God as well as the bodies of innocent people. Some choose war over peace, greed over equity, selfishness over generosity, using people over honoring people, retribution over restoration, revenge over forgiveness, taking over giving. The reality is, we are all continuously confronted with such choices. In the aggregate of human existence, the effects of these choices become structures and systems and legacies which reflect and perpetuate and amplify the choices we have collectively made.
As Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians:
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."
When we grasp how much God loves us (all of us!), it frees and empowers us to love in return.
To love God.
To love one another.
Even to love whose who choose evil.
1 Comments:
I am saddened that mankind continues to blame God for all the horrific tragedies that occur in our world. I think this reflects on how well we don’t know God. I agree with everything Danny said, but I also wanted to add another viewpoint.
We are designed with and are allowed to exercise our own free wills, provided we are not unduly oppressed by some type of dictatorship. And so we go along throughout our days making numerous choices. Think of these choices representing many pebbles dropped into a still pond. When they hit the water they send out concentric circular waves that spread out until they intersect with the other concentric circles from all the thousands of pebbles that have been dropped. Some of the pebbles are larger, creating concentric waves that fan out and continue to intersect and affect many such concentric patterns. Now think of these concentric circular waves representing the consequences of our actions, and the effect they have on one or many people, according to the weight of the decision made.
We tend to live our lives thinking we are independent. But I think the above example shows that everything we do either affects us directly or those within our sphere of influence and/or proximity. Our lives are constantly intersecting with each other, so that the decisions we make are always going to carry some kind of effect and profound consequence.
There is only so much in a day that we can consciously be aware of and/or control. We’re human, and fallible. We cannot control the weather or earthquakes that result as the earth groans and shifts her crust through the countless centuries. Earthquakes occuring in the ocean create tsunamis. And if a land mass is in it’s path, why blame God?
My hope is that mankind will continue to become more aware of himself, his actions, and how responsible and empathic we need to become towards one another. Perhaps we could begin to practice good will towards each other by learning to be more patience, to pause and reflect before we get in a hurry and ignore the sign that says “no right turn”, which could cause an accident or a traffic citation, or piss someone off for making a dangerous turn. Maybe instead of yelling at the cashier for being slow, which makes him feel less than who he really is, we could practice kindness and patience. Or perhaps instead of throwing our garbage out the car window, pause and reflect on how we could contribute to the welfare of people and world we live in.
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