Saturday, March 28, 2009
Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?, Part 6
If the following describes the actual sequence, then it would be understandable why God lets really awful things happen occasionally.
* The first decision God made was that His creatures would have free will. Only then could He shower them with love, and hence only then would God be complete. (It's hard to imagine a God who had no one to love.)
* From that point on, the struggle of the universe was necessary. In a sense, God decided He would allow Lucifer to rebel and become Satan. Further, God would allow Satan a large degree of privileges, to make the choice real. (In other words, if God had stacked the deck so that crime literally didn't pay, or that no one was ever biologically tempted by adultery, etc., then it wouldn't mean much when people obeyed Him.)
* Even so, God really did design this world such that even on earth, the long-run benefits of acting morally outweigh the (earthly) costs.
* Now if Satan had had his way, he would have subjected every person to the maximum amount of suffering imaginable. First, that would drive them more easily to him, because he offers the promise of immediate relief. Second, he just enjoys watching people suffer.
* But God of course doesn't let anything remotely like that happen. However, in order to make sure people appreciate how much "aggregate suffering" is being avoided, He occasionally permits something really awful to happen, even to a totally "innocent" person. That way the other 99.9999% of the world's population can keep a better perspective in their own lives, which in turn will help them fend off Satan's lies.
===> So, if the above sketch is basically correct, then it makes a lot more sense why an omnipotent Being would allow awful things to happen once in a while.
* The first decision God made was that His creatures would have free will. Only then could He shower them with love, and hence only then would God be complete. (It's hard to imagine a God who had no one to love.)
* From that point on, the struggle of the universe was necessary. In a sense, God decided He would allow Lucifer to rebel and become Satan. Further, God would allow Satan a large degree of privileges, to make the choice real. (In other words, if God had stacked the deck so that crime literally didn't pay, or that no one was ever biologically tempted by adultery, etc., then it wouldn't mean much when people obeyed Him.)
* Even so, God really did design this world such that even on earth, the long-run benefits of acting morally outweigh the (earthly) costs.
* Now if Satan had had his way, he would have subjected every person to the maximum amount of suffering imaginable. First, that would drive them more easily to him, because he offers the promise of immediate relief. Second, he just enjoys watching people suffer.
* But God of course doesn't let anything remotely like that happen. However, in order to make sure people appreciate how much "aggregate suffering" is being avoided, He occasionally permits something really awful to happen, even to a totally "innocent" person. That way the other 99.9999% of the world's population can keep a better perspective in their own lives, which in turn will help them fend off Satan's lies.
===> So, if the above sketch is basically correct, then it makes a lot more sense why an omnipotent Being would allow awful things to happen once in a while.
Comments:
Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?,
A child getting spanked (for a good reason) thinks that is a bad thing until they latter appreciate why they were spanked. It was the fear/dislike of a spanking that prevented them from doing future bad thing(s) until they grew/realized why doing what they did was bad?
A lion jumps on the back of a zebra trapped in a tar pit and starts eating away. To us that is bad, but not to the lion.
It is all a matter of who's perception.
"...He occasionally permits something really awful to happen, even to a totally "innocent" person. That way the other 99.9999% of the world's population can keep a better perspective in their own lives, which in turn will help them fend off Satan's lies."
Is that a quick way of saying the story of Job?
A child getting spanked (for a good reason) thinks that is a bad thing until they latter appreciate why they were spanked. It was the fear/dislike of a spanking that prevented them from doing future bad thing(s) until they grew/realized why doing what they did was bad?
A lion jumps on the back of a zebra trapped in a tar pit and starts eating away. To us that is bad, but not to the lion.
It is all a matter of who's perception.
"...He occasionally permits something really awful to happen, even to a totally "innocent" person. That way the other 99.9999% of the world's population can keep a better perspective in their own lives, which in turn will help them fend off Satan's lies."
Is that a quick way of saying the story of Job?
# posted by 
: March 29, 2009 at 12:40 AM
: March 29, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Quick comment.
I think I agree with all of that, but I'd add / slightly change part of it: "Now if Satan had had his way, he would have subjected every person to the maximum amount of suffering imaginable" would become "Now if Satan had had his way, he would have subjected every person to his will through force."
You touch on it in the first couple points re: God allowing humans a freedom to choose. The opposite of that would be NO freedom. ie. Satan's plan.
I think I agree with all of that, but I'd add / slightly change part of it: "Now if Satan had had his way, he would have subjected every person to the maximum amount of suffering imaginable" would become "Now if Satan had had his way, he would have subjected every person to his will through force."
You touch on it in the first couple points re: God allowing humans a freedom to choose. The opposite of that would be NO freedom. ie. Satan's plan.
I was under the impression that the Devil was only called "Lucifer" due to a translation error in the King James Bible and that actually it was the name of a Babylonian king or something along those lines.
I think this argument is one of the biggest emotional comforts available to Christians, especially when you apply it to Jesus.
It's amazing that the Creator of rebellious humans suffered physically at the hands of those humans in order to rescue them for the penalty they deserve for their rebelling.
It makes the experience of suffering a lot more bearable and makes it easier to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. If God suffers for us while doing right, should we not try to be patient with our sufferings, too?
I've surveyed philosophical responses to the problems of evil and suffering here.
It's amazing that the Creator of rebellious humans suffered physically at the hands of those humans in order to rescue them for the penalty they deserve for their rebelling.
It makes the experience of suffering a lot more bearable and makes it easier to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. If God suffers for us while doing right, should we not try to be patient with our sufferings, too?
I've surveyed philosophical responses to the problems of evil and suffering here.
# posted by : March 29, 2009 at 12:58 PM
: March 29, 2009 at 12:58 PM
I don't understand your use of the phrase, "God allows..." God created man and woman with free will. From then on, God is allowing man and woman to act. The fact that man and woman cause each other to suffer also causes God to suffer. The fact that man cannot understand God's love is cause for more suffering; both God's and man's. God cannot not allow man to act of his own free will. That would be a contradiction.
# posted by : March 29, 2009 at 5:05 PM
: March 29, 2009 at 5:05 PM
Have you read The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton? This is essentially the message that appears in the final chapter.
In Luke 13, Jesus answers this question and he says nothing about "free will." Yes, when one person murders another, suffering is caused by the evil desire (free will) of the murderer. But this does not explain the devistation of a tornado. Tornadoes have nothing to do with man's free will. Jesus' answer explains both situations. We are sinful people living in a fallen world: "...unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
# posted by : March 30, 2009 at 10:56 AM
: March 30, 2009 at 10:56 AM
The way I see it, God lets bad things happen because, deep down, we really want bad things to happen: its like a novel, you want there to be some conflict or dilemma, or else the novel would be boring.. so would our lives, if the world were "perfect"
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