In case you haven’t been reading this blog recently, a great deal of really bad, stressful shit has hit the fan in my personal life lately. Illness, death in the family, hospitalization of my wife, and my very own mini-mental breakdown has all occurred within the past 48 days. Today it was decided that my mother’s cat needs to be put down. I was never close to that cat and thought it wouldn’t affect me emotionally, but with everything else that has occurred, it so happens that it does make me feel slightly depressed. It’s just another thing to add to the list of recent hardships, I guess.
During the last 48 days, I’ve been confronted by a few individuals who blame God on some level for these misfortunes. After all, if God is all powerful, he should be able to prevent the faithful from suffering, right? I’ve even pulled my copy of God’s Problem by Bart D. Ehrman recently because it deals directly with squaring the “Problem of Suffering” with belief in an “All Powerful Benevolent God.” Mr. Ehrman’s conclusion was that the reality of suffering doesn’t square at all with such a God; he’s either not all powerful or he’s an uncaring schmuck. Any way you slice it, Mr. Ehrman’s conclusion is that God is not worthy of worship, if God exists at all.
Despite all of this, I have never felt the need to blame God for my misfortunes. Even now, I have no inclination to blame God, what-so-ever. I have tried to explain why I don’t blame God in logical terms with limited success. My words ring hollow in the ears of those who I would try to console – they hear platitudes within my theories on the necessity of suffering, evil as a social construct, and human free will. The truth of the matter is, when I listen to my theories, I can hear the platitudes too.
My problems are not nearly as horrific as they could be. There are children starving in Somalia, while hardened warmongers eat well just a few miles away. Right now in India, a woman is being set upon fire by her husband because he no longer wants to be married to her, and will face little punishment for doing so. There is genocide that is occurring right now in some foreign country that goes largely ignored by the mainstream media because it doesn’t sell advertising as well as Hollywood scandal. I am aware of all of this; I still choose not to blame God.
I’ve come to realize that it isn’t due to any theory or logic that I find no fault with God; it is a choice. I could find reason to blame God for my misfortunes, but I choose not to do so. It is an unconscious choice, to be sure, but it was still a choice I made. I’ve realized that by choosing to not blame any divine being for the pain and suffering here on Earth, I waste no time or energy on anger towards circumstances that I simply cannot change. While others are paralyzed with anger for a God that they cannot harm, I’m dealing with this problem of suffering here on Earth and doing what needs to be done. At the same time, I still believe in a Divine Source that is worthy of worship. I don’t know if that makes me wise or a fool… Maybe I’ll just settle for being a wise fool.
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It’s my personal belief that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience. As such, at it’s basic level, everything that happens to us is an experience that we can say we’ve had. It’s unfortunate that many of these experiences feel like they will tear us apart at times. However, we are all human, and as such cannot avoid all the bad things in life.
I don’t believe that any one person is “destined” to have more negative experiences than another. And, it’s only a platitude to say “it’s all in how you look at it.”
In the end, life really sucks sometimes. Looking back, I can say that many times in my life when things have sucked, at least I was a different person after wards. Sometimes worse, usually better. I hope my spirit is learning and soaking up all it can, cause it’s not fun at all to have these experiences. (Like spending 3 days in the hospital – I could have skipped that experience, thank you very much!)
Our reaction to this question probably tells us more about our individual preoccupations than it does about the real truth of things, which we cannot hope to understand. However, we’re bound to try.
For what it’s worth, the bit of this problem which bothered me was the question of God as an interventionist. If we want God to intervene in human affairs, we face the whole thing being some kind of giant puppet show. If good things represent “help”, then an earthquake may be a judgment. And what helps me might hinder you, so does God favour me more than you? So I’ll have no truck with divine intervention, if free will is to have any meaning at all. Similarly, the physical laws, once in place, must be left to produce whatever results they may, be it a sunny day or a volcanic eruption which kills thousands. It’s just the context against which we are loved. What happens to us can’t be predicted – certainly not by us. My personal rationalisation is that it’s how we cope with what happens to us that counts. In a free will universe, stuff just happens, leaving us free to deal with it. “to whom much is given, much will be expected”. I feel we’re unconditionally loved whatever hand we’re dealt, but I don’t think it’s a bent casino. Maybe God’s interested in what we do with the hand we happen to get.
Hey Reg,
Have I ever mentioned how kick-ass cool you are? Within the first sentence of your comment, you’ve said what I intended to say with my whole 550-some word post… Kudos!
The observation regarding God as an interventionist is spot on, in my opinion. Free Will negates the prospect of an interventionist God… The most one could ask God for is the strength, wisdom, and will to get through hard times. God is a miracle worker *through* us, not in spite of us.
Namaste.
Hello Baby Girl…
It’s nice to have my wife comment on my blog now and then.
So you see hardships of life as potential learning experiences, but not as “afflicted” learning experiences. Many who believe that suffering is necessary for humanity to learn also believe that God was the direct cause of that suffering… which in my opinion, would make for a rather shitty God. You, on the other hand, seem to be saying that suffering exists and can be made into a learning experience, but isn’t the fault of God any more than a sand storm is the fault of the desert sun.
Do I understand you correctly?
Namaste.
I had to put down a cat I’ve had for 14 years this morning. It hit me hard as these beings are members of my family that I care for deeply.
It didn’t take long for the finite sadness that I felt over losing Calypso to blow up into an infinitely deep melancholy that included sorrow for the cat I lost last year … worry over the parents I fear I shall lose soon … and a panic-y anxiety for my husband who I desperately don’t want to lose.
I wish my brain and emotions wouldn’t run away like that. Dang brain. Slow down. Take a breath.
I don’t think I blame God when things like this happen. I know that I pray silently and deeply for something more after this life and that all whom I love will rest there.
Anyway … I guess what I was trying to say above is that even though you weren’t close to the cat, I understand how things can hit harder than you expect them too. Our brains aren’t logical that way.
Big hug.
Yes, that is a good way of summing up what I’m saying. All things are experiences of being human; some of us just seem to have more bad experiences than most. But, no, I don’t believe that they are “handed down by God.” I don’t like to think of the divine as mean.
I believe that the divine has a sort of overall plan for how reality plays out. I just can’t believe that the beauty that science reveals is completely random.
Now, here’s where I get into a free will vs. divine plan discussion. (Which could be a post in and of itself…sorry if this comment goes on for awhile!) I also feel that the divine has certain experiences that each individual should have. For instance, I believe that I was supposed to be with you (John). I also believe that I’m supposed to be a teacher (of some sort.) But, I don’t think that every single step of my life was preordained.
I kind of picture it like this – God is writing a book and he has a stack of index cards with major plot points. As any writer knows, the characters can take over and do things you didn’t expect them to do. You know that in chapter 3 the boy and the girl get together, but the characters tell you that the road there had additional struggles that you had no idea should belong in the book.
Free will is like those characters. Well, there is one difference – God is all knowing, so he knows what will happen, but just because he knows, doesn’t mean he causes it to happen. Like, I knew when the car in front of us hit the guard rail and bounced across several lanes that it was going to crash (either into another car, or into the jersey wall that it did hit) – but by no means did I do anything to cause the car to crash!
Are some of those major plot points negative experiences? Maybe. I’m sure that being a teacher and being with you are major plot points in my life. My intuition clued me in about them, but it had nothing to say about the hospital visit. So, was the hospital visit one of the plot points? Maybe, but probably not. I guess only time will tell.
I hope that makes sense! (And that I haven’t bogarted your whole comments thread!)
Cathy, and that’s where I have to give in to the sheer unknowability of the truth. Like you, things happen in my life which my intuition tells me have “happened for a reason”. The woman I love most feels like a miracle to me, but why me? As a blind person, I’ve always felt “looked after” in all kinds of ways that go beyond coincidence, like meeting people while travelling who just happen to be going to the same destination, involving changing trains, negotiating unfamiliar streets ETC. And, all the while, there’s me grimly determined not to believe in an interventionist God because it clearly makes no rational sense for me to believe in such an entity.
What’s to be done? Nothing. In realising that I don’t thoroughly understand anything, at least by not believing in an interventionist God I’m not expecting divine generosity, and being disappointed when it doesn’t happen. But, on the other hand, when good things feel as if they have been “brought to me”, all I can do is be grateful, say thank you, and move on. All my speculations can only be based on what I know, which is precious little; but my faith is that God knows this, understands it, and loves me anyway, however unbelievably.
It’s nice to hear people talk about the unknowability of ‘truth’. As we sacrifice our bodies on the altar of the unknown, loves mircales and blessings are made known. Thank you all for your silent sacrifices, who you are is a manifested blessing to those around you.