Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Whence Then is Evil?

Beth and I have had a few conversations lately.  About the T-shirt, about some of the things that went on this summer....even some spiritual discussions.  The other night at dinner she told me that she wore the T-shirt to get people to think.  It works. 

Like Mother, like daughter.  I write here on this blog to get people (including myself) to think.  She scrawls words on a T-shirt or on a poster board...or, at her Dad's, she is even allowed to scrawl words and paint eclectic pictures on her bedroom wall. 

It is clear Beth has a problem with the way God runs his creation.  I think her issue with God is an old one and has been around a lot longer than the nearly 17 years she has been alive.  It has dogged Christians and atheists alike.  I was very active on a yahoo e-list a few years ago where we discussed it often and thoroughly.  Enough that we dubbed it with a nickname...

The POE

The Problem of Evil. 

How do you get around the problem of evil?  How do you come to terms with it?  How do you deal with it, explain it, understand it, live with it?  How do you forgive God for it? The following three statements are true..but they don't add up.

There is a God. 

He is good.

Evil and suffering exist.

Or how about the way an ancient Greek philosopher named Epicurus, worded the quandary...

"Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?"

I know the paradox so well.  I dealt with these questions myself for a long time. I told her this morning on our drive to school that for about five (recent) years, I was oftentimes totally ticked off at God. Between the POE, substitutionary atonement and my struggles with free will/predetermination, my relationship with God was very strained. For several years I was barely on speaking terms with him.  I read about him...talked about him...thought about him, but rarely talked to him.  When I did talk to him, all of my conversations with him were guarded, I didn't trust him, expected the worst from his hand. I had a major chip on my shoulder/axe to grind/bone to pick. I was pissed. 

But unlike Beth, I could not just discount his existence.  Believe me, there were times that I would have if I could have.  But, I couldn't write him off or explain him away as someone's fantasy. I KNEW he existed.  One day about ten years ago, he "touched" me..like a tap on the shoulder accompanied by a whisper in my ear that said "See, I really am here."  After that there was no way to declare him dead.  It was just not an option. 

Did I find the answer to the POE riddle, the key to the lock, the missing piece of the puzzle, the explanation that made it all fit.  Nope. But I am still looking...

2 comments:

Sue said...

I can so understand Beth's frustration. I can understand all of the reactions. I can understand the atheism ... and I can understand why so much atheism seems to be of the militant variety because people are angry that God seems to all intents and purposes to be a bastard if he allows this world to go on like this.

And we can all relate to it. You know those horrible feelings when you are in so much pain and wondering where God is in it because at the very times that you want him to wrap his arms around you, he doesn't seem to.

So yes, I guess I can understand it all, but it doesn't mean for me that there isn't a flipside of the whole thing, where God lives (although of course I think he is living on both sides of the coin, but it is surely the most perennial of mysteries, the silence of God in our pain. I understand it from theological perspectives, but I guess the thing that flips the coin for you is when you start somehow just knowing in that deep knowing place that he is there for you even when you can't feel it, that he is working it all out.

Oh, it's such a mystery. And I pray too that your daughter comes up against that reality again sometime sooner than later :)
]
Sorry for the blathering. I'm not feeling very well today.

Cindi said...

Sue..
I do so appreciate your "blathering." I just finished reading The Shack (finally..am I the last person on the planet to read it?) and I remember the following line (paraphrased) "sometimes your pain blinds you to my presense." We know he is always there because "even if I make my bed in hell, thou art there" and "where can I flee from your presense?" but it does not always FEEL like he is there, huh?

Hope you feel better :)

Cindi.....