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In the conversation between the brothers (aka Ivan’s tirade) in Fyodor Dostoevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan’s big beef was the evil perpetrated against children…under the omnipresent eye of God. That was his ultimate “WTF is wrong with this picture” moment….no fair, this isn’t right, time out, you’ve got to be kidding. Children should not suffer the way they do. Especially at the hands of adults. Especially not at the hands of adults who are supposed to love them and care for them….their parents. Sometimes that is the most treacherous place for a child to be is in the care of their parents.
It’s really not like me to comment on current events in a post. It is more my style to wait until the event is a distant memory and then write about it. The reasons? Perhaps procrastination…and too much I want to write about, not enough time to write it. Maybe a bit of my “far from the maddening crowd” mindset. If the vast majority of blogs in the Blogosphere are writing about it, I probably won’t be.
But the current events of the past few days so fit the topic of my last post that I would be remiss not to mention dear little Caylee Anthony and the great evil perpetrated against her at the hands of an adult. Probably an adult who was responsible for her care.
I love my Facebook feed, It serves as a sort of demographic of popular opinion. I have friends on FB that span the range of the spectrum--liberal/conservative, fundamentalist/new age. So I get a plethora of opinions and viewpoints. There are no shortages of viewpoints about the Casey/Caylee Anthony case. They run the gamut from “fry the bitch” to “our justice system worked the way it’s supposed to” to “what was the jury thinking?” and “this is the OJ verdict for a younger generation.”
I don’t know. I didn’t follow the trial…and only read about it helter skelter during the three years the case captured the media’s attention. Is Casey guilty? I don’t know. If she is guilty, why would she do such a thing to her own child? Just another question mark…amongst the endless number of question marks surrounding suffering and evil….especially when it involves children.
Again as I mentioned in my first post….Epicurus summed it up:
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”
Why?
That is the heart wrenching cry of those tormented by the POE, the Problem of Evil.
Why? Why? Why?
Theodicy tries to answer the question….and there are no shortages of opinions about it…and we’ll take a look at a couple of the most interesting theories in upcoming posts….but nobody REALLY knows for sure…and so the question remains
Why?
3 comments:
Hello there dear Cyndi :)
Do you think there is an atheist in the world who has not gone from an agnostic to an atheistic viewpoint down this corridor? I wonder if there is any other.
We so want to know why. I so hope one day we find out why. I still hold to that hope.
The POE is often a reason for atheism, I think. I struggled with the POE for several years...to the point of obsession. I couldn't go the atheist route...I'd been one (or nearly one) most of my adult life and then, like the Gaither song, He touched me. And I knew he was, that he existed...could not go back to atheism but I couldn't understand...still can't....all the suffering. I was pretty pissed off for several years. Don't know what changed it exactly. Now I believe there is an answer and that someday we will understand it all.
Nice to see you!! Hope you are doing well.
Cindi....
I feel much the same as you. The feeling that one day we will understand, it sort of sings through my bones I guess. On one level it feels like a deep knowing. On another level I hang onto it as a hope and sometimes fall off of that.
And yet still, even when I've fallen off, it's as if somewhere I still feel it in my bones, even though I can't feel it at all.
Weird :)
I AM doing well, thanks! Have moved house, living in beautiful environs. Haven't been blogging as much anymore but I sort of miss it, and sort of wanting in another way to channel that desire to write into something a bit bigger that might even earn a few measly dollars. We'll see :)
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