Connecticut Shootings
I
can't even sleep thinking about those kids in Connecticut. The term
nightmare does not come close to describing it for those parents. What
if that was one of my kids? That's an unbearable thought.
My heart really goes out to those who lost loved ones in CT. It's inconceivable, tragic, awful... there just aren't words for it.
If you've read any of these posts or heard me talk about God, it's no mystery where I'm going to go with this. Lots of people are no doubt going to the same place right now.
Where is God in all this? If God is indeed good, why wouldn't he stop this and other senseless destruction of life, especially when children are involved?
The idea that God might answer someone's prayer about their job, or their car, or something as trivial as a parking space, but would do nothing to intervene in something like the massacre of innocent children is beyond absurd to me.
I've recently become familiar with the term "deist" and I think that's how I would classify myself. Deism is belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.
I just don't see in the world, in the news, in my life and my experience, evidence that God cares about us and is really engaged in our lives in a benevolent way.
If you're reading this and you have a different take on that, I would love to read/hear it. Leave a comment. (Just don't submit as evidence things that go on in your thoughts or emotions that no one can really see as evidence of God's engagement. If that works for you, great. But it won't work for me whatsoever.)
There is no answer to this question that will satisfy you. If you do not believe in evidence, no evidence exists that can reveal the truth you are seeking.
ReplyDeleteA question I have for you is, what does morality look like with the Deist worldview? Apply it to this situation. Who is right, who is wrong, and on what basis can you make that judgment other than your feelings?
Karen
Karen-
DeleteI don't accept your assertion that there is no answer that will satisfy me. I'll be my own judge on that. I think it's possible and I won't close the door on that possibility. It is, however, a very tall order.
Also, I'm unclear about this assertion that I do not believe in evidence. Not all evidence is created equal, and I won't accept just any evidence, this is true. What I'd really like is evidence I can see and touch and examine.
A deist viewpoint does not exclude the idea of morality or absolute truth. If one believes that God created the world then one can believe that God built in the ideas of justice and morality in his creation. Then, presumably, he said, "OK, you guys are all set. I'm going to go do something else now."
The difference between deism and a theistic religion like Christianity would be the revelation by God of himself to people.
I agree, not all evidence is equal and needs careful consideration. What is your standard for reasonable evidence when it comes to history?
DeleteThere is no reasonable, rational, logical answer that will prevent the emotional reactions to evil. Here is a Q&A response posted today by William Lane Craig. I’d like to know your thoughts on it.
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/on-the-goodness-of-god
Karen
Craig is a smart guy, but there are some definite holes in his response on David's questions.
Delete1. He ignores huge problem of the slippery slope when suggesting that one can believe that the Bible is not inerrant. If you think that it is in error in some places then, to me, you may as well throw out the whole thing. Who can be the authority on what is and isn't in error in the scriptures? Every individual will have some different ideas about that. And at that point I think one is just picking and choosing bits of it and essentially creating their own private religion that just adheres to whatever they feel is "true".
2. He makes an interesting assumption that we know for sure that dead children go to heaven and are "not complaining" about the situation of having been killed. How do we know this exactly?
3. Even if you assume the deceased children are happy with their situation, he totally ignores the collateral damage. What about the needless pain and suffering of the parents and other loved ones? That's huge to me. Some people never recover from such emotional devastation. It would be torturous to have your child ripped away from you in such as way as happened in the CT shootings. Is God a sadist or a sociopath?
One point of his that I will reflect on is the idea that God isn't bound to the same "morality" as we are. On the surface it seems paradoxical. How can he violate the rules (read: values) that he would hold us to? But he is God after all.
I used to believe in the inerrant bible, but then I realized that God allows even his most important leaders to be wrong. I think we made up an am inerrant bible so that we could reduce God to a predictable formula and correct each other with some sort of authority.
Delete1. I believe Craig’s point is that if you do not accept God as revealed in the Bible, then the worst you can say is the Bible is not inerrant. You may not legitimately throw out the entire Bible as fiction. It simply reduces the Bible to multiple historical works written by normal humans, but still requires explanations for the history it tells. For example, historical scholars agree on several fundamental facts written in the Gospels (which I’ve stated in previous posts). The disagreement is on the interpretation of those facts. You never answered the question….What does reasonable evidence look like regarding history?
Delete2. No one but God knows who is going to heaven vs hell, not even Craig. But if you believe in a loving God that will judge rightly, it is reasonable to believe that infants who do not know right from wrong won’t be judged in the same manner as a grown adult that knowingly rejects God.
3. I agree it would be tortuous to lose a child and I have no idea how I would react if I were in those parents’ situation. I tear up just reading the news or listening to the radio. I don’t understand it. I don’t like it. I get angry at God for allowing it. That doesn’t mean God cannot use evil for good. How do you know the pain and suffering is needless? How do you know whether or not there is a good purpose for allowing man to carry out his evil free will? Again, I believe God is loving, will judge rightly, and will make things whole. Death is not the end. But this is not true with deism. If God imparted a sense of justice before disappearing (as you stated earlier), how cruel is it to never bring about the justice his creation yearns for? Both oppressor and victim have the same end. There is no justice, no hope, no meaning. That is needless suffering.
Karen
I think trying to rehab the idea of God just so we can have morality is pretty weak. I really don't care much about "morality," since it doesn't prevent things like what happened in Connecticut. And I don't have an answer for you, John.
ReplyDeleteMy only useful observation might be that deism is kind of pointless. What point is there in having a God if he is aloof? I would rather say that there isn't a God than that he doesn't care to intervene in the world.
And then there is this: Ezra prayed for snow on Tuesday. I tried to explain to him that there were probably people who were praying for it to stay warm...like homeless people. And then Wednesday there was hoarfrost on the windshield. He said, "see Dad! I prayed for snow and it snowed!" I didn't have the heart to explain to him the difference between frost and snow.
I agree, deism does little more than describe my current way of understanding God. Being able to explain my thoughts is helpful for me though. And I don't believe we can from randomness. I believe there is/was a creator and I feel like there's reasonable evidence for that in our world. For me, that's marginally better than believing there is no god.
DeleteA brief response in a blog post is woefully inadequate for such a large topic.
ReplyDeleteI believe God is good because of my personal experiences with what I have been taught to identify as His Spirit. If He was evil, I think things would be much worse than they are.
As a kid, I often thought that my parents hated me or at least wished me ill. Now that I am a parent, I understand where they were coming from a little more. I believe that to a God-like intelligence, we would be children, or ability to understand the perceived across our inaction of God greatly impaired.
Thoughts from my phone...