Theodicies

haitiHaiti was hit by a 7 magnitude earthquake a couple of weeks ago. 150,000 (and counting) people were already declared dead. Aside from that it also destroyed countless properties, livelihood, and shelter. It also displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Instances like this are a great challenge to the people who are affected. How will they move on with their lives when they have almost nothing left? How will they move on if their loved ones were killed? Where will they get the money to start again? Where will they get help? I think all of these questions and problems can be answered and solved as time will pass or if  someone will eventually help these people. Time will heal all wounds, a quote says. But a more important question still remains unanswered for a long time. Well many have tried but I guess their answers still face a lot of criticisms and contradictions, making the problem still a problem.

Where was the God that believers, mostly Christians, claim to be true/existing, loving, and powerful? Why would God allow this to happen? Well these questions are not really original or new but I think it would be good to ask again and again for emphasis. I asked these questions subtly (subtly so that they will not be offended) to my theist friends and they all had their own explanations and theodicies. I wasn’t able to reply and criticize them because of time constraints and I also did not want to offend and humiliate them. So below are the four and most common theodicies that I encountered and my reply and criticisms to these four:

Punishment Reply: The people that suffered in the earthquake were just punished by God because these people disobeyed God’s laws or that these people were very sinful.

My reply: Not all of the people that were killed or suffered were sinful; there were children and good people who suffered and died in the said earthquake. Theists could reply that this is just a result of Original Sin. But I say that this is not just, and it does not show that God is loving. I mean, is it just to punish the great(x 100)-grandchildren of a person who committed a sin long ago? You know the answer.

The Heavenly Reply: These people and children may have suffered and died but they will be compensated many times in heaven/eternal life.

My reply: But what’s the point of them suffering here on earth? Why didn’t God put them straight to heaven even before they suffered? Heaven does not justify their suffering. This act is immoral even if heaven is so good because God could’ve put them in heaven or given them eternal life without making them suffer first.

Soul-Making Theodicy: This contends that God allows evil because it builds a positive character in the victims, and this compensates for evil and suffering.

My reply: Is this how a loving God builds a positive character in its followers? I think there are still many other ways that are less evil and crude. Also, evil and suffering do not necessarily build a positive character; greater losses also occur. Families would break up, morale would go down, people would turn away from God.

The Privation response: Evil is just the absence of good just as darkness is the absence of light.

My reply: Evil is not really a privation of good. If you are hurt, say you were punched or kicked in the ass, you know it hurts. It is a positive sensation and not just the absence of pleasure. People who are numb or asleep do not feel pain, even though they experience the absence of pleasure and any other feeling.

There are also other replies to the problem of evil and suffering out there but these are the most common I encountered. Theists have a choice here. They can accept that either their God is not capable (not powerful) of helping the ones who are in need, or that their God is capable but doesn’t want to (not loving). Of course, they can also simply accept that there is no such thing as a loving and powerful God.

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This post was originally published at discreetinfidel.blogspot.com.

12 comments

  1. Heard that punishment reply in the 2004 Tsunami….

    If people say that and they don't see the people who are dead or are in need of help at the first glance then they're sick! No time for god or sin in these occasions.

  2. Sin or no sin, people or no people on Haiti, that quake would still happen. It's nature, physics at work. We just keep on attaching meanings to such events, ascribing it as the work of God etc. Can't we get past the blame game and help our fellowmen in need? I believe an intelligent being wouldn't find that point hard to comprehend. =)

    • it is the work of God, but i'm not blaming God.you may have a point in telling me to help those people. but we are talking about theodicy here.

      • Theodicy argument?

        That is what happens when belief doesn't conform to reality. Let's face it, isn't it nice to think that there is a God who understands us, and in order to understand us he needs to think like us. It is emotionally gratifying to think that there is this God, who for all our stupidity, still approves of us. To cut it, it's just a desire for a 'Big Brother' who will stand by you despite our patheticness, answer all our questions despite our stupidity, and will never desert you no matter what.

        The concept of God is more like an 'emotional crutch' to help people hobble along their lives. But then, if life gets so heavy, to the point that this 'crutch' snaps, now what? There are these people who love their crutch so much that even if its snapped, they'll still keep it. Similarly, some have grown to attached to the 'crutch' of this 'loving, caring God' that even if its snapped by the weight of reality, still they hold on it. For me that explains why we have God. Those theodical arguments are but attempts of these people to 'keep their snapped crutch'. Better to get a better crutch, and best to learn to stand by ourselves.

        • To cut it further, the idea of a 'loving, caring God' is inconsistent with the reality of Haiti. Therefore people spout this-and-that argument to defend their beliefs. As for me, reality speaks. =)

  3. God is Sovereign and The Good (even He had allowed evil).

    god is unlike us…we tend to think that God thinks like us.God is not like a spiritual Jekyll and Hyde. He does not vacillate between good and evil in either His actions or intentions toward us. Thankfully, God is not like us.

    God is self-contained

    He is who He is and He has revealed Himself to us. It is vain and arrogant for us to embrace the Oprah method to define the nature of God: “MY God is….” Further, God can exist completely apart from humanity. We christians gratefully praise Him for His intervention in the human condition.(I'm not a deist!)

    God is good, merciful, gracious and compassionate.

    We should also note that the mercy and compassion of God will not permanently withhold the demand for justice in the face of sustained immorality. He said back in Genesis 6:3 “My Spirit will not always strive with man.”

    God is absolutely sovereign in the universe.

    We must be careful here to distinguish between sovereignty and causality. While God certainly could cause an earthquake to accomplish His greater purpose [remember the ten plagues of Egypt], we must guard against assigning evil to God. Instead, He rules over all things to bring them into conformity to His will.It is for His Glory why he allowed all things.I know it's hard for us to swallow this, but that's what the Bible is saying.we can't understand them for His thoughts are not our thoughts. Simply put, trust God’s wisdom when you fail to understand His great purposes.

    Conclusion: One ancient confession rightly stated, “God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all events; yet so as not in any way to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.”

  4. a classic debate on theodicy again….
    I believe that God is absolutely sovereign in all of His being. He has the perfect right to do whatever He wants to do.Well in the first place
    He is the creator of the Universe. He can choose to create or to uncreate.It is His prerogative. natural evil is curse God made to punish humanity, a curse that was triggered when Adam and Eve sinned. we all deserve that since we are all sinners.
    Natural catastrophe, like many sicknesses,accidents and what happened to Haiti(earthquake), leave us with a host of valid questions about morality and the nature of God. The debate about God’s role in physical disasters predates even the incarnation of Christ [remember Job?]. Unfortunately, people tend to rush to judgment on these issues and often come to erroneous conclusions.

    I trust the wisdom and sovereignty of God on this matter, and He is still THE GOOD.

  5. Your thesis assumes that God had an indirect hand on the devastation that hit Haiti. This is a natural disaster, plain and simple. The same can be said for the tsunamis that hit years ago and the floods of Ondoy last year. Think about it, if you were the Almighty, would you sit on your throne concocting new ways to mess with people's lives? Wouldn't that be a waste of time considering you have the whole of Creation to look after?

    Do you know where goodness is? It is in the hearts of the millions of people who have been moved by this tragedy and have mobilized, no matter how small or simple, to help these people.

    • If the god you believe in intervenes in the world, like in answering prayers, and is omnipotent and all good then there is no real reason why he can't stop or even just blunt the impact of natural disasters. By having the power and goodness to stop it but choosing not to, I think one would be justified in saying god has something to answer for.

      And really, if you're omnipotent I can't imagine theres such a thing as a waste of time.

      I do agree with your last statement though, goodness is in humanity.

      • The idea of an omnipotent deity interfering with creation, answering prayers and "averting natural disasters" already undermines his/her omnipotence. Why should she/he alter his/her work just for the sake of a single specie, more so a single person trying to bargain with him/her? That would suggest that his/her work is imperfect, so imperfect that it requires his/her intervention to set things right.

        And even if god is omnipotent, that doesn't follow that he/she is good. For all we know, god might be some bully with a magnifying glass, and we're the ants

        This is just nature at work. Humans are merely interlopers in the natural process, and fail to comprehend it. That's why we cry foul whenever "disaster strikes".

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