Upwards Church

We’re continuing our new series Explore God!  Each campus will explore the topic, “Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?   I hope you can join us!  Below is an article from www.ExploreGod.com to get us thinking on the topic.

Has the beauty of creation ever made you wonder if there is a creator? Many brilliant scientists themselves through the ages have concluded that there must be a divine source for the universe.

There is order in the life cycle of every creature, design in the placement of our solar system, even logic in the structure of the molecules and atoms that make our world. You could argue that it all points to a master plan.²

But then along come disaster, disorder, and pain. Suddenly all our theories of providence, logic, and order go right out the window. A tsunami wipes out a village. An act of violence kills an innocent bystander. A child is abused. You lose your job. Your best friend is diagnosed with cancer.

We can’t help but ask that age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there evil in the world? If there is a benevolent God, how can this be a part of his plan? We find ourselves wondering if God is watching, if he cares, or if he even exists at all.

The Real Problem

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to these questions. But removing God from the equation doesn’t seem to help us understand evil. How can we explain why the 2004 South Asian tsunami that killed 125,000 people happened?

“Plate tectonics,” answered the famous atheist Richard Dawkins.³ That’s true. A movement in tectonic plates was the physical mechanism of the natural disaster, but does that really explain why it happened?Are we left to live in a world where evil is simply random, a brute fact of physical forces? Dawkins thinks so; only science can explain evil and only science can prevent it—or at least warn us so that we can take cover.

In one way, Dawkins is right. Scientists certainly unravel the intricacies of our complex natural world. They make sense of physical phenomena and undeniably advance the cause of humanity. Let’s be honest. No one wants to return to the health care of medieval times.

But science has yet to prevent poverty. Or warfare. And let’s not forget that Hitler’s gas chambers and the atomic bomb were products of science. Technology does not diminish evil; it only gives us more efficient options.⁴

When we boil it down, a purely scientific explanation of evil seems unsatisfactory. Perhaps this is why Albert Einstein said, “The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil from the spirit of man.”⁵

Another Explanation for Evil

How does religion explain evil if it exists in the “hearts and minds” of humans? Did God put it there—is this his fault? The Bible is an ancient book that chronicles, among other things, various evils that have taken place throughout history. Whether or not you agree with its overall message, the Bible offers an intriguing explanation of how evil originated.

Genesis, the first book of the Bible, says that when God created humans, he gave us authority over the earth: to cultivate and steward its resources for the benefit of all.⁶He also gave us free will to make our own choices. Like a child whose parent tells her not to play with matches, we can choose to trust God’s wisdom on important matters or reject it and do things our own way. As such, we might choose to “play with fire” and consequently burn ourselves.⁷

However, this brings up another question. Couldn’t God have just made humans incapable of bad choices and saved us all the trouble? Perhaps, but then we would be like robots, taking orders from God, doing only what he commanded, and never thinking, feeling, or choosing for ourselves.

According to Christian thought, that’s not what God wants. God wants us to seek him and be able to experience a genuine relationship with him.⁸ So he created us in his image, giving us all the creative desire, free will, and moral responsibility that he himself has.⁹

The Selfishness of Evil

In spite of this, the first humans chose to trust in themselves, not God. The story of Adam and Eve is well known. Whether or not it happened literally—in a garden with a serpent and an apple—isn’t what matters; what’s important to realize is that it still happens today. Nothing has changed. Given the choice between trusting our own instincts or God’s, we often choose ourselves. We’re still the rebellious children playing with matches. And with every act of selfishness comes the consequence—getting burned.

Whether you’re religious or not, we all have to admit to causing some of our own troubles. Many of our wounds are self-inflicted. So let’s own up to it: some of the “evil” we experience is our fault. We burn ourselves.

But we also burn others. We all have the scars to show from people who have lied to us, broken promises, or even abused us for their own gain. So while evil is not always the direct result of our own actions, it is still a consequence of humanity’s selfishness. And the cumulative effect of all our selfish choices is a world of poverty, war, ecological disaster, and, yes, even bad days at the office. It’s why we live broken lives with broken relationships in the broken systems of a broken world.

Why does God let this go on? According to the Christian understanding of God’s nature, he is never the source of meaningless evil. But sometimes he permits us to encounter the effects of a world rendered imperfect by selfishness. Maybe it is to alert us to our need for him, our need to trust in him rather than ourselves. Or perhaps God knows that experiencing some suffering in our lives often leads to a greater good.

We may never fully understand his ways or how our lives unfold each day. But we are not left without hope. Evil has not won out. In every story of brokenness lays the potential for redemption.

What do you think?

www.RidgeFellowship.com

1. Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems(Philadelphia: Running Press, 2005).

   For more on the design of the universe, see Francis Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (New York: Free Press, 2006) and Alister E. McGrath, A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009). An excellent scientific introduction to this topic can be found online athttp://biologos.org/questions/fine-tuning.

2. Richard Dawkins, “The Theology of the Tsunami,” originally published in Free Inquiry 25:3 (April/May 2005), 12-13; available at:http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=dawkins_25n3.

3. Consider the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Whether or not it was morally justified or “a necessary evil” to end World War II, the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed roughly 120,000 people instantly. Another 120,000 died within four months from lingering effects of radiation. The overwhelming majority of all casualties were civilians. Human civilization has never known a more brutal man-made instrument of death. If an atomic bomb was detonated today, the destructive impact would be exponentially greater.

4. Quoted in L. L. Loring, “Lag in Ethics,” Los Angeles Times, 10 April 1955, Pg. B4, 10. Originally from Albert Einstein’s interview with Michael Amrine: “‘The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men’; Professor Einstein says a new type of thinking is needed to meet the challenge of the atomic bomb,” New York Times, Sunday Magazine, 23 June 1946, SM4.

5. “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” The Holy Bible, New International Version © 2011, Genesis 1:26.

6. The “story” that best illustrates this choice in the Bible is found in Genesis 2:15–3:7. Adam and Eve are told not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but, having been given the free choice to trust God or not, they chose not to. Some take this story as literal, others as a figurative representation of humans in general. There are many other stories in the Bible where God allows people the choice to disregard his wisdom and incur the harmful consequences of their decisions.

7. A robust (and dense) philosophical articulation of human free will as the explanation of evil is found in Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974).

8. The Holy Bible, New International Version © 2011, Genesis 1:26.

Written by Norton Herbst

We’re continuing our new series Explore God!  Each campus will explore the topic, “Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?   I hope you can join us!  Below is an article from www.ExploreGod.com to get us thinking on the topic.

“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Cardboard Box

The Universal Question

There is perhaps no greater challenge to faith than the presence of pain and suffering in the world.¹ Whether theist or atheist, pain seems to be the testing lab of faith.

This question—Why is there pain and suffering in the world?—has plagued humanity since our very first thoughts about God. Even the earliest narratives of divine beings wrestle with the idea of pain and suffering.²

However, this says nothing about why things happen—just that they do occur.

The Great Problem

But when most people wonder about pain and suffering, they want to know the cause. And that cause, almost by definition, comes back to God.

If God is good, the thinking goes, he would eliminate pain and suffering. And if he’s powerful, he’d be able to eradicate it, right? But there is evil in the world. So either God is not loving, he is not all-powerful, or there is no God.

Philosophers and theologians call the endeavor to overcome this thought process “theodicy.”³

This conundrum has perpetually plagued believers and nonbelievers. But there are a few observations that clarify the question and even provide some explanation for pain and suffering.

Timeless Question

If God is the benevolent creator and sustainer of life depicted in Christian tradition, then he should be able and willing to eliminate our pain and suffering. He obviously does not. Consequently, Christians find this tension particularly acute and troubling.

Modern atheists argue that this is the last nail in the coffin of faith: God would not allow suffering and outright evil to persist in his creation. Therefore, he cannot exist (or if he does, he lacks the characteristics of a good god).

The Morality Question

However, in order to consider something “evil” (or even bad or unnecessary), one presupposes a moral standard by which those things or experiences are deemed “evil.” In fact, evil is only such when compared to something not evil.

But if human experience is entirely random, then “good” and “bad” things are just the way things are—we cannot attribute moral weight to anything we experience. Without an Arbiter of Goodness, theists argue, there is no such thing as a “bad” experience.

An assumption that God or a god exists is implicit in this discussion. So why does God allow the existence of pain and suffering?

Reframing the Question

To answer that we must first ask, “Would a good god eliminate pain and suffering?” C. S. Lewis addressed this very question in his book The Problem of Pain.

In it, he argues that humanity desires not so much a good god, but a kind god. Kindness “cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering.” We want “not so much a Father but a grandfather in heaven.” Lewis suggests that a truly loving father “would rather see [the loved ones] suffer much than be happy in contemptible and estranging modes.”⁴

If God knows more about our circumstances than we do and desires good things for us, perhaps he also uses painful circumstances to better ends than we can see or imagine.

 Intellectual Limits

One thing is certain: Any intellectual response to the question of pain will not make the experience go away or any easier to endure. C. S. Lewis himself quipped, “You would like to know how I behave when I am experiencing pain, not writing books about it. You need not guess for I will tell you; I am a great coward.”⁵

Pain and suffering, no matter how much we know about them intellectually, have a way of tapping into our very core. They expose what we’re made of in ways that other emotions do not.

Perhaps this is why Lewis, through the experience of great pain, discovered that “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.”⁶

A Choice

Could it be that in this way pain helps us grow—though it can be hard to see at times, even in retrospect?

No matter the reason, it seems pain and suffering are unavoidable; we seemingly have no choice in the matter. What we do control is our reaction, how we deal with our pain, and what we do with our experience.

What do you think?

www.RidgeFellowship.com

1. Indeed, one of the greatest Christian theologians of the last century remarked, “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith.” John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006), 303.
2. Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh (New York: Penguin Books, 1999).
3. “Theodicy,” Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theodicy?show=0&t=1355863763.
4. C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (San Francisco: Harper, 2001), 31-33.
5. Ibid., 105.
6. Ibid., 91.

Written by:  Jason Malec

We’re continuing our new series Explore God!  Each campus will explore the topic, “Does Life Have a Purpose?”   I hope you can join us!  Below is an article from www.ExploreGod.com to get us thinking on the topic.

A Solid Basis for Self-Worth

Culture—and the proverbial wisdom that gives it shape—can offer guidance to those in search of value and worth, there is one thing it cannot do. It cannot assure people of their dignity as unique individuals apart from their ethnic, cultural, or religious group.

As conscious, rational, moral beings, we demand a more secure foundation for our individual self-worth. How can we know that we possess intrinsic value? Our culture teaches us to survive and even to be happy, yet we yearn within to know that we possess essential worth.

How do you know that you are of value? Some may respond to this with stock answers: I know that I have value because I have a high-paying job, or two beautiful children, or a great athletic career, or a well-disciplined mind.

But what if she loses her job, or his children die in a car crash, or her knee is shattered, or he contracts Alzheimer’s disease? Have these four people lost their value and worth as individuals? Surely not!

There must be another answer to this question, then—one that is more secure, that is built on a foundation that cannot be shattered by economic shifts or unexpected tragedies. There must be a more essential, solid basis for self-worth.

The Christian Answer

Many (though not all) religions ground intrinsic human value in the belief that we were created in the image of God. But I would argue that this answer is not, on its own, sufficient to secure our full dignity and worth.

For example, it is not enough for children simply to know the identity of their biological father. If they do not also know that he understands them, accepts them, and loves them unconditionally, they may doubt their own value and worth. Something more is needed—a deeper, more essential ground.

And that something is found uniquely in Christianity.

Beyond our desire—even driving our desire—to be accepted is the universal, transcultural need to be loved deeply, truly, and unconditionally. We all feel a longing to be accepted for who we are, to be judged worthy by the one who created us.

According to the Apostle Paul, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ¹  The Apostle John stated, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”² Jesus himself said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”³

Jesus died for us while we were sinners, while there was nothing in us to love. He took on the weight and consequence of our sins, and in his resurrection, Jesus overcame sin and death, opening the direct pathway to relationship with God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”⁴

God valued humankind so much that he sacrificed his only begotten Son, and Jesus willingly underwent tremendous suffering for our sake. Though we were unworthy, Jesus made us worthy by providing a system through which we can take into ourselves the very holiness of Christ and have a personal relationship with God. God’s love, his undeniable cherishing of his creation, I would argue, is the ultimate proof of human worth and value.

www.RidgeFellowship.com

Written by: Louis Markos, Ph.D

We’re continuing our new series Explore God!  Each campus will explore the topic, “Does Life Have a Purpose?”   I hope you can join us!  Below is an article from www.ExploreGod.com to get us thinking on the topic.

“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” Viktor Frankl¹

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why am I here?” It seems everyone does at some point. Even the most non-philosophical or irreligious person at one time or another wonders what it’s all about.

Why am I here? Where am I going? What happens when I die? ²

Various Perspectives

Our answers to these questions depend very much on our worldview.

The atheistic or naturalistic explanation of the world is that there is no higher reason we’re here. The universe and everything in it—us included—happened purely by accident.

Thus, we should all “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”³

Embodying this perspective is a small but vocal minority of the population.⁴ Some call themselves the “New Atheists.” Differentiating themselves from other skeptics, they argue that “religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.”⁵

In other words, they have become missionaries for the view that we are here by coincidence—the chance combination of gases, random mutation, and natural selection.⁶

On the other end of the spectrum, the theistic worldview suggests that God, gods, or some supreme being is responsible for the world and our lives. In this view, most advocates would suggest our purpose is to please or in some way live up to the standards of our creator.

And of course, there are many perspectives between that of the atheist and that of the theist.

For example, Aristotle, in the first line of his treatise Nicomachean Ethics, argued that everything is to be done with a goal, and that goal is to do good.⁷ In other words, our highest and best use is to be an agent of good works in everything we do.

Cynics, representing another school of philosophic thought, propose that the reason we’re here is to live a life of virtue. This usually entails overcoming the ubiquitous temptations of power, wealth, fame, and possessions.

Beckoning people in yet another direction, Epicureans argue that life’s purpose is to seek simple pleasure.

God or No God?

When we boil it down, though, the biggest factor in answering this question is whether or not there is something or someone outside ourselves to whom we owe our existence. For if there is no creator, then there is no ultimate purpose.

Indeed, philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre went as far as to say that because life is meaningless, perhaps the best thing we can do is to end our lives. “Suicide is, according to Sartre, an opportunity to stake out our understanding of our essence as individuals in a godless world.”⁸

But as unsatisfying as suicide is to most people, so too is the idea that there is nothing more to this life, nothing more than this life.⁹ In the United States, while the majority of the population is not actively involved in organized religion, more than 80 percent believes in God.¹⁰

Theists would argue that this belief is caused by an innate wiring to seek the transcendent. C. S. Lewis wrote, “If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”¹¹

And if there is a creator—assuming he/she/it is not arbitrary—then each of us has meaning and purpose simply because creators create for a reason. I bake a cake to share with others or to enjoy myself. I build a house to live in.  It would be meaningless to create these things with no purpose.

Faith, Either Way

In the end, belief or disbelief in God is a matter of faith, either way.

Yet if answers implicitly hinge on the existence or nonexistence of a God, perhaps we’re all left with a decision, or as Blaise Pascal called it, a wager.¹²

According to Pascal’s Wager, either God exists or he doesn’t. And either I believe in him or I don’t. Those who believe in God lose nothing, even if he does not exist. But those who do not believe in God run the risk of losing everything.

So, as the wager suggests, bet in favor of God; if you win, you win everything. Bet against God, and if you’re right, nothing gained, nothing lost. If you lose, though, it’s a really, really big loss.

In other words, resolve the God question first, and “Why am I here?” becomes a much easier question to address. But start with the latter question, and you may never be able to answer either.

www.RidgeFellowship.com

·        Footnotes

1. Viktor Frankl, The Unheard Cry for Meaning (New York: Touchstone, 1979), 21.
2. For those who haven’t had these thoughts, the somewhat tongue-in-cheek website, www.deathclock.com, might encourage some reflection. After typing in my age, gender and general health, the Death Clock told me my “Personal Day of Death” is Tuesday, April 22, 2070. In fact, according to the Death Clock, I have around 1,839,153,914 seconds left to live. On one hand, that looks like a lot of time. But on the other, it’s certainly forced me to consider what I’m doing with the days, minutes and seconds I have left.
3. Ironically, this philosophy is espoused in the Bible, primarily in the book of Ecclesiastes. However, many scholars suggest that it’s a foil. The author is actually highlighting the meaninglessness of life without God. See Ecclesiastes 2:24, 8:15, 11:9, and Isaiah 22:13 and 56:12. See also Jesus rebuttal of this philosophy in Luke 12:19.
4. Most studies would put the true atheistic contingent, worldwide, at around 2 percent. Seehttp://www.religionfacts.com/religion_statistics/religion_statistics_by_adherents.htm.
5. Simon Hooper, “The rise of the New Atheists,” CNN, November 9, 2006,http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/08/atheism.feature/index.html.
6. However, I must admit I find it a bit odd that the New Atheists have become so evangelical about their views. I do not believe in flying spaghetti monsters, so why would I advocate against those who do? It’s uninteresting to me. In the same vein, it makes no sense that I would spend as much or more time thinking and talking about the nonexistence of flying spaghetti monsters than those who believe in them.
7. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1999), 1.
8. “Suicide,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, May 18, 2004,http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/suicide.
9. Even Sartre was unable to bring himself to take his own advice.
10. In America, the breakdown is: Protestant, 51.3  percent; Roman Catholic, 23.9  percent; Mormon, 1.7  percent; other Christian, 1.6  percent; Jewish, 1.7  percent; Buddhist, 0.7  percent; Muslim, 0.6  percent; other or unspecified, 2.5  percent; unaffiliated, 12.1  percent; none, 4 percent. “Religion Statistics by Country,” Religion Facts,http://www.religionfacts.com/religion_statistics/religion_statistics_by_country.htm.
11. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), 136-137.
12. Blaise Pascal, Pensees (London: The Penguin Group, 1995), 121ff.

By:  Jason Malec