I just started reading a book by Bart Ehrman, “God’s Problem”. Until now, I had only read stuff by him in small snippets and all from the atheistic perspective. I was unaware that he once professed Christianity. Not sure how I missed that, but then again, I’m not all knowing and pretty sure there is more stuff out there that I missed along the way.
In recent years, the idea of deconstructing has become somewhat of a phenomenon primarily in reference to the Christian faith. I’m not sure exactly why, but I find the stories fascinating. So, when a friend of mine, in a conversation, informed me of Ehrman’s former life and then told me of his book, I went straight off to Kindle and bought a copy. And, while I do intend to read the entire book, I was brought up short and had to stop after the first sentence, at least temporarily, long enough to write this.
The first chapter is titled; Suffering and a Crisis of Faith. It starts with this thought;
“If there is an all-powerful and loving God in this world, why is there so much excruciating pain and unspeakable suffering?”
The first mistake he makes is in that first sentence of Chapter One. I have heard so many debates between the “Christian” and the “Atheist” in which the atheist make this same mistake. They limit God to two characteristics. They choose the two that are most convenient to their particular subject/argument. There are several questions that logically follow this statement regarding God and pain/suffering
First, could an all-powerful God eliminate all suffering? I think we can all agree that the answer to that is yes. If, in fact He is “ALL” powerful, there could only be one answer. Another question would be; If God doesn’t eliminate all suffering, what does this tell us about God? Well, I can think of a couple things. First of all, it might tell us that He isn’t “all” powerful. Or, it could tell us that He is a sadistic SOB, not a loving God at all. Or, it could tell us that, maybe, He doesn’t exist.
I would suggest that there is another possible answer to this dilemma. But we would have to add to God’s characteristics. I would point to another characteristic that is often attributed to God, that of omniscience. That is, all knowledge. Clearly, from a strict consideration of the word, setting aside for the moment that we are talking about God, we can all agree that a person who had (theoretically) ALL knowledge, would have a different perspective on all occurrences in the world. On the other side of the coin, I think we can all agree that, as a person of limited knowledge, all occurrences in the world would not be as clear to us as, with all their possible nuances, they would be to the omniscient one. So, to blame the all-knowing one simply for the existence of suffering is not logical or rational at all. Then again, it is understandable, given our limited intellects and limited knowledge.
Tim Keller, in his book, The Reason for God, said this;
“Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen, doesn’t mean there can’t be one. With time and perspective most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life. Why couldn’t it be possible that, from God’s vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them?”
It is one of the most disingenuous aspects of the “blame God” mentality. We choose the characteristics that allows us to misrepresent the nature of God. Once we do this, we see a way out. Or at least we convince ourselves of this.
If we consider the complete list of God’s characteristics, God is not so easily dismissed. That is, if one is honest in their consideration.
Keeping with the subject of pain and suffering, how different might our conclusions be if we added that one more characteristic, omniscient. We can see the answer to this in considering the relationship between a child and their parent. How often, as we went from child to adult, have we looked back and said, “Hmmm, so that’s why mom/dad did that.”
With our limited intellect and limited capacity to even accumulate knowledge, we will never fully understand God, even if we consider all of His characteristics. It is with this fact in mind, I believe, that was the reason for Scripture to say, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6
Faith is not the elimination of knowledge or the lazy way out. It is simply a logical necessity when considering God in relation to any subject, including pain and suffering. Yes, God could have created us with full understanding of who He is and how His mind works. But He didn’t. Why? Don’t know.
He could have prevented Eve from committing the first sin. But He didn’t. Why? Don’t know.
He could have just punished Eve and then Adam and not allowed sin to contaminate the rest of the world for the rest of time on this planet. But He didn’t. Why? Don’t know.
He could have…but He didn’t. Why? Don’t know.
Fact is, it’s His world, His creation. He is not beholden to us in the slightest. We are His creation. He is not ours.
Why does He allow pain and suffering? As Keller said, we don’t know regarding all cases. But He does. And our faith is in Him and His intellect and His knowledge base.
We must remember that the child/parent analogy, mentioned earlier, is not perfect. In regards to the relationship between man and God, man will always be a child no matter how much knowledge (of God) we accumulate. Therefore, faith, a logical necessity.
To be continued…