Doesn’t Reality Matter?

In an opinion piece on Yahoo Michael Novak was (I think) bemoaning an essay by James Wood in New Yorker magazine explaining why Wood can no longer remain a Christian. Basically Wood has fallen victim to the “Problem of Evil” and will join Bart Ehrman, and many, many others, in rejecting God in general, and Christianity in particular, as a result.

I say “I think” because Novak never really nails down his point very precisely.

Epicurus is generally credited with first expounding the Problem of Evil. As paraphrased by David Hume Epicurus asked "Is He (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?"

In other words, God cannot both be omnipotent and omnibenevolent as Christianity claims, therefore the Christian God cannot exist and therefore Christianity is false.

The title of the opinion piece is “Resolving evil with faith” but Novak doesn’t attempt to resolve the problem of evil. Instead he seems to take the position that abandoning one’s faith isn’t going to change anything so why abandon it!

“The rejection of God does not diminish evil in the world by a whit.”

Perhaps not, but understanding that Sky Daddy isn’t going to resolve it for us is a damn good start. Of course built into this statement is an assumption that God exists, but the whole argument associated with the Problem of Evil is that he can’t exist, or at least he can’t exist as described by Christianity.

“…the turn of Russia and Germany from more or less Christian regimes to boastfully atheist regimes did not lessen, but increased, the number of humans who have horribly suffered…”

I’m not going to try and defend atheist regimes with blood on their hands nor make excuses that these regimes were really a pseudo-religion. I will point out that Nazi Germany however, whom I assume Novak means, was not a “boastfully atheist regime.” Whatever one would like to think about Hitler, Goring and Himmler, Nazi German troops wore the slogan “Gott mitt uns” on their belt buckles.

“…those who suffer most from injustice and oppression seem to find more consolation and dignity in the Jewish/Christian faith than in any other worldview…”

Says who? The arrogance of this statement is so over the top I’m not quite sure what else to say.

“Worse, the world seen by evolutionary biology alone is even more rife with suffering, yet rather more merciless.”

Ah yes, the old argument from consequences. I don’t like the implications of reality therefore I’m going to make up a fairy tale to make me feel better. One cannot begin to effectively address a problem unless one is willing to accept that problem exists.

Religion brings to the table the dual crippling attitudes of (1) ask God for help and (2) it will all be better in the world to come.

As for #1, it’s been my experience that God tends to help those that help themselves and as for #2, what if there is no world to come and this is all we got?

“Would a conviction that our sufferings are meaningless, and due to blind chance, ease the pain of the poor and the unjustly tortured?”

Probably not, but at least we would be forced to focus on stopping the suffering rather than making saints out of those that suffered.

“Whether our lives are meaningless, or not, is not a trivial question.”

True statement, but meaning can easily be limited to this life and doesn’t have to be part of some divine cosmic plan. The fact that I breathe, laugh and cry has meaning to me even if it will only last the equivalent of the blink of an eye in the scheme of the universe.

The fact that I lived my life as best I could, loved when I chose to love, hated when I chose to hate and could look eternity in the eye and accept its implications has meaning for me here and now. And as far as I’m concerned that’s enough.