So yesterday we dealt with the question of Theodicy. I discussed that many people refer to this as "why do bad things happen to good people" but then stated that more rightly it should be "why do bad things happen at all". Essentially Theodicy is just a fancy church word for people's attempt to understand how an all good and all powerful God, could allow evil or bad to exist in the world at all.
Whether people realize it or not, they struggle with this question throughout their lives, and most often during funerals. I told a story about a young girl (Kelly) who was only 1 week away from her high school graduation. Kelly was planning on attending college to be a marine biologist because she loved dolphins. Kelly had scheduled for her first semester of classes, spoken with her roommate to be, several times, and even filled out all that terrible financial aid paperwork. Everything was set for her to take that next step toward becoming a marine biologist. One day, Kelly was driving her four year old sister to pre-school when her car was involved in a terrible accident. Kelly was killed instantly and sister was seriously injured and air-lifted to the hospital. While in the hospital that night, with a broken and battered four year old, and two parents trying to cope with the reality that their oldest daughter was dead, I was asked this question "How could God let this happen?" This is what comes to my mind everytime the subject of Theodicy comes up. This is the question of Theodicy.
There are several potential solutions to this problem, but we will cover a few of the most common ones. Below is the list of potential solutions I covered and brief descriptions of how they solve the problem of an all Good and all Powerful God allowing evil/bad to exist:
1) There is no God - this solution solves the Theodicy problem, quite effectively. If there is no God, then there is no problem with evil or bad things existing in the world. The world is what it is, and only the strong will survive.
2) God is not all Good - in this solution, we just assume that there is a God, but that God is not necessarily good all the time. Therefore any bad or evil we experience is the result of a malicious or at least indifferent God.
3) God is not all Powerful - here God is good, but merely unable to guarantee that world will always be good. God is powerless in most instances to keep bad/evil out of the world.
*These three solutions were basically dismissed on Sunday, since I assumed that as a gathering of Christians we would at least be able to agree that there is a God, that God is all Good, and that God is all Powerful.
4) Humanity's definition of Good and Bad is wrong - basically this solution reasons that if we are mistaken about good and bad, then everything we call bad could really be good from God's infinite and all-knowing perspective.
5) All part of God's plan (Calvinism) - some things that happen may be bad, but ultimately they work toward God's perfect and good plan, so therefore it's ok. This solution gets very close to an "ends justify the means" mentality.
6) God as Divine Watchmaker (Deism) - this view was held by many of our founding fathers. It states that God created the world/universe with certain rules or laws, and set it up so that everything would run itself. Therefore if you break one of those rules/laws (ie, gravity) don't expect God to jump in, break the rules, and save you.
*If you find yourself attracted to one of these two solutions (5 or 6), then you won't be the happiest with a church like the United Methodist, since these two stand as examples of different understandings of God that are more accurately associated with other churches/denominations. Solution (5) might appeal more to a Presbyterian, while solution (6) might appeal more to a Unitarian Universalist.
7) Free Will - God created humanity with the freedom to choose to love God, or to choose things other than God. In the story of the Fall (Genesis 3) we find the result of this free will leading to sin and the introduction of evil/bad into the world. This solution states that all evil/bad in the world is a result of free will and humanity's sinful/fallen nature. In the Fall account in Genesis 3, it is stated that not only are humans affected by this fall, but even the Creation itself will be affected. Therefore even natural dissasters could be considered a result of the Fall and humanities free will.
8) No Answer/Solution - This final solution is no solution at all, and is by far the most unpopular. In Job 38, God answers Job's complaints basically by telling Job that he does not need to know why bad things happen. Sometimes when tragedy strikes, we seek for answers, but none can be found. We cry out to God and God seems silent.
When Kelly's parents asked me why Kelly died in that terrible car accident, why their other daughter was bruised and broken, swollen beyond recognition in the hospital bed next to us, I gave them the best and most honest answer I could..."I don't know". Sometimes we spend so much time looking for the right answer, trying to say the right thing, when the right answer is that there is no answer. Sometimes we don't know, we can't know, and we may never know.
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