I'm no fundamentalist, but I'd like to break it down to a couple fundamentals.
Resolved: physical laws, by definition, must operate in a consistent and predictable manner, and therefore do not exhibit deference or compassion to the suffering of organisms.
Resolved: universal physical properties that did operate with deference to organisms could no longer be called laws. They would no longer function as we define physical laws to function: uniformity and predictability would be lost.
God can change anything, but if God changes a physical law into an orange, than it is no longer going to be what we call a law. And we could never learn to understand the universe solely by studying our navels.
Without the uniformity and predictability exhibited by physical laws, we could never come to understand the universe. The universe would be whimsical, capricious; it would operate according to no discoverable principles. Certainly no one in such a world could ever claim that with sufficient data we could predict everything! There would be no dependable rules from which to predict! The laws we in our universe depend on for their predictive value would all (in this alternate universe) be busy constantly altering to avoid hurting babies.
And I'm sorry, but no matter how you want to change it, if it knows what a baby is - beyond a wiggly clump of particles and forces to be acted dispassionately upon - then it isn't a fundamental law of the universe.
So to those of us who insist: God can do anything! Therefore God could eliminate suffering. Well of course God could! God could do it easily, by eliminating cause and effect, by taking away the beautiful and rational universe we can grow up in and walk around in as adults - God could take that away and substitute something far worse. God could give us a playpen instead. We could all be a bunch of babies.
It's not our job here to be babies. It's our job here to grow up, to take who we are and create who we choose to be - to create our selves. That is the gift we give back to God. It's not the universe's job to protect our children. It's our job to protect our children. It's not God's job to design a universe that babysits us. God chose instead to design the grandest canvas upon which we could and can discover ourselves, and create our selves. And of course there is room for improvement: and we can be that improvement. God chose to offer adult virtues to us, rather than forcing childish ones upon us.
But the little souls who suffer are not lost, for God has the power to catch them all. And this world we have is so much better for not being created a padded, painless, lessonless, stifling playpen. And God is so much more compassionate, for not treating all of us like babies.
4 comments:
Or maybe God designed a universe where there is no God. Wouldn't that be a nifty but of irony? I wish I were still in High School so I could write a short story where that was the surprise ending.
LOVE THIS: "It's not the universe's job to protect our children. It's our job to protect our children. It's not God's job to design a universe that babysits us.
And this world we have is so much better for not being created a padded, painless, lessonless, stifling playpen. And God is so much more compassionate, for not treating all of us like babies."
Love it!!
God gives us freedom and we CHOOSE to step up and use it wisely and responsibly (or not). He is ever available when we need to say sorry we stuffed up!
RJW: Does God intervene...?
That's a hotly debated topic. A majority of NFL players say "YES"! While I appreciate the appeal, I dispute the necessity.
S. Scully: "Or maybe God designed a universe where there is no God."
This is exactly how I see it!! God designed a universe where there is no God! And ever since then, God just kind of lurks infinitely in the background of everything, all creepy and magnificent. Nowhere we can sense or measure...! Yet everywhere, haunting our imaginations and suppositions! And then at the end...at the end..."BOO!!"
And of course, we have to act surprised. Please don't spoil it for God when he pops out. Act surprised.
RJW: "... God designed a universe where we could choose to believe in God or not ..."
I don't believe that for a second! Or I maybe I do...but I choose not to.
Infinite shallowness? Is that even possible?
I believe that we are all each of us secretly becoming God, and that means WE'RE MORMONS. All of us! Mormons. Total mormons, out-and-out mormons.
Wait. Sorry. I misspelled that.
We're all "morons".
Brenda:
Thanks!
I love it too. I wouldn't have it any other way!
Just stand high atop any seaside cliff in a thunderstorm, any time of day or night, and ask yourself where would be the lesson in a world with no thrill, no risk, no danger!
Perhaps not literally. I mean, we should be wise about the chances we choose to take!
But it works just as well without the thunderstorm.
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