God as Sustainer of All Things

In the book The Beginning of Infinity, physicist David Deutsch imagines the following dialogue between the philosopher Socrates and the Greek God Hermes:

Hermes, speaking to Socrates: “How many [Athenians] are willing to criticize a god by the standards of reason and justice?”

Socrates, [ponders]: “All who are just, I suppose.  For how can anyone be just if he follows a god of whose moral rightness he is not persuaded?  And how is it possible to be persuaded of someone’s moral rightness without first forming a view about which qualities are morally right?”

“A Dream of Socrates”, in The Beginning of Infinity, by David Deutsch, 2011
The dialogue was drawn from themes in Plato's "Apology", the account of Socrates' self-defense in his trial for impiety and corruption of the youth.

In the traditional Christian view of God, God is creator of all things, sustainer of all things, and judge of all people.  From Scripture, particularly John 1:3, we learn that nothing was made without God; nothing exists without God.  God is in all things, rules all things, determines all things.  In this post we will consider the role of God the sustainer of the world. 

I recently attended a session of Alaska’s excellent story-telling forum, Arctic Entries.  The monthly programs allow people in the community to tell stories of their lives.  In the most recent show, a story-teller told of an improbable and horrific accident.  While swimming in a lake with other young people, a rope from a boat somehow became wrapped around his neck, just as the boat departed at high speed.  The young man survived, but suffered a stroke which left half of his body paralyzed.  The young man was a church leader in a mentoring program for high-school students; he had given of his time and wisdom to make their lives better.  So why, of the eleven people on stage, was he the one to suffer a physically and mentally crushing random injury?  Where is the God who is in all things, determines all things, and rules all things?

If we take David Deutsch’s dialogue of Socrates to heart, we are not only permitted, but obligated to question God’s performance as the sustainer of all things, according to rational standards of justice and goodness.

God the Father, Julius Schnorr, 1860

Making Excuses for God -- When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Everybody knows that bad things happen to good people.  Theologians and religious people acknowledge that this is one of the most difficult issues with faith.  There is a huge volume of religious literature dedicated to the topic of explaining the injustices of life to those who have suffered pain, injury, and tragedy.  The literature tries to help people make sense of their loss, to reconcile the evil they have suffered with the fundamental goodness of God. 

People make excuses for God.  When bad things happen, people can always provide an explanation.  Here is a short sampling of the excuses I have heard for why God allows suffering to exist.  I have taken many of these verbatim from religious websites; others I remembered from sermons and teachings from childhood.  The essence of these excuses is that bad things happen, but it is never God’s fault.

• God has a higher purpose.
• God is testing our faith.
• God is not responsible for all the evil that is happening around us; Satan is. 
• People are wicked.  The innocent suffer, along with the wicked.
• God always answers your prayers, just not always in the way that you want.
• God allows suffering because troubles make you stronger.
• God allows suffering because people have been granted free will.  Other peoples’ sins and decisions cause the innocent to suffer, but it isn’t God’s fault.
• Good people suffer on Earth, because the reward is in Heaven. 
• God wants the loved one in Heaven.
• Suffering in this world doesn’t matter, because eternity makes the difference.
• Pain awakens us to God.
• If we understood why innocents suffer, we would be unmoved, and that would be unthinkable.
• God is able to restore the life of the child, so from God’s perspective, there’s no loss.
• All people have sinned, and people share the sins of others, so there are no good people.
• God allows bad things to happen to good people to teach them lessons, to discipline them, to improve their character, to encourage them to depend on him, etc.
• God did not create people to suffer, but sometimes we do suffer because we live in a fallen world.
• Evil entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  We live with suffering as a consequence of their disobedience.
• Trust in God; God knows what he is doing.

The sheer number and variety of excuses for God suggest to me that there is no appropriate answer for God’s apparent indifference to human suffering.

If we continue along the path suggested by David Deutsch, we should question God according to the standards of reason and justice.  It is easy to frame responses to each excuse for God’s indifference, as follows:

• Is God, the omnipotent, unable to accomplish his higher purpose without causing suffering?
• Is God unable to differentiate the good from the bad, and treat each accordingly?
• Why does the reward in Heaven require suffering on Earth?
• What kind of kindness is represented by testing humans with cruelty?
• God has all of eternity; if he wants somebody in Heaven, why can’t he wait?
• If a prayer is for mercy and goodness, why would it be denied?
• Why is it necessary to cause suffering in order to teach someone?
• What kind of relationship relies on punishment to enforce loyalty and obedience?
• Why should anyone suffer for the sins of others?

Despite promises in the Bible and liturgy, God doesn’t intervene to provide justice in human affairs.  As I have done in other posts on this blog, I could provide examples; lists of injustices in human experience.  But that is unnecessary.  For every article about faith repaid by divine intervention in Guidepost magazine, everyone knows there are innumerable examples of undeserved tragedy, throughout history.  Many of those tragedies are of human doing, but many are natural disasters – in legal parlance, Acts of God.  And if natural disasters inflicted on the innocent are in fact, acts of God, should we not judge God according to the standards of reason and justice?

Mercy is innate, through-going and consistent behavior.  God’s mercy should not be capricious or biased, threatening or conditional.  We should criticize God according to the standards of reason and justice when we consider the problem of suffering in the world.

When Good Things Happen to Bad People

Good things also happen to bad people.  This is the converse of the usual paradox, although it is examined less often.  In fact, we know that good things happen to all kinds of people, and bad things happen to all kinds of people.  Throughout history, the innocent and good have suffered equally with the wicked; the wicked have prospered as much as the deserving and just.  It’s pretty clear that ethical or moral merit just doesn’t matter when it comes to cancer, debilitating illness, and early death.  And wicked leaders such as Ivan the Terrible, Josef Stalin, Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin and others survive and prosper, unless brought down by the concerted efforts of men, not God.

Conclusion

In the course of writing this post, I realized that Hans Christian Anderson’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is perhaps about religion.  People generally believe what they are told by a person of authority.  When people are taught from birth, they will fiercely believe in those things despite evidence from their own experiences and senses.  In Anderson’s story, only a child could acknowledge what was plainly seen by all – that there was nothing there. 

People stubbornly hang on to what we were taught as children.  Some people who were taught that Pluto is a planet are deeply distressed by the scientific re-classification which changes that status.  People are taught to trust in God, as they trust in their parents.  Some psychologists even say that that we are pre-wired to believe in God.  And so, people retain their belief in God, regardless of their life experiences, and regardless of how contradictory those experiences may be compared to the teachings about God from childhood.  Gaining release from those beliefs requires critical, objective thought, contrary to some of our earliest instruction.  It isn’t easy.

Human experience is incompatible with the traditional concept of God – omniscient, omnipotent, infinitely good, Creator and Sustainer of the world and mankind.  The suffering which mankind endures is simply incompatible with such a God.  God, if he exists, is either not infinitely good, not infinitely powerful, or not interested in mankind.

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References:
David Deutsch, 2011, "A Dream of Socrates", pp. 223 - 257, in The Beginning of Infinity, p.496.
Plato, Apology, c. 399 BC.  (Apology is Plato's account of Socrates' speech at his trial for heresy and corruption of the youth.  The trial ended in Socrates death sentence, which was carried out some months later.  In my view, Socrates was approaching the idea of monotheism, and used the term "the god", whenever he spoke of his own faith.), in Plato, Five Dialogues, translated by G. Grube and J. Cooper.
The Bible, John, 1:3.  

Regarding the Power of Prayer, or Did the People on the Titanic Forget to Pray?

"Oh, they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship that the water couldn't go through,
But the good Lord raised his hand, and said that ship would never land.
It was sad when the great ship went down."
                                                Children's song "Titanic"

“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
                                                Gordon Lightfoot, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Prayer is an important facet of belief in God, particularly from the interventionist view of God.  Personal testimony regarding the power of prayer is quite common.  Many people deeply believe in the power of prayer, and believe that they have observed response to prayers in their own lives.  Occasionally, a post circulates on Facebook like a chain letter, urging friends to type “Amen!” if they believe in the power of prayer.  And thousands of “Amen” responses follow.  Guideposts and other religious writings are full of stories of prayers answered – a recovery from illness, a lost relative found.  A quick Google search lists stories of answered prayers: “Money Owed”, “Lost in the Mountains”, “Locked Out”, “My Broken Foot”, “Glasses in the Ocean”, “Class Ring”, and so on.  There are many stories of prayers answered, for life problems, large and small.

But what about the converse?  What about prayers that are not answered, especially in circumstances more dire than a lost pair of glasses?  Why would God choose to answer a prayer to find a pair of glasses, but neglect to save people from natural or man-made disasters?

In essence, does anyone suppose that the people on the Titanic forgot to pray?  

When Jews fleeing the destruction of Jerusalem were besieged by the Romans at Masada in 74 AD, and ended the siege with a mass suicide, does anyone think they didn’t pray? 

When Mongols attacked the religious center of Vladimir, Russia in the 1300s, about three thousand Orthodox Christians took shelter in the cathedral and were killed there, in front of the icons.  The cathedral still stands, and you can walk on the same floor where they were slaughtered. Does anyone think that they forgot to pray? 

Does anyone believe that Jews ordered into gas chambers during the Holocaust didn’t pray? 

When Nazis systematically lined up and shot 120,000 Ukrainian Jews, Roma, Russians and families of resistance fighters at the ravine called Babyn Yar in Kyiv, does anyone think they didn’t pray? 

When 150 newly elected black legislators were besieged in a Louisiana courthouse by a white militia in 1873, the courthouse was set on fire.  The legislators were massacred as they fled the building.  Does anyone think that they didn’t pray?  

When the Allies fire-bombed Dresden, killing 150,000 German civilians, does anyone believe that the victims didn’t pray? 

During the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, dozens of people were trapped on the roofs of the buildings, and suffered from blistering heat rising from the fires below.  There were helicopters within sight, unable or unwilling to land because of the updraft from the fires.  One by one, the people gave up hope of rescue and jumped to escape the heat, falling 1300' to their deaths.  Does anyone believe that they forgot to pray?

The endless horrors of history continue today, both of man’s making and by natural disaster.  And at no point is there systematic evidence of physical rescue beyond what we might expect from random events.

So it goes (with a nod to Kurt Vonnegut) for every disaster or massacre of religious people in history.  For certainly, among the thousands of victims, there must have been many innocent, faithful and devout followers of God, who prayed with all diligence for mercy and protection which never came.  From this, can we conclude that God will ease our suffering, cure an ailment, help us find our car keys, score a touchdown or be on time to an appointment?

Communal Prayer

Another important aspect of Christianity is common prayer.  We pray in church, and we pray at meals.  Prayer brings us together in a meditative moment, and we communicate to each other our gratitude at the good things in life and our joy in each other’s presence.  It can be a good thing.

A common practice in modern American Christian churches is to join together in prayer for members of the congregation and their loved ones who are sick, or in some life crisis, or recently deceased.  I don’t mean to disparage communal prayer.  It is a way of communicating to each other our care, to provide comfort to friends during loss and to build a sense of community.  But I find it odd as a way of communicating with God.  I especially find it odd when people solicit prayer for someone through social media, as though gathering more prayers will somehow prod God into action.   Is that how people think prayer works?  Does God tote up the number of people praying for someone, and answer those prayers ahead of someone alone, without friends, and desperately praying for themselves? 

Is prayer like “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr. Suess, where it is necessary for every Who in Whoville to plead for a response, until the smallest Who’s loud “Yop!”  is sufficient to attract the attention of God?  I don’t think that’s how prayer should work.  If God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all powerful, the smallest prayer should be equal to a million prayers.  And in any case, prayer itself should be unnecessary – God should already know.

Conclusion

It seems to me that the power of prayer is literally survivorship bias, writ large.  Those who survive speak about the power of prayer, and those who do not survive are not heard.   It seems to me that either God’s answers to prayer are incredibly capricious, without regard for devotion, merit, evil or innocence, or they do not exist.  I do not choose to believe in a capricious God.   

There is little consistent evidence for answers to prayer by a merciful, interventionist God.