I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. – Isaiah 45:5-7
Why is there good in the world? Why should there be good in the world? We agonize over how a good God could allow
evil in the world, the so-called problem of evil, but why is it we can
celebrate things like heroism and charity and self-sacrifice? Why are there people who think it is better
to feed starving children in Africa than to mercifully put them out of their
misery? I know the theory is that we
evolved as social animals, that we slowly came to understand individual
survival was less important than group survival, that we put the tribe above self and identified self with the group, and we have gradually expanded our tribal thinking to include the
entire human race, and, even, among our more enlightened thinkers, to include
all the creatures and the earth itself.
Lions are social creatures, too, and yet when a new lion
takes over the pride, he will kill all the cubs of the old male. The law of nature is the law of tooth and
claw and competition. Anything one
predator gets is something another won’t.
Up until a few centuries ago, human conquerors routinely killed off all
the males and many of the older females in a defeated population. The merciless slaughter of entire populations
is even a part of the biblical narrative as the tribes of Israel invaded Canaan. Nothing has changed genetically in the last
few thousand years, not to mention the fact that we have had numerous modern
efforts at genocide and a plethora of tribal conflicts around the world. One might even be led to think that humanity’s
attempts at altruism and peace are really struggles to rise above our material
instincts and genetic programming.
The message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, from
the Creation to the Cross is God calling man to something higher and better
than an animal existence, than blood and death, violence and vengeance.
God has no competition.
He is not struggling against other gods or even the devil for some kind
of divine kingship or supremacy. The God
who speaks to Isaiah not only has no equal, He has no challenger. He’s not seeking to run the universe; He
created it. He’s not begging for our
attention or our devotion or our worship.
In the end, He will receive it when every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
The call and the challenge is to us, to recognize not only who
God is, but what reality is and who we are within it. The benefit is not to God. We are the ones who stand to gain from
insight into the truth.
There is good in the world because God loves us. There is evil because there is freedom,
because we are not puppets, not the bouncing billiard balls of deterministic
physics, because we can choose to rise above the evolutionary miasma of human
nature. God even cuts the ground from
under those who argue that we do not need Him to make correct moral
choices: I equip you, though you do not know me. And He does that so that all may indeed know
that He is, and there is no other.
7 comments:
You and Bob are on the same wavelength today. Or more obvious than usual (all Racoons are on the same wavelength, more or less, and nothing is usual :-)
Fine post.
This though, and I see it here and there from time to time, even from the Holy Fathers language such as "The benefit is not to God" or "God has no need of us".
I think I understand what this is saying, in the logical sense, as in, He can do anything so therefore He needs nothing. I think it is that, anyway. But still, it doesn't sound like the God I know. Since what we know of love for our children, as some say we actually know by way of God rather than say by way of our earthly parents, even though (if we are fortunate) that we see our parents exhibit this, might we know "desire to be loved" then from our Father in heaven as well? Tomberg, now that I think of it, refers to the Ten Commandments as "divine-human pleas".
Does He have no need of us?
How do you see it, Mush? Or, how have you heard it explained?
It’s a good point. I used it here as hyperbole, to emphasize where the balance lies. God does need us or we would not be here. We are part of who He is, just as He is part of who we are. He, of course, is already aware of that.
I’m reminded of Brother Lawrence and The Practice of the Presence of God. He talks about doing everything all day long with an awareness that God is present with us/in us. Why would God bother with being with me when I’m out sweating over yard work or while I’m groggy and achy from being up all night working on code? We might understand His presence when things are going well and we’re out fishing or enjoying a barbeque. God, though, wants or wants to be involved in our experiences. To this end, He became flesh and dwelt among us, for our salvation primarily, but that’s what salvation means -- to be indwelt by Christ and His life.
Oddly enough, I’m uncomfortable saying that because it kind of makes God sound like a voyeur or something, but don’t we all love to be involved in the lives of our children and grandchildren? Whether they are rejoicing or suffering, we want to be there with them and for them.
Thanks, Mush. That helps.
Little choked-up, actually. Might be that presence.
Good post and good discussion Mush and Rick. I liked your genetic explanation of why we are good. You're right, it falls apart past the tribal level (if it even gets that far). But then you come in with the attempted "save."
"and we have gradually expanded our tribal thinking to include the entire human race."
Now, to do that we had to switch from gene to meme. And who pushed the meme of loving your fellow man beyond the tribal level?
Anyhow, I'm just repeating what you have said. But, personally, this discussion needs to be brought up over and over as part of my Darwinian detox.
Excellent post, Mushroom!
I've actually heard people say that they would rather not have liberty if it meant there would never be anymore violence.
But there would be violence, to our very identity. To our destiny.
What could be worse than self awareness in a borg-like hive?
It's easy to quip such an answer, but those who do never stop to think of the implications of it.
It's soul murder. Is that really worth guaranteed physical safety?
I think not!
BTW, it's not your fault, but the stuff they put us through to prove we ain't a robot drives me nuts sometimes.
Is that an cl or a d? What's that thingy there? V or u? Argh!
PS- third try, wish me luck!
I know what you mean. Sometimes it about convinces me I am a 'droid if not a robot. We'll try dropping it for a while again. You'd think as few readers as I have, the spambots would ignore me.
That's the thing -- like the actress I heard one time talk about her "right to be safe". Forget it. You want a thrill ride with no risk, go to the amusement park. I'll warn you, though, it just goes in a circle, and you don't go anywhere.
I dropped mine again. Fortunately, blogger has a new spam filter that seems to be working okay.
Now I get the spam in my e-mail but not on my blog so I just immediately trash them.
So that's an improvement.
Like you I wonder why spambots bother with me but I will say this, they are terminator-like persistant and efficient.
Darn that Skynet!
BTW how do you get paragraphs to show up? I can't get my paragraphs to show anymore after I hit publish.
Blogger giveth and blogger taketh away, lol.
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