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If God Exists, Why Does He Do Such a Lousy Job?
When venturing to discuss the nature of G-d, the discussion can get very complicated. And when you add in the component of the dominance of secularism over religion in our times, the conclusions we draw may be all over the map. For that reason, I’ve chosen to discuss briefly many of the expectations that people have of G-d, but I believe there are a few key ones that have driven the secular Left to reject G-d and embrace nihilism. If we are going to have any chance of breaking the hold that secularism has on our society, we have to address not just religion, but the nature of our relationship with God. And we must deal with the deep disillusionment that many on the Left are experiencing, and encourage them to expand their understanding and awareness of G-d.
The OP title suggests that the source of some people rejecting G-d is their disillusionment with Him: what He represents, how He interacts with the world, and His role within the world. But even more devastating for some people is that G-d doesn’t behave the way they think He should: He shouldn’t allow bad things to happen (like hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes, rockslides, and especially the Holocaust). He shouldn’t let bad things happen to people (like disease, heartbreak, car accidents, bankruptcy, and severed relationships). He should act even when his actions could compromise our free will (such as our robbing a bank, stealing from a store, using drugs, and ignoring our obligations. He should make sure that people live satisfied lives (such as being happy, living without poverty, disappointment, or stress).
In other words, if we believe that G-d exists, He should exist to make our lives precisely as we would wish them to be.
I believe many people hold some aspects of this description in their spiritual mindset. If they are going to put their faith in G-d, it makes sense that He ought to earn our faith. Any G-d worth his salt should have to earn our respect. He should frequently demonstrate that He is taking care of us, making our lives meaningful and carefree. If He is not able to do all these things, then why should any of us make the effort to include Him in our lives?
In fact, if He can’t make life perfect, why should I invest my heart in Him at all?
When a person holds these ideas about G-d, it could lead to their making the effort to seek solutions for problems in their own lives; their solutions are probably less than perfect, but over the long term can be perfected. It means that they can only rely on themselves and others who believe that no one else can be trusted to create the perfect world. It might require a leap of faith to believe that a human being has the wherewithal to act in these remarkable ways, but if one remembers that we are all created in the image of G-d (which they technically wouldn’t believe), we have the potential to create the perfect world. And if we unite in that utopian imagery, all things are possible.
* * * *
The problems with secularism and the rejection of G-d are numerous and disappointing. It’s worth taking a look at them to better understand why secularists are so unhappy, unfulfilled, and alienated from the rest of society. The following list represents the “limitations” of belief in G-d, as a secularist would see them.
- First, we are simply unable to “know” the mind of G-d. Although He has given us many laws and direction, we are unable to know his thinking all of the time. He calls for us to trust that we have the power to live rewarding and fulfilling lives, based on the guidance He has given us, but we are the only ones (no other person, no other organization) who can take the initiative to make those things happen.
- Based on #1, we never know for sure when, or if, G-d will act in our lives. This fact goes back to the impossibility of our knowing the mind of G-d. That uncertainty can be disconcerting.
- Since we have free will, with no equivocation from G-d, we must assume that He will never compromise our ability to act freely. That means, however, that G-d may intercede in our lives, but we will likely not know when, how, or if He will act. That means we are called to actively fulfill our responsibilities to each other, and to Him. Assuming He will bail us out from a careless decision or action (or inaction) is very risky, and we are likely to be disappointed.
- Having free will also means that we are free to create the lives we wish. If we are lazy or not resourceful, life will be a great disappointment. If we want to live lives of richness and satisfaction, it is on us to do so. I personally believe that there are times when G-d sees our efforts, He will help us out; the nature of that help can be physical, emotional, mental, or financial, but we have to take the first step. He may even point in a direction where we can begin, but we have to be awake and pay attention to that often-subtle guidance.
* * * *
What do all these ideas have to do with secularism? The secularists have gotten themselves into a bind. First, they reject G-d because He doesn’t behave the way they believe he should act, if He exists at all. They feel they are entitled to His intercession, and they shouldn’t have to “do life” all by themselves. At the same time, however, they grudgingly believe that if they have to take action, they have the attributes of G-d that can kick in. They believe they are capable of creating the perfect, stress-free, fun world, just like G-d would do if he actually existed. And finally, their methodology is to destroy everything around them and create that new, perfect world in its place.
* * * *
In my reading, I came across a quotation from the skeptic’s dictionary https://www.skepdic.com/naturalism.html , and I’m including it because I think it summarizes the empty, flat and mundane description of a world without G-d:
Finally, a naturalistic worldview is one that has no supernatural or mystical element to it. The universe is all we can ever hope to know and there is no compelling reason to posit a supernatural world beyond and in addition to the natural world. The infusion of supernatural elements into human societies is itself a natural phenomenon that has a naturalistic origin and history. There may be elements or forces in nature that are not understood, but there is nothing that requires magical thinking or superstitious positing of transcendent beings to account for them. Even religions and philosophies that center around beliefs in the supernatural, as well as so-called mystical experiences, are themselves natural and originate without the assistance of anything supernatural. Even so-called miracles are explicable in terms of natural phenomena.
* * * *
So the secularist who rejects G-d is often disillusioned, perhaps subconsciously, because he realizes at some level that he is incapable of perfecting the world in spite of his best efforts, and he resents it. As a result, life seems mundane, unchallenging, and routine.
Nevertheless, he will keep striving for perfection with his cohorts.
No matter the costs.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
Great post, Susan.
The only issue that I have with it relates to free will. I find this to be a difficult issue as a theological matter. I don’t have a solution. My own approach is to be cautious about assuming free will, and cautious about assuming a lack of free will.
That would work for me, Jerry! If we orient our lives to serve G-d and be good people, we’ll probably do just fine. Thanks!
Another thought-provoking and powerful post, Susan, and you are asking many of the questions that have, of course, plagued humankind since creation. I share the following thoughts from the brilliant mind and passionate heart of C.S. Lewis, who offers a challenging metaphor:
“I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that he gives us the gift of suffering. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.”
The blows of God’s chisel. Indeed and indeed.
Thanks so much, IMFine. A beautiful quote. I always find it fascinating to compare the perception of suffering in Judaism and Christianity.
If our lives are lousy it’s because the nature of God is reason.
Consider poor benighted Islam, in which the notion of God is chaos. Allah can do any thing at all He pleases, at any time and in any fashion. The world of the primitive is unintelligible and threatening. The God of Islam could change all the quarks to ice, kill all the joos, and reset the sequences in this failing database that is holding up everyone’s packages worldwide this morning. (I work for a subcontractor and I’m stuck on the phone listening to this fiasco.)
The faith of the West is that the nature of God is reason. If God is doing a lousy job with one’s life, then all one needs to do is listen to God and act with reason. (And just set the damn sequence to the highest existing value +1 so we can get on with scheduling airplanes.)
In other words, here in civilization our problems are our fault and God has the solutions.
I have no problem with the theodicy because of the existance of free will.
I do have a problem with predetermination and free will. If every single event in all of existance for all time is planned and executed as planned, there’s no such thing as free will or the ability of God to change His mind. Predeterminism also means prayer is useless, because if things only happen according to His plan, nothing can change the execution of His plan.
Yet there are cases of God changing His mind, so maybe I shouldn’t worry about it . . .
Not quite sure about your comment here, Barfly. We are the source of most of our problems, but as you have experienced today, you’re aren’t really the source of your current problem. G-d may have a solution, but I don’t know if he’ll help you out!
Still, in general, we are the source of many of our problems and just aren’t aware of our own contribution. And I’m not sure G-d will always share solutions. (I sometimes have to be hit upside the head to “get it”!) But I try to stay open and aware.
Hope your situation works out–and soon!
I don’t believe in predetermination myself. Like you, it doesn’t make sense to me if I have free will. And certainly G-d does change His mind; whether I find that helpful or not can depend not only on how I feel about G-d’s judgment, but also on my own preferences and perceptions.
I do believe that G-d can look into the future to know what could happen. But just as he pulls back from controlling our lives, I don’t know if He looks ahead. There seem to be a number of times when events turned out differently than He expected.
Yep. As for prayer, there’s that saying that God hears all prayers, but he doesn’t always answer them. If He did, everyone would have a winning lottery ticket. To me, answering a prayer is God changing something, which sort of goes against the idea of predestination, IMHO . . .
I think there’s a difference between everything being pre-destined, and G-d selectively intervening. We may not know why he does, but I believe he does. Otherwise, would he answer our prayers at all?
There is a whole book of the Bible on this subject: Job. Don’t look there for why God does what he does. Look rather for why we don’t – can’t – understand why. There is a question-and-answer session near the end, with God asking the questions. Job does about as well as you or I would.
Good point! And I agree. Poor Job! But there were invaluable lessons.
“If it feels good, do it”
It seems to me that we never really got out of the philosophy of the 60s. I don’t believe that people need to listen to Bible-beating fundamentalists but I do advocate some quiet reflection every now and then to center themselves on what is really important.
Yeah, it’s probably simplistic but for my own life I’ve realized that, in some areas, it’s wise to not “make a fetish of complexity”.*
*Thank you, President Reagan
Sounds like a wise approach to me, CA. I meditate most days for that quiet time.
I don’t know what you mean by the faith of the West. If you mean Christianity, I don’t think that you are correct.
It seems to me that the “faith” of the French Revolution, at its worst, was supposedly “reason.”
Recently I heard Father Robert Spitzer say that among people over 50 the problem of evil is the main stumbling block to faith. Among the younger set, it is “scientism,” or the notion that science somehow disproves the divine. Interestingly, among scientiests themselves quite a few are believers. And for doctors, I think the percentage of believers was in the 70s.
I think another problem, at least in my case, is the amount of lousy theology spoonfed to the young (at least when I was a kid). In the case of Catholicism, the secularists are often tilting at windmills–attacking beliefs that the Church does not actually hold.
Robert Frost has a wonderful piece called “The Masque or Reason.” As I recall (paraphrasing here), Job and God are planning a reunion and Mrs. Job is aghast. “After what He put you through….?” The Lord comes along and explains that Job really did a great service. “Before you, I was helpless. If someone was good, I had to reward him. If someone was bad, I had to punish him. I had no freedom. Thanks, Job.” Or something like that. Frost also wrote “A Masque of Mercy,” which is pretty funny, too. Frost had a way of thinking about such matters that was deep and light at the same time. He is one of the great conservatives. Here are two very short thought provokers:
and
@gfhandle, I’ll get around to the question of God’s free will right after I get the whole “ordinances of Heaven” thing hammered out.
I think this is probably true for Judaism. My folks just sent us to Sunday school and Hebrew school. We had minimal exposure to the holidays at home. I didn’t have kids, so I would think it would be a challenge to educate children to experience the spiritual depth of a religion, particularly of G-d. But certainly there are plenty of misinterpretations from the little that many learned, as well as judgments, due to the lack of depth in study.
Oh, God answers our prayers; sometimes the answer is, “No.”
As far as free will: have you ever spent time with a two year old?
Good one, Carol! And the answer is no! ;-)
As per your usual, Susan, another topic providing food for thought.
I have long thought that usually a person can accept horrendous things that have been happening to them, as long as the individual still has a community that supports them.
With that support, the belief in God can continue.
But when the person is ostracized and rejected by their community, then not only have they suffered an intense and horrid experience, they begin to blame God.
I am not saying it is right the individual then blames God, but we are most apt to make hugely bad decisions when we are depleted in this fashion.
Perhaps the disappointment in God from the secularist, and some Christians and Jews is misplaced. Maybe they should wonder if God is disappointed in them.
IK
So true, Doug. But I have to ask the obvious: do they care?
Perfect, Percival. It would have made a great OP title!
The Bee got there first, six years ago.
Yes. I have 4 kids, between 12 and 27 years old.
I don’t see what this has to do with the theological question of free will, though.