The Problem of Evil CH. 7

Ch. 7  St. Thomas Aquinas could only find 2 objections to the existence of God:  The problem of evil  The apparent ability of natural science to explain everything in our experience without God.  “If God is so good, why is his world so bad? […] Why do bad things happen to good people?”  *There are lots of emotions and feelings involved here, and for good reason. However, a logical/intellectual solution demands that we set them aside for the time being.

4 part solution 1. Evil is not a thing, an entity, a being. Evil is a wrong choice or the damage done by a wrong choice It’s not a thing, but it’s not an illusion (blindness example) 2. The origin of evil is not the Creator but the creature’s freely choosing sin and selfishness. The origin of physical evil (pain, suffering, and death) is spiritual evil (sin). We are embodied souls or ensouled bodies even more than we are body and soul. But isn’t God the origin of free will?  Yes, but this doesn’t mean that our misuse of it is God’s fault.  “Would we prefer he[…] had made us robots rather than human beings?”

4 part solution 3. Resolution in practice not just in thought: Jesus is God’s solution. The Cross is the practical solution. 4. Philosophical problems and solutions 1. What are “good” people? 2. Who says suffering is all bad? 3. Why should we expect to know all of God’s reasons? 4. Hell?

Catechism  ¶309: “If God…cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question…There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.”

Exodus 3: Moses and the Burning Bush  In this conversation with God Moses is given a mission:  “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.”  “Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”  Is this a deistic God?  Moses is scared so he starts making excuses.  *Note that God does not get angry with Moses for his excuses but does have an answer to each of them.

Exodus 3: Moses and his excuses 1. Who am I? I’m a nobody! I’m not worthy.  Trust me. I am somebody and will make you somebody. 2. Who are you? What do I say?  Divine name:  Trust me: here are step by step instructions. 3. What if they don’t believe me?  I will give you the signs you need.  Trust me! 4. I’m not a good public speaker.  Don’t you know who I am yet? Trust me!  Moses had good reasons to doubt in his own ability to accomplish this mission to relieve the sufferings of others. However, God’s response is an invitation to trust in His abilities rather than our own.  When we doubt that God will, or even can, bring good out of evil we should recall the answer that Moses got to his doubts: Trust Me.

THE BOOK OF JOB: Suffering of the Innocent  Job 1:  Job is a good man, favored by God, and righteous.  God brags about him.  Satan questions God: Job is faithful because everything is going well for him, if he were to suffer he would turn against you.  God allows Satan to test Job.  Job reacts to the first disasters by blessing God’s name. (1:21)  Job 2: Satan continues to test Job’s limits…  Of all the understandable reactions (his friends give him plenty of options), Job never doubts God and never stops praying for deliverance from evil. He chooses to draw closer to God in his suffering and he trusts in God’s plan.

THE BOOK OF JOB: Job’s Friends  Eliphaz: (4:7-8) You must have done something  Response: (6:24-25) I want to agree with you, but what did I do?  Bildad: (8:3) God is just, you did something  Response: (9:12) Admits that no one can say to God “What are you doing?” However, he is still innocent.  Zophar: (11:5-6) If you question God you’re a fool (implying you did something regardless of whether you know it or not)  Response: (13:3-5, 18-19) I would demand a reason from God for I can prove my innocence. (Not that he is totally without guilt but that it is disproportionate.)  Elihu (32:2-4) Frustrated that Job thinks he is in the right and God in the wrong and that the friends were unable to provide a good answer to Job’s sufferings. (32:8-12) Job, you’re arrogant.

THE BOOK OF JOB  Job 31:35 Let the Almighty answer me!  Job 38: the Lord speaks!  Job gets put into his place  Job 40:2 “Let him who would correct God give answer!”  Job 40:4 “what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth”  Job 40:6ff ROUND 2!  40:10  Job 42: Job’s repentance and restoration

THE BOOK OF JOB  The Lord does not respond to Job’s questions about either the justice of innocent suffering or about Job’s personal virtue.  When the Lord discloses himself to Job, their relationship becomes immediate, direct, and genuine.  The climax of the book: “Before, I knew you only by hearsay but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5-6)  When the question of “why is there pain, evil, and suffering” seems to have no answer, we are nevertheless invited to trust God.  Foreshadowing of the Cross…

Jesus and the Cross  “…suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…”  ¶312: “In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil…From the greatest moral evil ever committed—the rejection and murder of God’s only Son, caused by the sins of all men—God, by his grace that “abounded all the more,” brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.  Why evil? To bring about a greater good.