42- and oh yes, theodicy
So I was skimming through "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" again (and I hope I don't need to tell you it's a good book) and I was contemplating the thought of discussing Theodicy with the fictional Dr. Rodney McKay, and I came up with, what I think might be a new, or at least not nearly as ex- of an ex-horse, concept to answer the problem of evil.
To break it down for those who don't know what problem I'm referring to or haven't heard the variety of "answers" to it:
The problem of evil refers to the apparent impossiblity presented by the following three premises:
Some mess with the concept that God is all benevolent. For example, that evil exists and God is using it on purpose for various reasons. To teach us a lesson ("eat your vegetables or go to hell!" argument), or to make us better people ("Calvin, go do something you hate, it builds character!" argument). Or there's Descartes' concept of the evil demon, which pretty much states that God could well just be messing with us for fun, and we'd have no way of knowing.
Some of them end with the result that God can't exist. The classic for this one is the "extra-drippy ice cream cone" argument. (God wants me to be happy, my ice cream cone is dripping so fast I can't eat it before it melts, that makes me unhappy, therefore God doesn't exist).
But then there's the concept of messing with God as all powerful, which can get you into really nasty places if you push hard enough, and almost all of which are knocked down by the concept of God creating the universe- which started the cause and effect chain from which all effects flow. If God is holding Godself back from being all powerful in this universe, for whatever reason, you do eventually have issues with the concept of God as all benevolent as well. And if God really just isn't in control, then God isn't really God either.
So- keeping all that in mind- what to do about theodicy?
Ever heard of the concept of the "multiverse"? Sure you have, if you've seen the latest Star Trek movie, or indeed read almost any scifi or fantasy or otherwise speculative fiction, ever. It's the idea that alternate realities exist- that there are, outside of our immediate senses, Earths where Nixon was never elected, where there are two Moons, where Wicca is the major world religion. I haven't checked all that recently, but I'm pretty sure there's no conclusive proof one way or the other about this.
With that concept in mind, let's talk about the concept of "Creation." I'm not talking about writing a movie, or what the movie version of RENT proclaims is the opposite of war: I'm talking about God creating, as described in the Bible, the cosmos. Back in the day, people assumed that meant God created the Earth, and then anything else we could see in the sky. Our concept of reality grew, and we spread Creation to the solar system. Then to the galaxy, then the universe.
My suggestion- what if Creation consists of, not just the universe, but the multiverse? The original description of the universe was supposed to be that it was infinite and therefore contained all possible variations of everything. However, our understanding of reality grew again and it came to mean everything that exists in this timeline, this reality.
God, by definition, is an infinite being. We agree easily enough that infinite creation or infinite knowledge is impossible for finite beings. Why can't it be that finite creation is impossible for the infinite God?
If God created "Creation", then surely that Creation is truly infinite, and contains all possible universes, realities, and timelines. The infinite must contain evil, as one of those possibilities, and we are simply moving through one universe of many.
Altogether too many people are trying to make Creation smaller, so God will fit into whatever the box of the day is. This is what I think of when I read the first fourteen verses of John's Gospel. This is the size of my God.
To break it down for those who don't know what problem I'm referring to or haven't heard the variety of "answers" to it:
The problem of evil refers to the apparent impossiblity presented by the following three premises:
- God is all powerful.
- God is all benevolent.
- Evil exists.
Some mess with the concept that God is all benevolent. For example, that evil exists and God is using it on purpose for various reasons. To teach us a lesson ("eat your vegetables or go to hell!" argument), or to make us better people ("Calvin, go do something you hate, it builds character!" argument). Or there's Descartes' concept of the evil demon, which pretty much states that God could well just be messing with us for fun, and we'd have no way of knowing.
Some of them end with the result that God can't exist. The classic for this one is the "extra-drippy ice cream cone" argument. (God wants me to be happy, my ice cream cone is dripping so fast I can't eat it before it melts, that makes me unhappy, therefore God doesn't exist).
But then there's the concept of messing with God as all powerful, which can get you into really nasty places if you push hard enough, and almost all of which are knocked down by the concept of God creating the universe- which started the cause and effect chain from which all effects flow. If God is holding Godself back from being all powerful in this universe, for whatever reason, you do eventually have issues with the concept of God as all benevolent as well. And if God really just isn't in control, then God isn't really God either.
So- keeping all that in mind- what to do about theodicy?
Ever heard of the concept of the "multiverse"? Sure you have, if you've seen the latest Star Trek movie, or indeed read almost any scifi or fantasy or otherwise speculative fiction, ever. It's the idea that alternate realities exist- that there are, outside of our immediate senses, Earths where Nixon was never elected, where there are two Moons, where Wicca is the major world religion. I haven't checked all that recently, but I'm pretty sure there's no conclusive proof one way or the other about this.
With that concept in mind, let's talk about the concept of "Creation." I'm not talking about writing a movie, or what the movie version of RENT proclaims is the opposite of war: I'm talking about God creating, as described in the Bible, the cosmos. Back in the day, people assumed that meant God created the Earth, and then anything else we could see in the sky. Our concept of reality grew, and we spread Creation to the solar system. Then to the galaxy, then the universe.
My suggestion- what if Creation consists of, not just the universe, but the multiverse? The original description of the universe was supposed to be that it was infinite and therefore contained all possible variations of everything. However, our understanding of reality grew again and it came to mean everything that exists in this timeline, this reality.
God, by definition, is an infinite being. We agree easily enough that infinite creation or infinite knowledge is impossible for finite beings. Why can't it be that finite creation is impossible for the infinite God?
If God created "Creation", then surely that Creation is truly infinite, and contains all possible universes, realities, and timelines. The infinite must contain evil, as one of those possibilities, and we are simply moving through one universe of many.
Altogether too many people are trying to make Creation smaller, so God will fit into whatever the box of the day is. This is what I think of when I read the first fourteen verses of John's Gospel. This is the size of my God.