Theodicy and the Unbeliever

The New Yorker has a well-written article by James Wood on the problem of evil and the felt inadeqaucy of many theodicies. Take some time to read through it and consider an unbeliever's response to what my philosophy professor, Ted Cabal, says is the greatest problem faced by all religions. What strikes you about his reflections? How would you counsel him?

What struck me was how I could feel my heart agreeing with him. "Yeah, life is really awful. How can such unexplainable, gratuitous evil happen? God is big -- why doesn't he just do something?" On reflection, though, Wood's perspective is fundamentally man-centered. Romans 9 clearly presents such a viewpoint as entirely flawed. It is our Creator God's sovereign prerogative to do what we wills. He will show mercy on whom he will show mercy. Period. Job ends similarly, with God asking Job "Where were you when I created the foundations of the world?"

Our pride more than our reason often finds such an answer inadequate. You can hear it in the atheists hatred for religion. It's especially palpable, as Wood points out, in the writing of former-Christians. From discussing Bart Erham's latest book God's Problem: Why We Suffer, he reflects on the incessant questioning of God, Why?!:

There is something adolescent about such complaint; I can hear it like a boy’s breaking voice in my own prose. For anti-theodicy is permanent rebellion. It is not quite atheism but wounded theism, condemned to argue ceaselessly against a God it is supposed not to believe in.

This ought to cue both reader and writer that such a complaint is not as grounded in reason as they would like.

Read the essay here.