By James Haught
James Haught is editor of West Virginia’s largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette, and a senior editor of Free Inquiry. He is 87-years-old and would like to help secular causes more. This series is a way of giving back.
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Vice President Mike Pence, a renowned born-again fundamentalist, takes the podium as leader of America’s task force on the Corona crisis. Reporters should ask him:
Why did God send the pandemic to kill perhaps millions of people?
If Pence answers that nature alone produced the virus, follow-up questions should be:
Why didn’t God prevent the tragedy? Is he powerless to stop it? Or does he simply not care if multitudes die in misery?
The bizarre pandemic gripping the world raises the age-old philosophical dilemma called “the problem of evil” – which asks why a supposedly all-loving god does nothing to stop horrors such as diseases, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and the like. If there’s an all-merciful father-creator, why did he make breast cancer, childhood leukemia, cerebral palsy, natural disasters and predator animals that rip peaceful grazers apart?
Ever since Ancient Greece, priests and theologians have been flummoxed, unable to answer this enigma. In fact, a whole field of argument called theodicy arose in a futile attempt to solve it.
I think theodicy should be called “the idiocy” because there’s only one possible explanation, which is obvious to intelligent, scientific-minded people: The all-loving god proclaimed by churches cannot exist. Logic doesn’t exclude a cruel god, but it precludes a merciful one.
Dispute is swirling over the topic, with believers hedging and evading. Catholic columnist Ross Douthat of The New York Times wrote:
“A pandemic sharpens the permanent questions of theodicy, the debates over whether it’s reasonable to believe in a good and loving God in a world so rife with misery.”
Absurdly, Douthat contends: “Meaningless suffering is the goal of the devil, and bringing meaning out of suffering is the saving work of God.” He avoids the glaring question: Is God too weak to halt the devil’s work? Douthat’s answer is laughable.
Similarly, in Time magazine, Anglican theologian N.T. Wright dodged the question and said that, instead of seeking explanations, people should “recover the biblical tradition of lament.” Which could be interpreted: Don’t ask why God is killing multitudes – just lament about it.
Jim Daly, president of the born-again Focus on the Family, wrote a sappy Fox News commentary offering no answer, but saying:
“God is working through the government’s response to this crisis, providing President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and the Coronavirus Task Force wisdom and guidance as they plot and plan their attack on this lethal pathogen.”
How typical for mindless right-wing religion, hinting that Trump and Pence are on God’s team to protect humanity.
The truth stares everyone in the face: The pandemic proves that no compassionate god can exist. End of discussion. The idiocy of theodicy can do nothing to refute this clear logical conclusion.
(Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginia’s largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette-Mail, and a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He has written 12 books and 150 magazine essays. This is from Daylight Atheism at Patheos, Aug. 3, 2020.)
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the Founder of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. He authored/co-authored some e-books, free or low-cost. If you want to contact Scott: Scott.D.Jacobsen@Gmail.com.
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Image Credit: James Haught.
This is a interesting question..If god is merciful then why does he not do anything to stop this pandemic, or a tsunami…..Simple answer is this God does not exist. Humans are mammals, we are a race that has evolved to be who we are.We have been on this earth for well over a million years starting in our our most basic form. Beside our obsession for war, we are a part of this planet called earth. We are a part of it, we are born, we live under the same sun, and when we die we return to the earth, just like every insect, reptile, bird and mammal. Our earth has cycles of change, and natural disasters and wonders. All these natural disasters are just that, as natural as a bird flying or fish swimming. Disease is also a natural culling tool for all species. When a species over populates then disease takes over to naturally reduce that population, especially if that species has few enemies. Humans are no different, disease outbreaks are natural for us as well. It is just that humans have this crazy notion that we are superior to every other being, that we possibly cannot suffer the same fate, so we turn to imaginary gods to explain this. The great calamities that affect us must be due to an imaginary being, “so we turn to that “being” to pray for divine intervention, but most times it never comes, droughts still happen, earthquakes still destroy our homes etc. We are humans……yes….but we are also earthlings…..earth is our mother, our provider of food, water and air. What happens to earth happens to us, there is no god,there is just life and each life has a designated time to live, grow and die to be returned to the earth to begin again.