3 Premises of Belief in God:
1. God is all powerful and causes everything that happens in the world. Nothing happens without God willing it.
2. God is just and fair, and stands for people getting what they deserve, so that the good prosper and the wicked are punished.
3. Job (x) is a good person even though bad things have happened to (x)
We can only affirm any two by denying the third
Which statement are you prepared to sacrifice, so that you can keep believing the other two?
Can suffering be educational?
God is often viewed as a parental figure. Just like a parent punishes a child he/she loves, for the child's sake - so too must God punish us.
Do you agree or disagree with the above statement? Why?
Is the above line of reasoning meant to help the sufferer explain his/her suffering? or is it primarily to defend God?
If an employer made a child suffer so that something immensely impressive or valuable could come to pass, we would put that person in prison. Why then should we excuse God for causing undeserved pain, no matter how wonderful the ultimate result may be?
Is tragedy a test?
Abraham and his 10 Tests:
Premise: God puts us through a test so that we will discover how strong and faithful we are.
How the Talmud explains Abraham's tests:
"If you go to the marketplace, you see the potter hitting his clay pots with a stick to show how strong and solid they are. But the wise potter only hits his strongest pots, never the flawed ones. God sends such tests and afflictions only to people God knows is capable of handling them, so that they and others can learn the extent of their spiritual strength."
If tragedy is a test or a punishment for a sin - do we have the right to ask God to diminish our pain and suffering?
God gives a person only what they can handle.
How does this statement make you feel?
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
(1) A song for ascents. I turn my eyes to the mountains; from where will my help come? (2) My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth.
Perhaps God does not cause our suffering?! This psalm does not say that, "My pain comes from the Lord or my tragedy comes from the Lord."
Can we thank God for good things but not blame God for the bad?
Abraham
Abraham is walking through a desert when he comes upon a palace 'lit by fire.' He mused to himself, is it possible that no one is in charge of the palace? At this point, God appears and says to him, "I am the master of the palace."
What does 'lit by fire' mean?
What is the message of this story?
- Some scholars suggest that the well lit castle represents a world animated by God's presence. Our world is so well designed that there must be intelligence behind it. It can't just have happened, any more than a palace could sprout of its own volition in the desert. If there was light, someone must live there.
- Other scholars suggest that the building was on fire and burning to the ground. Abraham sees it and thinks, such a beautiful building. Doesn't anybody live there and take care of it? At this point, God appears and says to him, "Don't be afraid, I am the master of this palace. Bad things may happen in My world. Good things, good people don't last forever. But never suppose that the world has been abandoned and given over to chaos."
Which interpretation do you find meaningful?
Does God ensure that people get what they deserve?
Isaiah 3:10-11
Tell the righteousness it shall be well with them for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for what his hands have done shall be done with him
Genesis 38:7
But Er, Judah’s first-born was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.
Proverbs 12:21
No ills befall the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble
Job 14:7
Consider, what innocent ever perished, or where have the righteous been destroyed?
- What are the limitations of the basic belief that God punishes people for their sins?
- Religion makes someone feel worse?
- Teaches people to blame themselves
- Creates guilt even where there is no basis for guilt
- Often does not fit the fact
Do people get what they deserve?
Another perspective:
People do in fact get what they deserve, but only over the course of time
Psalm 92: 6-8, 13, 16
Senseless people do not know,
fools do not understand,
7 that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.
8 But you, Lord, are forever exalted.
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.
The psalmist wants to explain the world’s apparent evil as in no way compromising God’s justice and righteousness
The Next World
Sometimes we so desperately yearn for justice and to believe in a fair God that we believe innocent people suffering will be compensated in the next world in order to keep our faith
Schadenfreude – refers to the embarrassing reaction of relief we feel when something bad happens to someone else instead of us
- It helps fortunate people believe that their good fortune is deserved, rather than a matter of luck.
- Blaming the victim is a way of reassuring ourselves that the world is not as bad a place as it may seem and that there are good reason’s for people’s suffering.
- A voice inside us might initially say: “It could have just as easily have been me” and then we try to silence it by saying “No, that’s not true. There is a reason why it happened to him and not me”
A philosopher’s interpretation
- God can choose to be fair
- But can we say logically that an all-powerful God must be fair?
How might this change your view/relationship with God?
Can you accept the idea that some things happen for no reason? That there is randomness in the world?
- Creation
- Chaos existed before God's creation
- Creation means not to make something out of nothing, but to make order out of chaos
- randomness is another name for chaos
- chaos could be understood as evil
- the Laws of Nature treat everyone alike
(26) And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Who is the "us" and "our" in this text?
Having created the animals and beasts, God says to them: “Let us arrange for a new kind of creature to emerge, a human being, in our image, yours and Mine. Let us fashion a creature who will be like you, an animal, in some ways – needing to eat, to sleep, to mate – and will be like Me in other ways, rising above the animal level. You animals will contribute his physical dimension, and I will breathe a soul into him”
"And so, as the crown of Creation, human beings are created, part animal, part divine."
What is the difference between being a human and an animal?
To be made in the image of God means being free to make choices instead of doing whatever our instinct would tell us to do
Our being human leaves us free to hurt each other and God can’t stop us without taking away the freedom that makes us human
Prayer
If we believe in God, but do not hold God responsible for life’s tragedies, what are doing when we pray to God for a favorable outcome to a crisis in our life?
In what way are we hoping that God will respond to our prayers?
I praise You, for I am awesomely, wondrously made; Your work is wonderful; I know it very well.
Who measured the waters with the hollow of God’s hand and gauged the skies with a span, And meted earth’s dust with a measure,
And weighed the mountains with a scale and the hills with a balance?
Who has plumbed the mind of God, What person could tell God’s plan?
Whom did God consult, and who taught God, guided God in the way of right? Who guided God in knowledge and showed God the path of wisdom?