That was good! I remember watching that sphere movie and wondering why it was so important on the PS2 I think it was. Now I know why. Also although the question, “why is there so much pain in suffering. And why would God allow it?” May be a valid concern but I don’t think that existential dread some may feel can be answered by anything else but a higher power. Otherwise what aim do we have but the pleasures of the world to offset the evil? Although not a trivial query, only with God can you explain such complexity so simply and may even seem disingenuous as you mentioned but it was never Gods intention to have such strife in the world. without free will there can not be a relationship. The cause of the suffering is not God, it is the effect of sin entering the world.
Thanks for reading, Nate! I’ll be writing more in the subject of free will soon! I think you’re right that having a higher power answers many of the questions we have quite cleanly, but what irks people is that God is supposedly ‘good’, when it seems he allows suffering to occur. A ‘good’ person steps in to help, right? So why does it seem like God isn’t doing that?
I’ve some ideas about that, but it is a really serious problem. In truth, it’s probably unsolvable—the book of Job offers us maybe the most straightforward response, and God’s response is more or less, ‘you humans don’t know anything, so let me handle it.’
Yes I agree. The topic is very large and complex. I think we are meant to struggle with evil as a whole, or as a cosmic force as you mentioned, but not meant to understand it. We can understand simple morality like the ones stated in the ten commandments but when faced with the evil that transcends, corrupts, and sometimes ironically brings greater good, we are unable to truly grasp it.
I think here you touch on what most people miss when discussing the problem of evil and related topics. The sphere is key, because it showcases knowledge and power gone wrong.
Pondering over the topic recently I have come to realize that understanding evil is an epistemic limit that we can't cross. We think that just because humanity has advanced technologically and mathematically we can solve the problem that created the Fall. This is arrogance and I think that we are committing the same mistake of the Fall over and over.
The story of Job seems to hold some answers although not in the way most people think. I think that the fact the reader is given a background that serves as the cause for the evil (namely the bet that God does with Satan) is meant not to give us a model of causality but to exemplify the paradox of understanding Evil. God being all good enters into a consentful agreement with a maker of evil, this is meant to cause confusion and remind us that we can't solve the problem. Job at first tries, just like us, to create a causal model of evil and his friends do the same, yet this is arrogance and that is why God at the end reminds him of his smallness.
Anyway sorry for the long comment, I really liked the essay. Looking forward to more.
Don’t be sorry at all, I love the thorough response you’ve given! There was scope to discuss Job - I toyed with bringing in the symbolism of Leviathan and Behemoth, of all things - but ultimately decided to leave it out since, as you mentioned, it’s already pretty long! I hope to examine Job more closely when dealing with similar topics in the future, namely the chaotic nature of the universe. There’s more to be said on the topic of suffering/evil for sure!
Your idea of evil being a limit we can’t understand is interesting to consider. It’s certainly eh case that we can’t really reconcile a good God with the world of suffering we inhabit satisfactorily, at least in our own understanding. And in Job, God doesn’t really try to offer an explanation we can wrap our heads around. He simply reminds Jon of his greatness, and Job’s smallness by comparison. If evil truly is a cosmic force, as I think it is, then we seem be thinking along the same lines here. We might only be able to understand experience little evils - the day to day ways we mistreat one another, or even the greater evils like wars and famines (but these are still ‘little’ in the sense that they happen in a specific time and place, they aren’t everlasting or omnipresent) but the Evil that gives rise to them all is beyond us.
That was good! I remember watching that sphere movie and wondering why it was so important on the PS2 I think it was. Now I know why. Also although the question, “why is there so much pain in suffering. And why would God allow it?” May be a valid concern but I don’t think that existential dread some may feel can be answered by anything else but a higher power. Otherwise what aim do we have but the pleasures of the world to offset the evil? Although not a trivial query, only with God can you explain such complexity so simply and may even seem disingenuous as you mentioned but it was never Gods intention to have such strife in the world. without free will there can not be a relationship. The cause of the suffering is not God, it is the effect of sin entering the world.
Thanks for reading, Nate! I’ll be writing more in the subject of free will soon! I think you’re right that having a higher power answers many of the questions we have quite cleanly, but what irks people is that God is supposedly ‘good’, when it seems he allows suffering to occur. A ‘good’ person steps in to help, right? So why does it seem like God isn’t doing that?
I’ve some ideas about that, but it is a really serious problem. In truth, it’s probably unsolvable—the book of Job offers us maybe the most straightforward response, and God’s response is more or less, ‘you humans don’t know anything, so let me handle it.’
Yeah I thought Answers To Job by Carl jung was an interesting read on this subject. Maybe he watched sphere on a ps2 also 🤣
Yes I agree. The topic is very large and complex. I think we are meant to struggle with evil as a whole, or as a cosmic force as you mentioned, but not meant to understand it. We can understand simple morality like the ones stated in the ten commandments but when faced with the evil that transcends, corrupts, and sometimes ironically brings greater good, we are unable to truly grasp it.
I think here you touch on what most people miss when discussing the problem of evil and related topics. The sphere is key, because it showcases knowledge and power gone wrong.
Pondering over the topic recently I have come to realize that understanding evil is an epistemic limit that we can't cross. We think that just because humanity has advanced technologically and mathematically we can solve the problem that created the Fall. This is arrogance and I think that we are committing the same mistake of the Fall over and over.
The story of Job seems to hold some answers although not in the way most people think. I think that the fact the reader is given a background that serves as the cause for the evil (namely the bet that God does with Satan) is meant not to give us a model of causality but to exemplify the paradox of understanding Evil. God being all good enters into a consentful agreement with a maker of evil, this is meant to cause confusion and remind us that we can't solve the problem. Job at first tries, just like us, to create a causal model of evil and his friends do the same, yet this is arrogance and that is why God at the end reminds him of his smallness.
Anyway sorry for the long comment, I really liked the essay. Looking forward to more.
Don’t be sorry at all, I love the thorough response you’ve given! There was scope to discuss Job - I toyed with bringing in the symbolism of Leviathan and Behemoth, of all things - but ultimately decided to leave it out since, as you mentioned, it’s already pretty long! I hope to examine Job more closely when dealing with similar topics in the future, namely the chaotic nature of the universe. There’s more to be said on the topic of suffering/evil for sure!
Your idea of evil being a limit we can’t understand is interesting to consider. It’s certainly eh case that we can’t really reconcile a good God with the world of suffering we inhabit satisfactorily, at least in our own understanding. And in Job, God doesn’t really try to offer an explanation we can wrap our heads around. He simply reminds Jon of his greatness, and Job’s smallness by comparison. If evil truly is a cosmic force, as I think it is, then we seem be thinking along the same lines here. We might only be able to understand experience little evils - the day to day ways we mistreat one another, or even the greater evils like wars and famines (but these are still ‘little’ in the sense that they happen in a specific time and place, they aren’t everlasting or omnipresent) but the Evil that gives rise to them all is beyond us.