Time only for a short one...
A commenter to the previous post alluded to the old question of how to reconcile an evil world (or evil in the world) with a good God. Schuon bats it away in a single sentence:
Manifestation is not the Principle, and the effect is not the cause; that which is "other than God" could not possess the perfections of God, hence in the final analysis and within the general imperfection of the created, there results that privative and subversive phenomenon we call evil.
Taken out of context and in isolation from his many other discussions of the subject, this may appear glib and simplistic. Nevertheless, it gets to the heart of nub of the gist of the essence of the problem in a purely demythologized way. In my view, Genesis 3 makes the same point, only clothed in mythopoetic garb.
In a prescientific world, important transnatural and metaphysical truths and meanings are conveyed via narrative. As with great art, it is important not to get hung up on the what but to penetrate to the why of the story -- the theme and not just the plot, the former being the reason for the latter.
Analogously, I've been using the pandemic as an excuse to introduce my son to great American films, for example, Casablanca. While I suppose it can be enjoyed as a "romance," that is obviously only the vehicle and not the destination -- the means and not the message.
Many aphorisms come to mind, but I'll try to limit myself to five, arranged in ascending order:
Appearance is not the veil, but the vehicle, of reality.
The meanings are the reality; their material vehicles are the appearance.
The bridge between nature and man is not science, but myth.
The modern aberration consists in believing that the only thing that is real is what the vulgar soul can perceive.
Whoever does not believe in myths believes in fables.
Speaking of fables and the vulgarians who swallow them, the commenter mentioned above adopts a literal and simplistic reading of the biblical flood in order to cleverly deduce from it that God must be evil. Gotcha!, exclaims the Village Atheist. We've been dunked upon.
In another aphorism, Dávila pointedly points out that The simplistic ideas in which the unbeliever ends up believing are his punishment.
We all have our philosophical preoccupations, and moreover, we have time for only so many. I myself am not troubled by the fantastic stories of the Old Testament. If I'm truly curious about one, then the first thing I will do is consult the Rabbis and Church Fathers for guidance as to what it means. If I want to know about the flood, for example, it's not difficult to obtain any number of rich and provocative exegeses.
Enough said about that. Back to the existence of evil. Indeed, there is so much evil in the world, one sometimes wonders why God doesn't just end it all with a giant flood or something. Better yet, maybe leave a single righteous man to start all over -- like a new Adam or whatever.
Even supposing God did allow us to be reborn and begin anew, something or someone inevitably tries to oppose and subvert the regenerating power of the baptismal waters. Schuon:
strictly speaking, evil or the devil cannot oppose the Divinity, who has no opposite; it opposes man who is the mirror of God and the movement towards the divine.
Mirror and movement. Now that is a pithy and pregnant formulation, for it goes to both our immanence and our transcendence; or to our atemporal essence and our temporal journey towards it, which in turn forms the basis of "the meaning of life."
This meaning stretches out before us (horizontally) because it first stretches out above us (vertically). If not, then to hell with it. Bring on the flood. Or maybe it's always already here.
12 comments:
strictly speaking, evil or the devil cannot oppose the Divinity, who has no opposite; it opposes man who is the mirror of God and the movement towards the divine.
Hence we see why Communist China and wannabe-communist Canada or California fights so hard to keep man from making that movement. Incidentally, it's pretty interesting how the lockdowns are increasing, certain people are panicking more than ever, church attendance is still regulated out the yada yada for fear of superspreading, but this weekend saw record crowds at the local Huge Casino and not a peep was mentioned anywhere. So, gambling with a few thousand dodgy strangers safe, praying aloud with a small group of healthy individuals still not safe. Can't have people moving toward the divine, they might stop being afraid.
Schuon’s resolution to the problem of evil is essentially Platonic and fundamentally correct. However, from a strictly theistic perspective, it causes insurmountable problems for the doctrine of divine omnipotence which should be dispensed with. This is not to deny God’s power but, rather, the notion that “it can do anything” like putting an end to earthquakes, cancer, wars and the terrible suffering of so many children. In other words, while there is great spiritual potency in God (who can transform our hearts and minds through grace and gnosis), the idea that He controls everything and permits all maner of evils (for reasons that will never be clear to us) is hardly compatible with his infinite justice and mercy. Therefore, the metaphysical solution based on the inherent limitations of manifested existence as privative, imperfect and ephemeral is much more satisfying and less likely to lead sensitive, thoughtful souls down the path of atheism.
Hartshorne is my go-to on the error of omnipotence, even though he's somewhat obnoxious about it. I try to balance his view with orthodoxy -- which bends the latter to the limit without breaking it. Norris Clarke has similar ideas.
Julie brings up a good point in her comment.
Opportunities to seize control and to regulate the populace by playing the COVID-19 card should not be squandered; the pandemic should be milked for every thing we can gain.
Hopefully we end up with the basic universal income being installed. Imagine stimulus checks that just keep coming and coming without end. And those holding the purse-strings...well, it would be good to be holding the purse-strings.
Think of the medico-political complex calling the shots, literally. I love it.
We have Committee on Wednesday and these opportunities will be mentioned as an agenda item.
Thanks! Secretary General
If evil did not occur, then life would be easier.
If human beings were capable only of good, that would give Earth the atmosphere of heaven.
The ramifications of such a thing are hard to wrap the head around.
We would not need police or military organs.
Movies and television shows would have to develop plots without resorting to crime.
The practice of confession would not be needed any longer.
But then, upon questioning, beef steer did not think humans were good and complained his family had been murdered and then butchered by humans. The steer was frightened he would be next.
As it turns out he was next, and the sirloin I am enjoying is nicely marbled. Burp.
Bring on the flood. Or maybe it's always already here.
I guess that’s the whole point. God gives the impression that he’s simply become jaded after all his mighty destructive cataclysms meant to cleanse the world of sin (sin he indirectly created. He can’t get off that easily since he knew what was gonna happen). Maybe that’s why we don’t see him around much anymore. Personally, I think he’s washed his metaphysical hands of us and has gone on to play with other more corrigible creations, far far away.
So this leaves us to imagineer global floods of our own making. I’d prefer floods we could not possibly have caused, actual worldwide floods with vast quantities of water appearing miraculously, so that only at the end do we realize that God is Mighty, with much gnashing of teeth. Plus I like the idea of pairs of animals crashing through the forest, like a scene out of Jumanji.
Would I prefer lesser biblical edicts though, like turning all of our politicians into pillars of salt? Perhaps. But it would have to be only the false prophets getting saltified, and only the "false prophet" as defined by the Bible, and not by any sinning yahoos trying to rewrite the Bible.
Hello anonymous 1:44 PM.
Great comment, a fun little read.
You wrote: "God gives the impression that he’s simply become jaded after all his mighty destructive cataclysms meant to cleanse the world of sin (sin he indirectly created. He can’t get off that easily since he knew what was gonna happen)."
I applaud your saying this. Harry Truman had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that read "The Buck Stops Here."
Humans have been heinously gaslighted (gaslit?). We are falling over ourselves to accept blame for things which we can't possibly be responsible for, such as the pre-sets and default settings for human beings.
For example people come with a factory installed sex drive. The thing is unbelievably easy to warp. A young boy can see a ladies foot maybe two times and later develop a powerful fetish, just like that.
The sex drives spins off a plethora of sinful behaviors such as fornication, incontinence, pedophilia, pederasty, sado-masochism, incest, and cross-dressing.
Now do we seriously think God did not know this factory installed program would get these results? Does God think we made this sh*t up ourselves? Please. He must have known EXACTLY what kind of nasty deviations were in store for the units receiving this program. Class-action lawsuit anyone?
How about the nearly 10% inversion rate and all the horrors which follow? Is that on us too?
"Dad, I'm gay." Like that would be the child's fault?
Yet religious leaders tell us we are to split the blame between us and the Devil. Excuse me the Devil? Did the Devil program the human sex drive? What, up in Heaven's workshop in mufti? C'mon. That is nothing short of ridiculous.
And that's just the beginning of the very negative image we have of ourselves as "original sinners." So who was the original sinner? Oops can't say that, pure sedition.
“We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.”
― Gene Roddenberry
The first straw man in outer space.
Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there
Anonymous 7:20, thank you for the Roddenberry quote.
Gagdad's comment regarding a straw man will need further explanation. How does it relate? Is there a "straw man" fallacy in play?
In considering the matter of original sin, we are baffled. Conditions in Heaven are allegedly sin-free, so why bother to take 7 days out of a busy schedule to create a world and persons which have been designed so as to be prone to sinning?
The conclusion reached is that although God reputedly abhors sin, He also wants/needs it to happen. It must serve some kind of purpose.
The Romantic Poet John Keats surmised the world was a "vale of tears" but was also a "vale of soul-making." For Keats the tribulations, including the wages of sin, produced a highly-prized outcome, an experienced soul. Kind of a like a spiritual combat veteran.
There are some things that can only be learned in the crucible of combat, and it could be that our life on Earth is meant to be a literal war with all of the attendant horrors, with the aim of creating brave new souls, now vetted, toughened, and more spiritually effective for whatever inscrutable purposes are at hand.
God is our Commanding Officer, we are soldiers, life is war, sin is the enemy force which must be overcome, arrayed to our front and constantly sending out patrols.
It all makes sense in this context.
"Dad, I'm gay." This is the sound of a spiritual artillery shell exploding in our trench. Medic! Medic! The casualty must be brought to hospital and healed.
Well, I'm now right back at where I started, before being chastised by Nick, Petey and Bob himself.
Again, my two possibilities:
The Satan Is In Charge Theory God made Satan just a bit too powerful, and now he's got God locked in some kind of metaphysical box, so he can pretend to be the real God and do whatever the hell he wants.
The Really Bored God Theory Should be self-explanatory, but I'll explain again for the newbie. Put yourself into God's shoes (or wings, or grey beard, or whatever floats your imaginary boat). You know everything. You're everywhere all the time. You're onmipotent. Wouldn't you get bored? Personally, I'd be bored silly with automatically knowing how I'd look in whatever wings and/or beard I could possibly imagine. So I'd try a free will universe. Just lay down a few natural laws and watch the excitement unfold. Gamma ray bursts, pandemics, Christians invading the US capitol building... Of course, I'd have to suspend my total knowledge of reality first. Maybe that's what Jesus was for? A 'perfect' human who vaguely knew that he was the material manifestation of God? So the naysayer scoffs: And what about Trump?
Therein lies the mystery.
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