It is not possible for God to be part of nature for two reasons.
First, nature is finite and God is infinite. If God were within nature, He would be limited, and God, who is not physical, has no limits (I use the pronoun "He"" not because I believe God is a male, but because the neuter pronoun "It" depersonalizes God. You cannot talk to, relate to, love, or obey an "It.").Who says God is 'infinite'? That assertion is unique to the Abrahamic faiths: what's more, it sets up a number of philosophical conundrums. Some are interesting logical puzzles i.e. "Can God make a rock so heavy He can't lift it?" Others are more troubling, particularly the Problem of Suffering. Sometimes it is worded in childlike terms: "If God loves us, why did He let my puppy get hit by a car?" A more sophisticated version of this question is posed by the Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas:
Objection 1. It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore,God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.
When we strip away the fancy wording, we find that Aquinas has given us the same answer we got when we were standing over our deceased dog: "God has a plan, and sometimes we can't understand it. We just have to trust in His infinite wisdom, power and mercy." It does nothing to explain exactly what good comes out of the numerous ills which torment our world. It does not assuage the suffering of the sick, the starving, and the victims of injustice: neither does it bring Fido back from the dead.****Reply to Objection 1. As Augustine says (Enchiridion xi): "Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil." This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.
Some blame Adam and Eve for their disobedience in the Garden of Eden. But was their sin so great that an all-powerful and all-loving God felt it necessary to respond with the Black Death, the Holocaust and the Mongol invasions? Others take refuge in a coming "Day of Judgment" wherein the good shall be rewarded and the evil punished. This does nothing to explain why evil had to exist in the first place, nor does it provide any immediate comfort to those suffering in the here and now. And some redefine "good" to mean "God's Word and God's Will," while "evil" is "that which goes against God's Word and God's Will." This may work for the faithful, but it doesn't hold up well under rational scrutiny. A moral code which says "genocide is wrong unless God orders you to do it" is hardly an improvement over "genocide is wrong unless the Führer orders you to do it."
This is far less an issue for a polytheist. Polytheism sees the Gods as possessing great power and great wisdom, but acknowledges that even They have limits. They are capable of error like we are; They share in our joys and our sorrows. Indeed, we might look to Their myths and to our history and conclude that suffering is the price we pay for sentience. To be a living and thinking being is to respond to stimuli positive and negative: a life free of discontentment and desire is a life free of meaning and purpose. This world, with all its flaws, is what we have. If we are unhappy with the way things are, it is up to us to change them.
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4 comments:
I agree with every point... but, short of playing devil's advocate, what if... and this is a big IF... what if there were some sentient Creator, and It (however you define It exactly) created an infinite or nearly infinite universe, or even multiverse... now, if It is All Powerful in the literal meaning of the word, i.e. all the power of creation is contained in potential within It (so to speak), as opposed to "all capable" (which would run afoul of the "rock too big" paradox), and this gave rise in some fashion to an infinite or nearly infinite Creation, which then had to be sustained and evolved, It would find Itself with no power to spare for personal interventionism of any form, miraculous or judgmental, and it would then rest in our hands to use the power we contain, as part of that creation, to try to shape things for the better. It would be utterly blameless as long as the sky does not start falling, and even then, how are you going to argue, and who would listen? An architect could care less, when their structures fail, what the vermin living in the walls think of their work, he likely does not even know that they exist. In the House an older Haitian gentlemen once said to me of Bondye (not an exact quote but this is the jist), "The CEO of McDonalds doesn't recruit, hire, train, pay, discipline, reward, or fire the fry cooks. They don't hire or fire the people who hire and fire those cooks. Bondye is the CEO, the Angels are His "Yes Men" and Enforcers, the Lwa are the Management, and lesser spirits and living things like humans are the workers and laborers." An imperfect metaphor perhaps, but it stuck with me... after all, if a CEO couldn't delegate, they wouldn't be able to handle the higher level responsibilities that determine the success or failure of the company. In the end, however you slice it, an Almighty God of Goodness and love cannot be reconciled with evil and suffering. The "bringing good out of evil thing" sounds a lot like saying He spins gold from shit, and if we're shit, then you know which end of God we came from in that case, and it weren't His silver tongue.
From Russell Erwin, who is having difficulties with Blogger's comment software but who shared his thoughts on Facebook:
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Russell Erwin I wasn't able to post a response there, but feel I can do so here. I'm with the panentheists who view nature as being within the divine which is transcendent and immanent, all and more. Also I think the divine as particularly manifest in our lives is not omnipotent or infinite, but is omniscient and omnipresent. I prefer 'the divine' for ostensible reasons. Warm regards, R.
Russell Erwin Transcendent to me means beyond measure or reckoning: so what does 'infinite' mean in that context? About the same as zero, yes?
I have actually found polytheism quite helpful in understanding monotheism. When you come to see the gods as varied and as having their own limitations, flaws, and weaknesses, it really puts gods like the Judeo-Christian one in perspective.
the question of "if God exists then why dose evil exist?" has always infuriated me, even as a young christian. the answer is simple and apples to every belief system in the world including paganism. Evil exists because humans have free will. We get to choose everything we do. Fido died because that truck diver decided to drive down that road that day and you decided to let your dog out. neither knew what was going to happen and neither where puppets of an all knowing entity who kept you from doing that thing.
as far as natural disasters go, good doesn't mean easy. if "God" wanted only "good" and no natural disasters to effect his children he would take away our free will and move us to a place where we would not be effected by such things.
as long as people have free will there will be evil tragedy and difficulty in the world, it has very little to do with our religious beliefs.
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