So You Want to Mess With An Intelligent Designer?
Anyone with serious theological knowledge is aware that one of the major conundrums encountered when trying to establish the plausibility of a benign divinity running our universe is the problem of evil. The traditional name of this wee problem encountered in everyday living is the trilemma of 'theodicy' -- how can we reconcile three apparently conflicting propositions:
1) God is all good (benevolent).
2) God is omnipotent (all powerful).
3) Real evil exists in our world -- natural as well as moral.
Our religions from ancient times have attempted various answers to this trilemma, ranging from denying one of the propositions about the deities or else blaming evil on mankind one way or another.
A partial list:
1) the ancient Babylonians saw the gods as holding mankind (us) in contempt -- playthings to torment when bored with godly pursuits. Marduk offers an alternative mythology from which was extracted our vile lex talionis ("eye for an eye" justification of punishment, capital and otherwise): http://www.ldolphin.org/Nimrod.html http://www.themystica.org/mythical-folk/articles/marduk.html And let us not forget that the Babylonians and their gods conquered Yahweh and his people -- instituted the harsh Babylonian captivity of the conquered Jews: http://www.bartleby.com/65/ba/Babylcap.html If Marduk is our grand designer, beware -- the recent earthquakes and hurricanes may be a sign that he and his fellow deities are getting bored with things?
2) But then, perhaps, the ancient Persians (Zoroastrians) got it right? Are there are two gods or godheads -- one of good and light and the other evil and dark eternally battling it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Zoroastrian_gods And who is to say which may win out in the end? From the dark side comes our conception of Satan, also biblically incorporated.
3) Then there are those such as the Christian Scientists founded by Mary Baker Eddy who claimed that evil is a mere illusion -- stay away from those doctors who will do you more harm than good: http://www.endtime.org/intro/mbe.html And, of course, in her own time she was absolutely right about doctors -- they were more likely to kill than cure one well into the 20th century! And our hospitals are still dangerous places to spend time -- nearly 100,000 careless deaths inflicted each year in the U.S. -- and those old folks homes are as often as not living hells! "Left behind in New Orleans" (to proper musical accompaniment).
4) Perhaps the most desperate attempt to account for evil of all was that of a good and decent man, St. Augustine, who, in the face of the horrors of the destruction of Rome hypothesized that perhaps it is our own fault, our abuse of a gift of free will -- through the original sin of sex, sex, sex, and our self-centeredness (hubris) we brought the wrath of God down on our heads? 'We all deserve to be damned -- even the littlest newborn babes -- but, then, he may rescue a few of them from eternal damnation through his divine grace'? Wonder which ones?
Unfortunately the modern American version of this last tall tale is the debased Calvinism that blames the poor and needy for their misfortunes and assumes that our superrich are His 'born again' blessed ones -- so you can guess whose taxes are to be cut, who is to be sent off to be blown up and shot at in far away lands, and who is to be sentenced to die young through gross violations of their basic human rights -- to adequate medical care, affordable housing, food, and education!
There are many more twists and turns to this intelligent designer routine. Perhaps we should go with the dumbed down version of Job: "Who is this that darkens counsel?" http://bible.cc/job/38-2.htm But unhappily the Book of Job was just an Israeli priesthood's rewrite (with comforting introduction and conclusion) of what we started off with in the first place -- a Babylonian myth reporting a cosmic designer who despises us humans! http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/
Enlil, their god of storms, looks to be heading our way again! http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/enlil.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlil
Maybe we shouldn't start scaring the kids with this 'intelligent designer' routine? Things are not so great with our globe right now. And Darwin's theory of evolution looks to be a much more benign explanation of things -- and far less ominous!
1) God is all good (benevolent).
2) God is omnipotent (all powerful).
3) Real evil exists in our world -- natural as well as moral.
Our religions from ancient times have attempted various answers to this trilemma, ranging from denying one of the propositions about the deities or else blaming evil on mankind one way or another.
A partial list:
1) the ancient Babylonians saw the gods as holding mankind (us) in contempt -- playthings to torment when bored with godly pursuits. Marduk offers an alternative mythology from which was extracted our vile lex talionis ("eye for an eye" justification of punishment, capital and otherwise): http://www.ldolphin.org/Nimrod.html http://www.themystica.org/mythical-folk/articles/marduk.html And let us not forget that the Babylonians and their gods conquered Yahweh and his people -- instituted the harsh Babylonian captivity of the conquered Jews: http://www.bartleby.com/65/ba/Babylcap.html If Marduk is our grand designer, beware -- the recent earthquakes and hurricanes may be a sign that he and his fellow deities are getting bored with things?
2) But then, perhaps, the ancient Persians (Zoroastrians) got it right? Are there are two gods or godheads -- one of good and light and the other evil and dark eternally battling it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Zoroastrian_gods And who is to say which may win out in the end? From the dark side comes our conception of Satan, also biblically incorporated.
3) Then there are those such as the Christian Scientists founded by Mary Baker Eddy who claimed that evil is a mere illusion -- stay away from those doctors who will do you more harm than good: http://www.endtime.org/intro/mbe.html And, of course, in her own time she was absolutely right about doctors -- they were more likely to kill than cure one well into the 20th century! And our hospitals are still dangerous places to spend time -- nearly 100,000 careless deaths inflicted each year in the U.S. -- and those old folks homes are as often as not living hells! "Left behind in New Orleans" (to proper musical accompaniment).
4) Perhaps the most desperate attempt to account for evil of all was that of a good and decent man, St. Augustine, who, in the face of the horrors of the destruction of Rome hypothesized that perhaps it is our own fault, our abuse of a gift of free will -- through the original sin of sex, sex, sex, and our self-centeredness (hubris) we brought the wrath of God down on our heads? 'We all deserve to be damned -- even the littlest newborn babes -- but, then, he may rescue a few of them from eternal damnation through his divine grace'? Wonder which ones?
Unfortunately the modern American version of this last tall tale is the debased Calvinism that blames the poor and needy for their misfortunes and assumes that our superrich are His 'born again' blessed ones -- so you can guess whose taxes are to be cut, who is to be sent off to be blown up and shot at in far away lands, and who is to be sentenced to die young through gross violations of their basic human rights -- to adequate medical care, affordable housing, food, and education!
There are many more twists and turns to this intelligent designer routine. Perhaps we should go with the dumbed down version of Job: "Who is this that darkens counsel?" http://bible.cc/job/38-2.htm But unhappily the Book of Job was just an Israeli priesthood's rewrite (with comforting introduction and conclusion) of what we started off with in the first place -- a Babylonian myth reporting a cosmic designer who despises us humans! http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/
Enlil, their god of storms, looks to be heading our way again! http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/enlil.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlil
Maybe we shouldn't start scaring the kids with this 'intelligent designer' routine? Things are not so great with our globe right now. And Darwin's theory of evolution looks to be a much more benign explanation of things -- and far less ominous!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy) -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy) -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp
posted by Ed Kent at 5:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home