Apr 26 2010
What does it mean if the Christian God doesn’t exist?
If you have read any of the preceding sections, you may be unsatisfied with some of the answers you have been given. All of our answers have this truth at the core:
You are not God. God is God. Therefore, trust God to do what is right. Now that truth might not go very far in relieving the tension you feel about the problem of evil. Like we said at the beginning of this unit on the problem of evil, we believe that accepting the answer is much harder than understanding the answer. But before you finish, consider this: if you don’t feel satisfied, what would evil mean if the Christian God didn’t exist. Here are some possible options open to you if you want to reject the existence of the Christian God. We think that you might be more unsatisfied with these answers than with the ones we gave you.
First, what if there is no God? Evil and suffering are consequently pointless. They are just part of the blind, machine-like world that is composed of material things. If God doesn’t exist then there is no point to suffering for "good cause" or trying to redeem anything in this world because evil and good no longer have any real meaning or value. Evil and good are replaced by "evolutionally advantageous and disadvantageous," or "circumstantially favorable or unfavorable." There are no higher plans or purposes to your younger brother’s death - it was just another random event caused by an infinite string of preceding random events. No sense to get angry or to cry out for something better; life and this world roll on in disinterested chaos.
Second, what if God made everything but has now taken his hands off what he has made, or wound up the clock and is now letting it tick? This is a deistic worldview. But can you imagine a God that is just watching the suffering in the world? Who is content just to sit back and take in all the evil and tragedy? Who sits aloof and observes Hitler exterminate the Jews, AIDS and starvation spread across Africa, men beat their wives, mothers throw their mutilated children into dumpsters, etc? Can you imagine a God who has no purposes or interests in what is happening with us?
Third, what if God did exist and had purposes in this world, but was sadistic? What if God delighted in evil and got pleasure out of watching people die and suffer? Thankfully, that is not who our God is! In Ezekiel 18.32 it says, "I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God." We could only live in fear and despair if God orchestrated all events to climax in destruction and sadness.
Fourth, what if God was not sovereign and didn’t have control over the events in this world? If that were the case, then God would be the most pitiable being in the universe. "God brought the world into existence, but now he can’t control it. He feels your pain but can do nothing about it. He tries his best to stop evil things from happening, but he isn’t quite powerful enough. So don’t blame him if things don’t go your way - it isn’t his fault. He can’t help it." That picture of God doesn’t inspire much hope or trust, does it? Evil has become a stronger force than God, so you might as well do the best you can on your own because God can’t guarantee your safety or protection.
Fifth, what if people in the New Age movement are right and God is just a part of everything that exists? In that case evil would be a natural thing, part of a cycle of good and bad, creation and destruction, life and death. God would be both good and evil. As humans who are part of this universe and part of God, we might as well accept both good and bad. If we are Buddhists then we might as well resign ourselves to the bad things of this world, become stoical and indifferent to our own welfare as well as the welfare of others and become untouchable. But who wants to remain unaffected by things in this world? Who wants to become a robot? Who can look at the wicked, heinous, wrong things of this world and remain unmoved? Isn’t it far better to call things evil and good, and to retain the belief that evil should not exist and should be avenged and the wrong made right?
I suppose we could multiply examples, but the point remains. If you aren’t a Christian, you still must answer the problem of evil. If the Christian answer doesn’t appeal to you, can you honestly say that you find one of these other answers more appealing?