Aug 04, 2013
it was amazing
How does the Judeo-Christian Bible explain God's permission of innocent human suffering? Bart Ehrman devotes this book to two main tasks: (1) Locate and canvass answers to the question of God and human suffering and (2) Explain why Professor Ehrman finds (most of) these answers unsatisfying.
1) One interesting thing about the Judeo-Christian Bible is that, rather than give one answer to the reason for human suffering, it gives many answers. Perhaps the suffering is because the sufferer (or his community) was disobedient to God (Deuteronomy 28, Job's "friends"). Or maybe the sufferer is morally innocent, but God intends to make use of their season of suffering to clinch some Greater Good (Joseph's remark to his brothers: "Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Genesis 50:20)). Or maybe the suffering isn't (contrary to what the Scriptures say elsewhere) dispensed by God, but by supernatural evildoers--Satan and the demons. And God intends, at some later Judgment Day, to intervene and banish these evildoers from the world (Daniel 12, Revelation). Or maybe it's sinful to even ask the question (Job), or at least it's impossible for us to understand what the answer would be (Ecclesiastes). (Ehrman, by the way, approves of Ecclesiastes' honest agnositicism.)
Ehrman points out a very intriguing thing: Many Christians, when asked about the problem of innocent suffering, answer with some version of, "Well, God can't prevent all evildoing if he wants to respect human Free Will." And yet, this is one answer we do not find in the Scriptures. But that's a bit puzzling: If, as conservative Christians maintain, the Bible is Divinely authored and the source of all truth, and the Free Will Response is the true explanation of innocent suffering, then why didn't God place the "Free Will"-answer more prominently in the Scriptures?)
2) As can be guessed, Ehrman is dissatisfied with all of the Biblical explanations of God's permission of innocent suffering. Ehrman's arguments aren't entirely novel. Antony Flew once argued:
"[We're told that] God loves us as a father loves his children....But then we see a child dying of inoperable cancer of the throat. His earthly father is driven frantic in his efforts to help, but his Heavenly Father reveals no obvious sign of concern."
Ehrman's arguments are similar in spirit: judged by ordinary moral standards, God comes off as lackadaisical at best, and monstrous at worst. A religious person might reply that Ehrman's mistake is trying to judge God by ordinary moral standards. Okay; though, if we reject this premise, we're then left to wonder, "If God isn't to be judged harshly by ordinary moral standards, then how can we praise Him as 'good' in any ordinary sense of the word?" (We can't very well have it both ways: if we don't know enough to condemn God as an accomplice to evil, how can we know enough to know that God is an accomplice of goodness?)
Ehrman's book is an informative and thought-provoking one. As always happens with philosophical perplexity, Ehrman's book won't provide the Last Word for some people--but I think it's beyond dispute that his book is a worthwhile First Word on the issue.
