An Interesting Email

I have an interesting email from an acquaintance regarding my last two posts about God. Interesting because she makes the following statement, admittedly half-jokingly: "Yes, sometimes God makes mistakes such as handicapping children, etc. But that is only sometimes. Look at the rest of his creation. Isn't it marvelous? can't his mistakes be overlooked?"

I promised myself I'd get off this topic because it was beginning to dawn on me that this is a sensitive subject. It speaks to a core and cherished notion that most of us hold. But I am compelled to say something, anything, in response to that email. Because if I don't, my head will explode. Please humor me.

I have two points to make.

First, the affirmation that Creation (with a capital C) is marvelous. Yes, yes, it is marvelous. But compared to what? What are we measuring it against? Where is the yardstick?

Humor me and do this simple mental exercise. I request you, using your mind's eye, to roll up and shrink all of Creation into a small football-sized bundle. Proceed to mentally place this bundle in front of you. Now, hopefully this gives you a better mental handle on something that is quite gargantuan otherwise.

Ask yourself this. Is it possible that (A) there are other Creations than the one we are currently looking at, and (B) is it possible that they are better than this one?

Or, even if there is only this Creation, could it have been done better?

I realize that this is getting a little too metaphysical, so allow me to draw an analogy. Let us say that we, using a Time Machine, bring a Neanderthal from prehistoric times into the present day and age. Next, we hand this chap a sack of popcorn and show him exactly one movie. An egregiously bad one. Perhaps starring Vin Diesel. And then we send him back to his own time and place.

I am willing to place a large bet that said Neanderthal will go back and sing fulsomely wondrous praises of this magical thing that he has just witnessed, blissfully unaware that he has been treated to a rather crappy experience. And that he could have been treated to much better. Like Saving Private Ryan, or On Golden Pond.

The point? It is not possible to arrive at a conclusion about the quality of a class of things based on exactly one instance of the class. We have been exposed to just one Creation. "One" is not a good sample size. Ask a statistician.

Okay, let's grant ourselves this. Let us say that this is indeed a wondrous Existence and two thumbs up to God for having come up with it. But simple empirical observation shows us that it is not without blips and bumps. Children are regularly saddled with hideous congential diseases, infants are regularly born without limbs, species are regularly driven to extinction, and natural disasters regularly and indiscriminately kill thousands.

Which brings us to the second point made in the email. The idea that God should not be criticized because he gets it right most of the time.

Analogy time.

Let us say that I am a seemingly wonderful husband. I have a wonderful doll of a wife. I am also a rather wealthy guy who sees that my wife's every whim is satisfied. Her every want taken care of. She drives a Mercedes, wears perfume from Tiffany's, is showered with faux mink coats, and in general is pampered to kingdom come.

But twice a year--exactly twice--I batter her silly. I punch her senseless, shatter her nose, kick in a couple of her teeth, bruise her ribs and break both her arms. I then whip her raw.

Now if I forward the theory to you that I am a wonderful husband because I do extremely good by my wife most of the time, but screw up rather badly only occasionally, would that win your sympathy? Would you consider me a devoted husband and a capital fellow? Would that not fly in the face of everything that you have been brought up to consider right and good?

If I was dragged to court and asked to give an account of myself, and I peddled that same theory as a defence of my behavior, what are the chances that even a marginally fair-minded judge would nod understandingly. Very slim, true? Chances are that I would promptly be locked up in jail. Or perhaps a padded cell.

Now, why exactly our Father in Heaven is not held to those same standards, based on his bloopers and gaffes, is something that I will never understand.

My conclusion: If God exists, he cannot be Perfect. Just how imperfect is a matter of intelligent debate.

I wonder sometimes at how this debate is labeled blasphemous by many. And especially in America. The land of the free and home of the brave. The land of 180 degree evaluations. The land where children routinely speak up and question their parents' judgements. The land where even the highest political power is not above vicious cross-examination. It is a wonder that here, too, in this land, that any criticism of Divinity is promptly deflected, put a lid on and hushed up by an extremely significant number of people. This is something I sometimes do ponder in my idle moments. Verily have I spoken.