One of the oldest problems in religion is the prevalence of undeserved suffering and its implications about good and evil. However we might conceive it, if Spirit is good, why do bad things happen to good people, and why do bad people seem so often to come out on top? There is even a technical term for analyzing this problem: theodicy.<\/p>\n
So far 2011 has provided us with an impressive (or depressive) exhibition of examples.<\/p>\n
In Japan bad things are happening to good people on an extraordinary scale.\u00a0 The newborns and children washed away by the tsunami certainly were about as blameless as any human being can be. I suspect it is also true for many older people.\u00a0 Entire towns were wiped from the face of the earth, and the relative merits of some inhabitants over others appears not to have mattered at all. For those who have not seen videos of this disaster, e two of the most powerful are here<\/a> and here<\/a> .<\/p>\n In the Arab world for the first time ever rank and file people have stood up en mass against corrupt and brutal oppressors.\u00a0 They have often acted peacefully and with great personal bravery.\u00a0 In two cases their oppressors fell and today Tunisians and Egyptians have reasons for hope they never had before.\u00a0 But elsewhere the efforts of the brave have been less successful, and despotic rulers still kill wantonly to stay in power, and not only in the Arab world.<\/p>\n Here at home Republicans elected on promises of focusing on jobs have ignored their promises, preferring to attack women and society\u2019s most powerless while further enriching its most wealthy and often corrupt members.\u00a0 From seeking to end bans on child labor to having the IRS\u00a0 investigate abortions to preventing poor people from being able to carry any but trivial amounts of cash ($20) to ending cigarette taxes while cutting medical care, there seems no limit to their depravity. \u00a0Many of our country\u2019s most privileged and morally debased members cheer them on, ignoring values of truthfulness, integrity, and respect for others in the process.\u00a0 There seems to be a selection process favoring the worst in America.<\/p>\n Bart Ehrman, one of my favorite Biblical scholars, ultimately found the problem of evil and undeserved suffering too much for his faith<\/a>. Entering religious study a convinced Christian Fundamentalist, Ehrman had managed to handle the collapse of claims the Bible was inerrant, maintaining his faith despite this.\u00a0 But the problem of evil was too much. Today Ehrman is an agnostic.\u00a0\u00a0I think it is hard for a thoughtful monotheist who has not had a mystical experience to avoid Ehrman’s conclusion except perhaps through sheer force of will. \u00a0If God is in charge, oversees everything, is omnipotent and omniscient, and is also good, the problems around us seem inexplicable.<\/p>\n But this problem is not just a Christian one, nor one just for monotheists.<\/p>\n The problem of evil and undeserved suffering may not impact those who believe in an animate world where ultimately there are no moral values, no ultimate good but what of the rest of us Pagans? How might we make sense of it?<\/p>\n This is a topic I have often discussed. \u00a0My first attempt was chapter 5 in Pagans and Christians<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0I still think it is good, as far as it goes. \u00a0But I have returned to the issue periodically because it impacts me so much personally and constitutes one of the greatest mysteries in human life if there is a larger spiritual context that redeems this world.<\/p>\n To some extent I will cover territory I’ve discussed before, but I hope they take us a few steps beyond my first discussion in\u00a0Pagans and Christians <\/em>and later posts in thisblog\u00a0on suffering and beauty<\/a> and another on hard cases of suffering<\/a>. \u00a0 I will begin with what is on everyone\u2019s mind these days: the spiritual implications of what has happened and is continuing to happen in Japan, and the larger problem of suffering caused by the natural world.<\/p>\n Where I am coming from<\/strong><\/p>\n Today the death of a small child is a tragedy, however, it is only with modern medicine that few children die. At our country\u2019s founding the frequent deaths of newborns, children, and often their mothers was not unusual.\u00a0 Only one male child of our country\u2019s Founders made it to adulthood: John Quincy Adams.\u00a0 The others died young.<\/p>\n When Columbus arrived the Americas were populated by many millions of people with cities, written languages, sophisticated mathematics, and families where parents loved their children and one another.\u00a0 Over 90% of these people died within a few generations, entire cultures wiped from the face of the earth, as a result of Old World diseases.\u00a0 This depopulation of two continent<\/a>s \u00a0was probably the biggest demographic disaster in human history, but it was far from the only case where millions have died from disease.\u00a0 Floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the like have taken millions more lives. Often those who survived were grievously injured physically and psychologically.<\/p>\n And still I argue the earth is alive and sacred?<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n There are two dimensions to my answer, one experiential, and one from thinking about those experiences.\u00a0 The experiential dimension has two facets.\u00a0 The first has been my encounter with nature, the second my encounter with Spirit.<\/p>\n