It is natural, though never pleasant, to question the workings of the Divine when we see (and feel, and weep over) suffering on a grand scale. <\/p>\n
In the West, philosophers like Epicurus and David Hume lay it out for us. (Their Eastern counterparts do the same, by the way). Either God
\nwants to prevent suffering but is not able to do so, or he is able but not willing to prevent it. In either instance, the existence of suffering (or evil) in the world is a real challenge to the notion of God — or to a God worth worshiping, at any rate. <\/p>\n
One could try to explain the existence of evil actions that people perform (like murder or terrorism) by arguing that God allows us our free will; I touched on this in a blog post about the Mumbai terror attacks<\/a> a few months ago. <\/p>\n But what about the suffering that is unleashed by an earthquake or hurricane or a baby who dies of SIDS in his crib? What about the horrible, sickening, painful things that “just happen” one morning? What about a tragedy like the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti.?<\/p>\n Does Hinduism have something to say about Haiti? <\/p>\n In his thoughtful BBC piece<\/a>, philosopher David Bain explores this problem in some detail. Here’s a sampling:<\/p>\n Doesn’t Suffering’s That hardly seems fair. <\/p>\n It’s OK, But, as for those who believe in an all-good, Newsweek’s Lisa Miller echoes Bain’s why<\/i> in her own piece, poignantly (and sarcastically) titled “Why God Hates Haiti.”<\/a> <\/p>\n Now, with as many as 100,000 dead in last week’s earthquake, a sensible Over the next weeks, sensible clerics will struggle with what to say. Both Bain and Miller also quote — and take issue with — loudmouth TV evangelist Pat Robertson’s predictably crude suggestion<\/a> that the earthquake was God’s curse on Haiti for a supposed pact their forefathers made with the Devil. (Bain and Miller weren’t the only ones to call Pat out on this. Over at Huff Po, my Princeton colleague and friend Rev. Paul Raushenbush told Mr. Robertson exactly where he could go<\/a>.) <\/p>\n That Robertson’s spewing should emerge as a legitimate “religious” response to Haiti is itself a tragedy worth questioning the existence of God over. Thankfully, though, there are other faith perspectives out there.<\/p>\n Which brings us back to Hinduism’s view of the Haiti tragedy. How does my own faith answer the question? Much like other thoughtful people of faith, with a lot of head scratching and admissions that the mind of God is not easily read.<\/p>\n
\nI think it does. But first, some more illumination on the problem before us. <\/p>\n\n
\nour world contain a surplus of suffering? People do truly awful things
\nto each other. Isn’t the suffering they create enough for soul-making?
\nDid God really need to throw in earthquakes and tsunamis as well? <\/p>\n
\ndistribution, not just its amount, can also cause problems. A central
\npoint of philosopher Immanuel Kant’s was that we mustn’t exploit people
\n– we mustn’t use them as mere means to our ends. But it can seem that
\non the soul-making view God does precisely this. He inflicts horrible
\ndeaths on innocent earthquake victims so that the rest of us can be
\nmorally benefitted. <\/p>\n
\nsome will insist, because God works in mysterious ways. But mightn’t
\nsomeone defend a belief in fairies by telling us they do too? Others
\nsay their talk of God is supposed to acknowledge not the existence of
\nsome all-powerful and all-good agent, who created and intervenes in the
\nuniverse, but rather something more difficult to articulate – a thread
\nof meaning or value running through the world, or perhaps something
\nineffable. <\/p>\n
\nall-powerful agent-God, we’ve seen that they face a question that
\nremains pressing after all these centuries, and which is now horribly
\nunderscored by the horrors in Haiti. If a deity exists, why didn’t he
\nprevent this?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\nperson of faith has to grapple with the problem of what scholars call theodicy<\/a>.
\nIf God is good and intervenes in the world, then why does he make
\ninnocents suffer? Why, as Job might have said, would God “crush an
\nimpoverished people with a tempest and multiply their wounds without
\ncause? He will not let them get their breath.”<\/p>\n
\n“The really smart ones,” says Ehrman, “will be saying that God is
\nmysterious and we can’t explain everything.” Others will teach that the
\nearthquake is the work of the Devil or that believers can find
\nblessings in the calamity, for in heaven the dead will finally find
\ntranquillity and repose. As a Roman Catholic blogger wrote last week,
\n“This world is not all there is.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n