The God of Eth

Are the usual religious defenses of belief in God really up to the job? A dialogue.

STEPHEN LAW

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Most people who believe in God assume their belief to be pretty reasonable. “Perhaps God’s existence can’t be conclusively proved,” they’ll say, “but it’s a fairly sensible thing to believe—far more sensible than, say, belief in fairies or Santa Claus.” But are they right?

Christians, Muslims, and Jews all believe that God is both all-powerful and all-good. Indeed, God is often characterized as an infinitely loving father. Yet most of the popular arguments for the existence of God allow us to deduce little if anything about his moral character. Take the argument from design, for example.

Even if it can be shown that the universe does show signs of design, what’s the evidence that its creator is all-good?

There is also a well-known argument that, even if the universe was created by an all-powerful being, that being is not all-good.

The argument is called the problem of evil, and runs roughly as follows: if God is both all-powerful and all-good, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why does God inflict earthquakes, floods, famines, and the Black Death upon us? Why does he give small children cancer? Why does he make life so grindingly miserable for so many? Why does he arrange for millions of us to end our lives horrendously scarred—in many cases both physically and psychologically crippled—by the world he created for us? This hardly sounds like the behavior of a supremely compassionate and loving father figure, does it? Surely, there’s overwhelming evidence that the universe is not under the control of a limitlessly powerful and benevolent character.

Many find this argument compelling. But of course, there are plenty who believe the problem of evil can be dealt with. How? Religious thinkers have, over the centuries, developed a number of ingenious solutions. Here are some popular examples:

The free-will solution. God gave us free will. We are not blind automata, but free agents, capable of making our own choices and acting on them. As a result of God having given us free will, we sometimes choose to do wrong. We start wars, steal, and so on. So some suffering results from our possessing free will. However, it is still better that we have free will. Free will is a very great good that more than compensates for the suffering it can bring.

The character-building solution. We know that a bad experience can sometimes make us stronger. We can learn and be enriched, through suffering. For example, people who have suffered a terrible disease sometimes say they gained greatly from it. Similarly, by causing us pain and suffering, God allows us to grow and develop both morally and spiritually. It is only through our experiencing this suffering that we can ultimately become the noble souls God wants us to be.

Some goods require evils. Theists often point out that God inevitably had to include quite a bit of suffering in his creation in order that certain important goods could exist. Take, for example, charity and sympathy. Charity is a great virtue. Yet you can only be charitable if there exist others who are needy. Similarly, you can only sympathize with someone whom you perceive to be suffering.

Charity and sympathy are so-called “second order” goods that require “first order” evils like neediness and suffering (or at least the appearance of such evils) to exist. It’s argued that these second order goods outweigh the first order evils, which is why God allows the evils to occur.

Play the mystery card. Some theists point out that God works in mysterious ways. It’s arrogant of us to suppose that we can understand the mind of an infinitely powerful and wise being. The evil God inflicts upon us is, actually, all for the best. It’s just that we, being mere humans, can’t see how.

Many believe that these and other similar arguments largely take the sting out of the problem of evil. Some think they dispose of the problem altogether. I find them utterly inadequate. The following dialogue is my attempt to convey why.

Welcome to Eth, a modestly proportioned planet on the far side of our galaxy. Here, beneath the great marble spires of Eth’s finest university, the debate of the age is taking place. Arrayed on either side of the university’s Great Chamber are Eth’s finest scholars and thinkers. They are here to decide the most controversial and emotional issue dividing the inhabitants of Eth: Does God exist?

To the right of the Great Chamber are arrayed the believers. To the left sit the skeptics. The public galleries are nearly bursting with those waiting to observe the proceedings. At the end of the debate, the audience will vote.

Booblefrip, the birdlike Professor of Origin, and Gizimoth, the portly Arch-logos Inquisitor, lead the debate.

Gizimoth: Here, on Eth, many of us believe in God, do we not?

Booblefrip: Certainly.

Gizimoth: So what is God like?

Booblefrip: Well, God is all-powerful, of course. God can do anything. He created the entire universe, including every last one of us. God’s awesome power knows no bounds!

(A whisper of approval ripples across the believers on the right side of the Great Chamber.)

Gizimoth: Let’s agree about that, then. God, if he exists, is omnipotent. But here on Eth, those who believe in God also attribute another property to him, don’t they?

Booblefrip: Yes. As you know, we also believe that God is all-evil.

Gizimoth: Can you explain what you mean by that?

Booblefrip: Not only does God’s power know no bounds, neither does his depravity. His cruelty is infinite; his malice without end.

(Booblefrip casts a cool look across the right side of the chamber.)

Gizimoth: I see. All powerful. And all-evil. Now Professor Booblefrip, do you think that you could briefly explain why you think it’s reasonable to believe in such a being? What grounds can you provide to justify belief in this evil God?

Booblefrip: Well, I don’t say I can conclusively prove beyond doubt that God exists. But it seems to me that there are at least two rather good reasons for believing in God. First, it seems obvious to me, as it does to many, that the universe must have come from somewhere. Don’t you agree?

Gizimoth: Of course. The scientists assembled here will tell you that there is a perfectly good scientific explanation for the existence of the universe—the Big Bang. About 14 billion years ago, an unimaginably violent explosion occurred, in which all matter and energy came into existence, and in which space and even time itself began.

Booblefrip: We’re all familiar with the Big Bang theory, Professor Gizimoth. But of course, the Big Bang really only postpones the mystery of why there is anything at all, doesn’t it? For now we need to explain why there was a Big Bang. Why did the Big Bang happen? Science can’t explain that, can it? There’s a real mystery here, isn’t there?

Gizimoth: Hmm. Perhaps.

Booblefrip: The only satisfactory explanation we have for why the universe came into existence in the first place is that God created it. So, there’s my first reason to believe in God.

(Gizimoth frowns—he’s clearly not buying Booblefrip’s argument—but he encourages Booblefrip to continue.)

Gizimoth: And your second reason?

Booblefrip: Take a look around you at the wonders of the universe. Life. Conscious beings like ourselves. Do you suppose that all this appeared just by chance? Surely not. The universe shows clear signs of design. And where there’s design, there’s a designer!

Gizimoth: But science can explain life. What about the theory of natural selection? That explains how, over millions of years, life forms evolved and developed. It explains how complex life-forms can gradually evolve from even the simplest of bacteria. Science can perfectly well explain life without introducing your supernatural designer.

Booblefrip: Natural selection can’t explain everything. For example, it can’t explain why the universe was set up to allow natural selection to take place in the first place, can it?

Gizimoth: Hmm. Well, no, it can’t explain that.

Booblefrip: Did you know that if the laws governing the universe had been only very slightly different, the universe would not have survived more than a second or two? Either that or it would have quickly dissipated into a thin sterile soup, incapable of producing life. For life to emerge and evolve, you need very specific conditions. The universe must be set up in an extremely precise fashion. And of course, we know that it was set up in just this way, don’t we!

Gizimoth: I guess so.

Booblefrip: Now, that it should just happen to be set up in just this way by chance is too much to swallow. That would be a fluke of cosmic proportions. It’s much more sensible, surely, to suppose that someone deliberately designed the universe this way, so as to produce life and ultimately ourselves. That someone is God!

(Another warm ripple of approval arises from the right side of the Great Chamber. The assembled academics feel that, so far at least, Booblefrip is getting the better of the argument. But Gizimoth is perplexed.)

Gizimoth: Very well, let’s suppose the universe does show clear signs of having been designed by an intelligent being.

Booblefrip: Ah, a convert!

Gizimoth: Not at all. I’m supposing this only for the sake of argument. You still haven’t given me much reason to suppose that this designer is all-evil, have you?

Booblefrip:

But God is, by definition, all-evil.

Gizimoth:

But why define God that way? Why not suppose, instead, that God is neither good nor evil? Or why not suppose he is all-good?

(Booblefrip thinks Gizimoth has gone too far.)

Booblefrip: What a bizarre suggestion. It’s obvious our creator is very clearly evil! Take a look around you! Witness the horrendous suffering he inflicts upon us. The floods. The ethquakes. Cancer. The vile, rotting stench of God’s creation is overwhelming!

Gizimoth: Yes, our creator may do some evil. But it’s not clear he’s all-evil, is it? It’s certainly not obvious that his wickedness is infinite, that his malice and cruelty know no bounds. You’re deliberately ignoring a famous argument against the existence of God—the problem of good.

Booblefrip: I’m familiar with the problem of good—we theologians of Eth have been debating it for centuries. But it’s not fatal to belief in God.

Gizimoth: Really? Let’s see. The problem of good, as you know, is essentially very simple. If the universe was designed by an all-powerful, all-evil God, then why is there so much good in the world?

Booblefrip: That’s the supposed problem, yes.

Gizimoth: Why, for example, does God allow at least some people to live out happy, contented, and fulfilled lives? Why doesn’t he torture them instead? If God is all-powerful, he certainly could torture them, couldn’t he?

Booblefrip: Well, yes, he could.

Gizimoth: In fact, he could make their lives utterly miserable. And we know that, since he is also supremely evil, he must want them to suffer. Yet, he gives some people every consideration. Why? It makes no sense, does it?

Booblefrip: Perhaps not at first sight, no.

Gizimoth: Here’s another example. Why does God allow us to do good deeds, to help our fellow Ethians? He even allows us to lay down our lives for each other. These selfless actions improve the quality of our lives no end. So why does God allow them? Why doesn’t he force us to be nasty and do evil, just like him?

Booblefrip: I grant you that the fact that God allows so much noble and selfless behavior might seem like very good evidence that he is not all-evil. But appearances can be deceptive.

Gizimoth: Also, if God is absolutely evil, why did he put so much beauty in the world for us to enjoy? Why did he create such sublime sunsets?

Booblefrip: Good question.

Gizimoth: And why does God give us children, who bring us immeasurable happiness? You see? There are countless ways in which our lives are enriched by God’s creation.

Booblefrip: But there’s also evil!

Gizimoth:

True, there’s evil in the world. But there’s an awful lot of good. Far too much good, in fact, for anyone reasonably to conclude that the universe was created by an all-evil God. Belief in a supremely wicked creator is palpably absurd.

(There is much quiet nodding to the left of the Great Chamber. Gizimoth’s argument has struck a chord even with the unbelievers. But Booblefrip thinks Gizimoth’s argument is far from conclusive.)

Booblefrip: Look, I admit that the amount of good in the world might seem to undermine belief in an all-powerful, all-evil god. But actually, we believers can explain why a supremely evil God would allow all these good things to happen.

Gizimoth: By all means try.

Booblefrip:

Surely you are familiar with the free-will defense?

Gizimoth: Perhaps you would care to explain it.

Booblefrip: Very well. God’s malevolence is without end. True, he lets us do good. He allows us to act selflessly for the betterment of others, for example. But there’s a reason for that.

Gizimoth: What reason?

Booblefrip: God gave us free will.

Gizimoth: Free will?

Booblefrip: Yes. God could have made us mere automata that always did the wrong thing. But he didn’t do that. He gave us the freedom to choose how we act.

Gizimoth: Why?

Booblefrip:

By giving us free will, God actually increased the amount of suffering there is in the world. He made the world far more terrible than it would otherwise have been!

Gizimoth: How?

Booblefrip: Think about it.

By giving us free will, God can be sure we will agonize endlessly about what we should do. For free will brings with it the torture of temptation. And then, when we succumb to temptation, we feel guilty. Knowing that being free, we could have done otherwise, we feel awful about what we have done. We end up torturing ourselves. The exquisitely evil irony of it all!

Gizimoth: Hmm.

Booblefrip: By giving us free will, God allowed for far more intense and subtle forms of suffering than would otherwise be possible.

Gizimoth: But what about the good that people sometimes do?

Booblefrip: It’s true that people do sometimes choose to act selflessly and nobly and that this can produce good. But this good is far outweighed by the additional suffering free will brings. Just take a look at the world, for goodness sake! It’s a world full of people who not only behave despicably but also agonize endlessly about what they have done!

Gizimoth: But this is ridiculous!

Booblefrip: Why?

Gizimoth: Well, for a start, this only explains the good that we bring about by acting freely. It doesn’t explain the existence of naturally occurring good.

Booblefrip: Such as?

Gizimoth: Well, what about the glories of nature: sublime sunsets, stunning landscapes, the splendor of the heavens? We’re not responsible for those things, are we?

Booblefrip: No. God is.

Gizimoth: But why would an all-evil God create something that gives us pleasure? Also, why does he give us beautiful children to love? And why does he choose to give some people extraordinary good fortune—health, wealth, and happiness in abundance?

Surely, the existence of these goods provides us with overwhelming evidence that, even if the universe has a creator, he’s not all bad?

Booblefrip: You’re mistaken, Gizimoth. Such things are exactly what we should expect if God is supremely evil.

Gizimoth: But why?

Booblefrip: Some natural beauty is certainly to be expected. If everything was uniformly ugly, we wouldn’t be tormented by the ugliness half as much as we are when it’s laced with some beauty. To truly appreciate the ghastliness of the environment most of us inhabited—urine-stained, concrete-and-asphalt wasteland peppered with advertising billboards, drug addicts, and dog dirt—we need to be reminded every now and then that things could be different. God put some natural beauty into the world to make our recognition of the ugliness and dreariness of day-to-day life all the more acute.

Gizimoth: Hmm. But why would a supremely wicked God give us beautiful children to love?

Booblefrip: Because he knows we’ll spend our entire lives worrying about them. Only a parent can know the depth of torture a child brings.

Gizimoth: Why does he give us healthy, young bodies?

Booblefrip: He makes sure that both our bodies and their vitality and health are short-lived. You see, by giving us something and then snatching it away, our evil creator can make us suffer even more than if we had never had it.

Gizimoth: But then, why does God allow some people to live out such contented lives?

Booblefrip: Of course an evil God is going to bestow upon a few people lavish lifestyles, good health, and immense success. Their happiness is designed to make the suffering of the rest of us even more acute! We’ll be wracked by feelings of envy, jealousy, and failure! Who can be content while others have so much more!

Gizimoth: Oh, honestly!

Booblefrip: Don’t you see? The world clearly was designed to produce life—to produce conscious beings like ourselves. Why? So that its designer can torture us. The world is designed to physically and psychologically crush us, so that we are ultimately overwhelmed by life’s futility and bow out in despair.

(Gizimoth is becoming frustrated. Every time he comes up with another piece of evidence that the universe wasn’t designed by a supremely evil deity, Booblefrip turns out to have yet another ingenious explanation up his sleeve. And yet, thinks Gizimoth, the evidence against the existence of an utterly evil God is overwhelming.)

Gizimoth: This is ridiculous. You have an answer for everything!

Booblefrip: Yes, I do have an answer to all your arguments. So far, you’ve given me not the slightest reason to suppose that the world was not created by a supremely evil being. But if you’re unhappy with my answers, let me try a rather different approach. There are some evils that require good in order to exist, aren’t there?

Gizimoth: Such as?

Booblefrip: Take the evil of jealousy. Jealousy requires something to be jealous of. God gave good things to some people so that others would feel jealous. Or take lying. Lying requires that people often tell the truth—otherwise, there would be no point in lying, because no one would believe you. The evil of dishonesty requires that there be a certain amount of honesty.

Gizimoth: And you think this evil outweighs the good it depends on?

Booblefrip: Exactly. God allows some good things into his creation. It’s the price he has to pay for the greater evil.

Gizimoth: These tricky replies of yours are patently absurd. You can’t seriously maintain that the world you see around you—a world full of natural beauty and laughing children—is really the handiwork of an infinitely evil God?

Booblefrip: I do maintain that, yes. True, I may not be able to account for every last drop of good in the world. But remember that we are dealing here with the mind of God. Who are you to suppose you can understand the mind of an infinitely intelligent and knowledgeable being? Isn’t it arrogant of you to suppose that you can figure out God’s master plan?

Gizimoth: I’m arrogant?

(There’s some subtle nodding from the believers on the right.)

Booblefrip: Yes, arrogant. Evil God works in mysterious ways. Ultimately, everything really is all for the worst. It’s just that, being mere humans, we can’t always figure out how.

Gizimoth: Oh, really. This is—

Booblefrip: I think it’s arrogant of you to suppose otherwise—to suppose that you must be able to figure it all out.

(At the end of the debate, the audience votes. After the deliberation, a spokesperson steps forward with their verdict.)

Spokesman:

It seems to us that Booblefrip has made a powerful case for supposing the world was created by God. In addition, Booblefrip has provided a compelling defense of belief in this evil being. He has successfully explained why even an evil God would allow a great deal of good. And so the motion is carried—we are persuaded that Evil God exists.

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Are you persuaded by Booblefrip’s defense of belief in a supremely evil God? Of course not. His explanations are clearly utterly feeble. Surely, despite all of Booblefrip’s convoluted maneuverings, the fact remains that belief in a supremely evil God is patently absurd.

But of course, Booblefrip’s defense merely flips around the standard explanations that theists offer in defense of belief in a good God. His attempts to explain what good there is in the world mirror the theist’s attempts to explain the evil. If Booblefrip’s explanations are deeply inadequate, why aren’t the theist’s explanations? That’s the question theists need to answer.

Of course, theists consider belief in an all-evil God to be downright silly. And rightly so: there’s clearly far too much good in the world. So why is it that they consistently fail to recognize that the sheer quantity of suffering in the world renders their belief in an all-good God equally silly?

Surely, even if the universe does have a designer/creator, isn’t it patently obvious that this being is neither all-evil, nor all-good?