At least in the Western tradition nothing so affects our attitude to God as our recognition of evil and suffering. The important factor in the modern bourgeois indifference to God has been cultivated exclusion of evil from our consciousness. It is not long since English moral philosophers searching for an example of moral evil could only come up with promise-breaking; the liberal imagination shield away from real sin, just as a commercial advertising shies away from suffering. It is a commonplace that prisons and hospitals are not only institutions for dealing with crime and sickness but also for hiding them.
If we break out this cosy world and face the real state of affairs we are liable to two apparently contrasting reactions. We may reject God as infantile, as unable to comprehend or have compassion on those who suffer and are made to suffer in his world On the other hand we may find, as Jon did, that it was our own view of God that was infantile, we may in fact come to a deeper understanding of the mystery of God. The first ‘atheist’ reaction may indeed be a part of the second.
It is not my purpose here to offer positive suggestions about the transition from an inadequate view of God, through, ‘atheism’, to a deeper understanding. I have set myself the minor task of removing one impediment on the way. We will not pass through this transition successfully if we let ourselves be trapped in the philosopher’s problem of evil.
As it seems to me there is the problem or mystery of evil which is a dark entry into mystery of God. Not to be aware of this, not to be confounded and overthrown by it is not yet to have recognized God’s love. But there is also a philosophical muddle about God and evil, and there is no reason at all to be confounded or overthrown by this.
This paper is not, then, intended as some kind of anodyne for those who are facing the mystery of evil – whether they express their understanding in the form of ‘atheism’ or of a deeper awareness of mystery. It is a philosophical reply to philosophers who seek to show that the reality of evil proves that the ultimate source of meaning of the universe cannot be unconditional compassion and love.
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I appear then as though in a lawcourt as counsel for the defence of God against his philosophical accusers. I seek to do no more than to answer their arguments.
The prisoner stands accused of wreaking all kinds of murder and mayhem, of running a world full of misery and malice. Evidence for the crimes lies all around us, and the question is whether God is really responsible, whether he should be judged guilty and perhaps whether he should get off on a plea of diminished responsibility due to unsound mind or natural ignorance.
May I say at once that I shall be falling back on that sound principle of English law that God is innocent until he is proved guilty. It is not my job to prove that God is innocent; I am not going to explain how and why his activities have been good. I am simply going to refute the charges brought against him. I shall be dealing, in fact, with what his accusers have said about him.
At the end of this hearing I hope you will agree that God has not been proved guilty, but I expect you will be as puzzled as I am about his innocence. In other words I hope it will remain a mystery to you why God has done what he has done; but you will at least agree that what he has done does not prove his guilt.
First of all, what is the charge? The world is full of suffering and sin; God committed this world; he openly admits to having done so. Nobody else interfered, there is no one else to take the blame from him. You might imagine a defence on the lines that the poor fellow couldn’t help it, he’s only a God after all. But this cannot be my defence for I hold that he is omnipotent and can do anything he likes that you could mention. (The only reason why you would have to say that he can’t make square circles is that you can’t mention them; the words cancel each other out so that you haven’t named anything.)
evil - mccabe
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