Most Atheist arguments challenge the compatibility of an
all-loving God with the perceived injustices of life. The religious
identify such challenges as reflecting an arrogance of intellect -- being the
assumption that we as mankind, an element of creation ourselves, know better
than God how His creation should be ordered -- coupled with the failure to
appreciate a larger design.
The fact that many of mankind fail to make sense of certain
aspects of this life should not dissuade from belief in God. The duty of
man is not to question or deny the attributes or presence of God, and not to
incline to arrogance through professing to be able to do a better job, but
rather to accept human station in this life and do the best that can be done
with what we’ve been given. By analogy, the fact that a person does not
like the way the boss does things at work, and fails to understand the
decisions he makes, does not negate his existence. Rather, each person’s
duty is to fulfill a job description in order to be paid and promoted.
Similarly, failure to grasp or approve of the way God orders creation does not
negate His existence. Rather, humankind should recognize with humility
that, unlike the workplace boss, who may be wrong, God by definition
is of absolute perfection, always right and never wrong.
Humankind should bow down to Him in willing submission and in recognition that
failure to understand His design on our part does not reflect error on His
part. Rather, He is The Lord and Master of Creation and we are not, He
knows all and we do not, He orders all affairs according to His perfect
attributes, and we simply remain His subjects, along for the ride of our lives.
The confused and sensitive souls who encounter difficulty
reconciling God’s existence with a harsh and often painful life deserve
sympathy and explanation. If a person accepts the fact that God knows
what He is doing and we don’t, he or she should rest comfortable with the
understanding that deep down things may not be what they at first seem.
Perhaps the wretched amongst humankind deserve their lot in life for reasons
unforeseen, and perhaps they suffer only a short worldly existence to receive
an eternal reward in the next life. Lest a person forget, God granted the
favorites of His creation (i.e. the prophets) the greatest worldly gift of
certainty, guidance and revelation; however, they suffered greatly in worldly
terms. In fact, the trials and tribulations of most people pale in
comparison to those of the prophets. So although many people do suffer
terribly, the message of hope is that the archetypes of God’s favorites, namely
the prophets, were deprived of the pleasures of this world in exchange for the
rewards of the hereafter. A person might well expect a comparable reward
for those who endure the trials and hardships of this life, while remaining
steadfast upon true belief.
Similarly, a person cannot be faulted for expecting the
disbelieving tyrants and oppressors to have all the enjoyments of this world,
but none of the hereafter. Some of the known inmates of Hell spring to
mind. Pharaoh, for example, lived a life of posh magnificence to the
point that he proclaimed himself to be the supreme god. Most likely
opinions changed when he broke wind. In any case, a person can reasonably
expect him to be somewhat dissatisfied with his toasty abode of the moment, and
the memories of his plush carpets, fine foods and scented handmaidens to have
lost their charm of consolation given the heat of the moment.
Most people have had the experience of ending a great day
in a bad mood due to some sour event at the conclusion of
events. Nobody values a fine meal that ends in divorce, a romantic
interlude rewarded with AIDS, or a night of revelry capped off by a brutal
mugging or crippling car crash. How good could it have been? Similarly,
there is no joy in this life, no matter how great the ecstasy or how long the
duration, which is not instantly erased from memory by a 100% full body
burn. One side of one hand represents 1% of the total body surface area
of a human being, making a kitchen burn of a fraction of a fingertip count for
less than a thousandth of the total body surface area. Nonetheless, who
doesn’t forget absolutely every little, every big, everything during
that moment of painful thermal affliction? The agony of a whole-body
burn, especially if there is no relief -- no jumping back, no pulling away --
is beyond the capacity of human imagination. The few who have survived
such burns agree. Not only does the torture of a total burn exceed the
boundaries of human imagination, but the agony of the experience surpasses the
limits of language. The horror can neither be adequately conveyed by the
unfortunate of experience, nor fully understood by those blessed to have
escaped initiation. Certainly one looooooong, eternal, full-body bath in
fire can be expected to erase any pleasant memories of the past, consistent
with the conclusion that
“…the life of this world as compared with the Hereafter is
but a brief passing enjoyment.” (Quran 13:26)
With regard to the subject of the present appendix[1],
two elements of guiding consciousness deserve consideration, the first being
that deep down all people have an innate knowledge of the presence of the
Creator. Humankind may intellectualize this awareness away in search of
the conveniences and pleasures of this world, but deep down, all mankind know
the truth. What is more, God knowsthat we know, and He alone can
calculate the level of individual rebellion and/or submission to Him.
The second element of dawning spiritual awareness is simply
to understand that there is seldom a free lunch. Rarely does anybody get
something for nothing. Should a man work for a boss whom he does not
understand or with whom he does not agree, in the end he still has to do his
job in order to get paid. Nobody goes to work (for long, anyway) and does
nothing more than saying, “I’m at work,” expecting a paycheck to follow based
on nothing more than unproductive attendance. Similarly, humankind must
satisfy a duty of servitude and worship to God if hoping to receive His
reward. After all, that is not only the purpose of life, it is our job
description. For that matter, Muslims claim that such is the job
description for both men and Jinn (plural for ‘spirits;’ singular ‘Jinn’ee,’
from which the Western word ‘genie’ is derived), for God conveys in the Holy
Quran:
“And I have not created Jinns and men, except that they
should serve (worship) Me.” (Quran 51:56)
Many people question the purpose of life, but the position
of the faithful of many religions is exactly that stated above – mankind exists
for no other reason than to serve and worship God. The proposal is that
each and every element of creation exists to either support or test mankind in
the fulfillment of that duty. Unlike worldly employment, a person can
duck his or her responsibilities to God and be granted a grace period.
However, at the end of this probationary period called life, accounts become
due and payable, and such is certainly not the best time to find one’s account
‘in the red.’
Francis Bacon provided a wonderful closure to the topic of
this appendix, stating, “They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for
certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and, if he be not of kin to
God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.”[2]
Should a person believe that after a few million years something worthy of the
barbecue will emerge from the froth of Stanley Miller and Harold Urey’s
primordial bouillabaisse, humankind still has to account for that which we all
feel within us—the soul or spirit. Each and every element of mankind has
one, and here is the metaphysical keystone which separates man from animal.
Again, those who doubt that which cannot be directly
experienced may find excuse for denial of the soul, but they will most likely
find themselves to have scant company. Furthermore, the discussion then
moves into one of the nature of truth, knowledge, and proof, which logically
springboards into the next section, on agnosticism.
Footnotes:
[1] This article is originally an
appendix to the book “The First and Final Commandment” by the same author.
[2] Bacon, Francis. Atheism.
p. 16.
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