In the wake of the tsunami there had been some speculation from the offensive wing of Protestant Christianity that those dirty heathens deserved it in some way. Specifically, that the wave was divine retribution for some perceived slight--probably simply the heinous crime of being non-Christian in an obviously Christian world.
Yeah, it's crap, but it got me thinking. If you accept the existence of an omnipotent god, you have to come to terms with this simple choice:
Either God is the source of all suffering as well as all joy, or He doesn't really care. Either God slaughters the guilty and the innocent with equal aplomb, or He quite frankly doesn't give a shit about us.
Let's examine this more closely. (More below the fold.)
We'll postulate an omnipotent God (why a being that is not omnipotent cannot be God is left as an exercise for the reader 8) for the purposes of this discussion. Since this being is omnipotent, there can be only one of Him; if there were two, neither would be omnipotent, would they? This eliminates the possibility of "Satan," or some kind of adversary that wields God-like power. That means we can't blame our suffering on some evil nasty living in a pit of fire.
More sophisticated ideas of suffering place the blame on Man himself; namely, we create suffering by deviating from God's plan for us. Now, we must ask ourselves, why should God--who is, recall, omnipotent--allow us to suffer, sometimes needlessly? What creature with compassion would allow such a crime to continue for millennia without seeking to end it?
The Jews out there reading this (I know, I give myself too much credit--who would bother reading my blog?) are no doubt thinking, "But He did act--he gave us the Torah!" The Christians among you are thinking, "He sent us Christ, who showed us the way!" No doubt the Muslims are crying out, "This is why Allah sent us Muhammad!" And similarly with Siddhartha Gautama, Nanak Dev, Laotse, Zarathustra, and so on and so forth. Take your pick.
Good examples for us all, each of them. But is the sending of messengers enough? Is the correction of human misery a task that is beyond the by definition limitless power of God? Clearly not. Even I--a mere human, with my limited powers of imagination--can speculate how some simple, small changes in Man's basic nature would alleviate man-made suffering without obviating free will. Before you play the "unforseen consequences" card, think about this: if you argue that God creates suffering because all other choices for His actions are worse, then you are once again placing limits on God's power--which is defined as limitless. It doesn't work. It also smacks of Dr. Pangloss; you should go read Candide again and think about this "best of all possible worlds." Clearly God either intentionally inflicts suffering on the world or chooses to do little or nothing about it. And for this I must bow and scrape in lifelong obeisance?
I don't think so.
If God intentionally inflicts suffering, well then, fuck him and the cloud He flew in on. Most kids grow out of the "torturing ants" phase pretty quickly, but we have no evidence that this cosmic brat is ever going to let up. In this case I have to think that Douglas Adams was right--nothing we do will matter, He won't stop until He screws with each of us. What right does such a creature have to demand worship from me? I'm a better person than He is.
If God doesn't care, if he chooses to let suffering happen despite His ability to correct it; then once again, fuck him and the cloud He's hiding behind. Clearly such a creature has no compassion. If He has no interest in me and my welfare, why then should I worship Him? It's not like He cares, is it? It makes no difference--in which case, I have better things to be doing, like trying to make the world a better place to live in, especially so since I can't expect any help from on high.
There's a third option, of course: there simply is no God. The world is as it is, take it or leave it. Ultimately, whether we suffer or live in paradise is completely up to us. We don't have the option of throwing up our hands and blaming "God's Will" because he's not there pulling the strings. This is a bitter pill for most people; it's a big scary universe out there and it would nice to think that someone's looking out for our best interests.
But I know which one I choose.