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Bouvet’s thread about agency leads me to dredge up an old astonishment of mine. How can it be that the world has preserved for so long Theodicy as a legitimate issue, when for me it is so easily addressed? Theodicy is “the problem of evil”. Theologians say, given that God is Good, Knowing, and Powerful, how can there be evil? Or, in the current words of Wikipedia, “In the philosophy of religion and theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the existence of God. The problem follows with the belief that God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent whilst at the same time evil exists. God either cannot stop evil or he will not. If he cannot then he is argued to not be omnipotent. If he will not then he is argued to not be omnibenevolent.”
To me, theodicy evaporates in Mormonism. If I am a co-creator with God, if I stood with Him in the eternal world, if I chose with knowledge to enter this world, if He dwells in me and I in Him, is theodicy meaningful? And is omnipotence really what the unenlightened might conceive it to be? We are not infants here. We understand the issues. And we say they have evaporated.
So here is my question: Given that sages, mystics and poets have been around as long as theologians and philosophers, how can the answer to theodicy be still eluding the latter? Is this a case of willful sport on their part? Is there a body of work I ought to know about?
To me, it all boils down to a few very simple concepts: Quote:1) Isaiah 55:8 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
For me, that can be translated as, “I don’t see the big picture fully” – and it emphasizes the futility of our efforts to formulate complex, intellectual, convoluted explanations for what actually is very simple.
Quote:2) “I am a child of God.”
This concept puts everything into the perspective of eternal growth and progression, which provides an underlying reason for struggle and pain and is the foundation of the final concept:
Quote:3) 2 Nephi 2:11 – “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.”
That statement alone could have sufficed, since it encapsulates everything about this topic so well. Notice, the first is from the Bible, the second is from the Bible, but the third (the most direct answer) is from the Book of Mormon. Without that third concept, stated so directly, it’s easy to see why others tend to be more conflicted than we tend to be – even as many members also struggle with this issue, due to the “that they might have joy” effort.
As to why so many brilliant people have spent so many hours and brain cells struggling with this, from a Mormon perspective I simply point to the idea that, at some core part of our being, Lucifer’s plan of ease really was enticing enough that a third part of the host of heaven chose to accept it over the Father’s pain-filled plan – and many of those of us who rejected that plan of ease initially still struggle to keep it at bay. The “natural (wo)man” really wants a life of ease and comfort and lack of pain, so we do all we can to deny the opposition that was the central part of God’s plan in the beginning.
In a very real way, from this perspective, this really is an age dominated by Satan’s power – when the VAST majority of the inhabitants of the world (including Christians) teach and yearn for his plan to some degree, deny the Father in some real way and downplay their own role in choosing to endure pain and suffering in the process of becoming like their Father. That’s worth deep consideration all by itself, imo.
. I’m no expert on this, but after dwelling on it these past days, I am pretty convinced theodicy is nothing more than a high-brow poke in the eye. Sad and adversarial, but I’m afraid largely true. That doesn’t mean we don’t consider it earnestly in the mode of “Lord, is it I?” or seeking to understand. But in the final analysis, the question will endure because “it is extremely difficult to help a man understand something when his job depends on his misunderstanding it.” p.s. Gee, I feel slimy after writing that. I think that may be the most cynical thing I have every expressed in my life. I hope I am wrong and can be corrected.
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