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God of earthquakes and uncertainty
UNORTHODOXY
By Patrick J. Deneen
In the wake of two devastating earthquakes, we are again witnessing echoes of longstanding debates over "theodicy," or the effort to justify the existence of a just and loving God in the face of the existence of suffering and even evil (Theos=God; Dike=Justice). These debates are hardly new - current debates remarkably echo arguments that took place some 350 years ago following the devastating Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.
One reaction against "theodicy" - the effort to "justify God's ways to man" - in the face of such horrific devastation was (and remains) two-fold. First, there is a rejection of the idea that there is any "meaning" to such an event - and rather, the conclusion that the earth and nature is capricious and undiscriminating in its bestowal of life and death. Second, in the face of belief in this very "meaninglessness" of the world, there are demands and efforts for active human intervention to impose meaning, and particularly, to pursue ever-greater arrangements of justice. The modern scientific project was the result - arising in significant part in response to the Lisbon earthquake - allowing humanity increasingly to control the arbitrariness of nature's actions upon humanity.
Responses to the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have hauntingly echoed the reactions of the world's leading philosophers some 350 years ago following the Lisbon earthquake. While this fact has been noted by some prominent commentators, what has gone largely unrecognized is that there is one important difference today: we live in the wake of several centuries of mixed record of scientific achievement.
The confidence of many in the late-18th century over the ability of science to master the arbitrary actions of nature is today complicated by our own experience with the deleterious consequences of that very mastery. Even as we respond with the hopes that modern seismology will give us the tools to avoid such catastrophes, and that modern social science will permit sufficient worldwide wealth so that the poverty of Haitains will not be a major contributing factor to the devastation, there is a simultaneous recognition that this project of mastery has given rise to a different kind of devastation - one largely created by humans in the form of environmental degradation.
The problem is, we rarely make connect these two observations.
While theodicy has existed as a form of human inquiry at least since Cain killed Abel in response to God's otherwise inexplicable preference for his brother's sacrifice, the "science" of theodicy is often traced back to the philosopher Leibniz. It was Leibniz who offered the first articulation of philosophical optimism, expressed pithily in the phrase that "we live in the best of all possible worlds," which summarizes Leibniz's somewhat heterodox view that God chose from among a near infinite number of possible universes, and chose ours as the best one worthy of creation. While not perfect, overall, it was pretty good.
The Lisbon earthquake shattered this view. In the reactions it provoked, one sees especially the origins of many of today's stances in regards to science, religion, and nature.
For some, the earthquake was evidence of God's wrath - the theodicy in which we can interpret with certainty the will of God in the events of the world. The reactionary author Joseph DeMaistre (responding to Candide) argued that the earthquake was in fact a great good, because its residents surely deserved to be punished (and, he argued further, the innocent deserved to be delivered from the iniquity of that place). This was the opposite of Leibniz - all is good, because all is bad. We can see echoes to Maistre's conservative critique in the reaction of Pat Robertson to the Haiti earthquake - the destruction was divine recompense for an evil committed by the Haitians (just as the attacks of 9/11 were deserved because of the iniquity of modern America).
Then there was the response of Voltaire, long suspicious of clericalism and superstition, who saw in the Lisbon quake evidence of a capricious and even cruel world. In his famous novel Candide (Candide, ou l'Optimisme), Leibniz's phrase becomes ultimately an idiotic mantra contradicted by the reality that the earth is not the best of all possible worlds. That novel describes the eventual disillusionment of Candide from the philosophic optimism of his teacher, Dr. Pangloss, a disillusionment that is completed by his confrontation with the devastating earthquake of Lisbon. Voltaire's recommendation (through the words of his character, Candide), was to "cultivate your own garden" - that is, to take care as best one could what was under your own control, recognizing that there was no final justice or meaning in the universe. One heard echoes to this view recently in the analysis of James Wood (who also revisited the reactions to the Lisbon Quake in his essay. Wood concluded his article by condemning the Maistre/Robertson view (as would Voltaire) while ending with a plaintive, existentialist plaint: "For either God is punitive and interventionist (the Robertson view), or as capricious as nature and so absent as to be effectively nonexistent (the Obama view). Unfortunately, the Bible, which frequently uses God's power over earth and seas as the sign of his majesty and intervening power, supports the first view; and the history of humanity's lonely suffering decisively suggests the second."
Yet, it is this view - the disillusionment with interpretations that God's will could be known one way or the other (understanding either suffering as the result of retribution or the consequence of "the best of all possible worlds") that opened the door to the flowering of the Enlightenment, and particularly the belief that with the rejection of outdated theological categories, a new kind of understanding and even capacity to confront and overcome evil and suffering might be possible.
Notably, Immanuel Kant (Enlightenment's prophet) also sought to comprehend the devastation of the Lisbon quake, writing three texts on the event. His response was to develop a geologic theory of why the earthquake took place, surmising that the earth's instability arose due to the shifting of large underground caverns filled with hot gases. According to the 20th-century philosopher Walter Benjamin, Kant's analysis - while long-since discarded - "probably represents the beginnings of scientific geography in Germany. And certainly, the beginnings of seismology." Shortly after the Haiti earthquake, there were simultaneous lamentations over the still-imperfect science of seismology - at least insofar as its predictive powers were concerned - alongside articles that praised the ongoing and discernible advances in the science. According to Simon Winchester, while the science of earthquake prediction is far from perfect, "The branch of seismology that deals with prediction is undoubtedly in a slightly better place than it was half a decade ago." And that fact, he writes, should provide "a faint glimmer of hope."
In the wake of such devastation, nature was increasingly understood as an arbitrary and often cruel force, one devoid of meaning. Either there was no God, or God was either "absent" (as Wood suggests) or cruel, but in either event, humanity was largely on its own to improve its own condition. Drawing on thinkers like Francis Bacon and other architects of modern science, Enlightenment thinkers pushed forward a new kind of science - one that would seek the mastery at least of the effects of nature (if not the causes of various devastations), whether in the forms of medicine, weather prediction, flood control, agricultural science, chemical engineering, and so on. A revolution in human life in part can trace its roots to that earthquake in 1755.
What is striking about the contemporary echoes to these arguments is a changed contemporary context. We are witnessing not only echoes, but widespread embrace, of another reaction to the Lisbon earthquake - that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau - in a letter to Voltaire - argued that the earthquake revealed not the existence of divine retribution nor the need for Enlightenment solutions, but the evils of "progress." Long suspicious of the arguments of Enlightenment colleagues, he argued that it was the concentration of humanity in to compressed living space - versions of tenements and high-rises - that led to the devastation of what otherwise would have been merely a curiosity and perhaps inconvenience to healthier, more primitive societies. He argued that humans should not live in unnatural ways, in contradiction to nature.
Rousseau's arguments have made a significant comeback: we live today with the existence of both an embrace of scientific aims of progress and a deeply pervasive adoration of nature, along with a deep suspicion of the advances of science and technology.
There is no better evidence of this latter view than the remarkable popularity of the movie "Avatar."
"Avatar" portrays the simple humanoids that Rousseau praised in his letter to Voltaire. What is striking about that movie is that nature is portrayed as almost entirely benevolent. Yes, at the beginning of the movie, Jake Sully (newly metamorphosed into his Avatar) is attacked by some savage animals. However, evidently the Na'vi live in perfect harmony with the natural world, and even those creatures that once attacked Sully become allies of the Na'vi in the culminating battle scene. There is a complete harmony between humanoids and nature, reflected in their ability to "connect" fully with the natural world, their intuitive capacity to discern the deeper connections between all natural beings. The perpetrator of evil in the world is not now "nature" - but humans, and especially those humans who employ science and technology in the effort to master nature (particularly the extraction of a natural resource that we are to understand to be the Pandoran version of petroleum). Thus, it is the very activity that has allowed extensive human conquest of the natural world (and thus, the capacity to govern or eliminate its arbitrary motions) - science - that now threatens the perceived harmony of nature.
For moderns, nature and science are simultaneously - and exclusively - the respective source of evil and good. Indeed, I am willing to wager that people who enjoyed the defeat of rapacious humans in "Avatar" also regularly condemn the capriciousness of the earth. I would further point out that this is a contradiction particularly keen on the American political Left, which simultaneously insists upon the merits and necessity of scientific advancement, and embraces a Rousseauian environmentalism that condemns science and technology out the other side of their mouths. Moderns on the whole, and the Left in particular, compartmentalize the two evaluations.
Our age calls for a better theodicy and a better understanding of nature - one that (to start in the realm of nature) recognizes that nature is both a source of goodness and pain, of life and death. These two cannot be un-extricated. It needs, too, a more supple Augustinian recognition of our own ignorance - whether in claiming to understand God's will (a la Robertson) or claiming to discern His total absence (a la Wood). We need to embrace not these various claims to knowledge, but rather (to cite an essential essay by Wendell Berry), the "way of ignorance." The "way of ignorance," he writes, is "the way of faith" and the path to the acceptance of "the wisdom of humility." In part, it prevents us from seeing the world through the lens of pride - the pride of knowing with certainty that nature is either evil or good, or that science is either good or evil. It can help us to stop living the contradiction of modernity, and begin to make judgments, rather than rest in the faith of our contradictory certainties.
Patrick J. Deneen is the Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Associate Professor of Government and Founding Director of the Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy at Georgetown University. Previously he taught at Princeton University from 1997-2005. He was Special Advisor and Speechwriter to the Director of the United States Information Agency from 1995-1997.
By Patrick J. Deneen |
March 9, 2010; 9:48 AM ET
| Category:
Unorthodoxy
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Posted by: Rongoklunk | March 10, 2010 11:26 AM
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Well the way of faith is certainly the way of ignorance, for sure.
Why can't we simply admit the truth?
A god who would kill thousands of innocent people just to clean out the evildoers would be a monster.
A god who would stand by while natural processes resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people would be a monster.
There is a simpler explanation that accounts for all the facts we do know and renders discussions of "theodicy" completely irrelevent.
Posted by: poosky | March 10, 2010 10:07 AM
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want to see a earthquake, final report card and who handed it to me.
Posted by: EarthCraft | March 10, 2010 9:19 AM
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I'm not going to take God's role in earthquakes seriously until theologians start predicting them better than scientists do.
Posted by: WmarkW | March 10, 2010 6:01 AM
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From the mission statement of the Freedom Journal:
"There went and never were there many colleagues, associates, friends or brothers along the road treaded by the mountain man.
The valley was deep as the sons and daughters of the foolish piled up vice feasting on immoral attitudes and behavior.
Meanwhile, the heartless heathens pushed and packed the valley full of falsehoods and make-believe.
The flesh continued the assault on humankind and the righteous but never did the Spirit die.
Meanwhile he never looked back. The past was lined with old songs that he hoped never to repeat.
A new song came forth today and tomorrow was an everlasting sweet melody that called for any sacrifice on this earth.
Peace and Love, Carl Patton a willing servant of Almighty God October 19, 2006 in the year of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus."
Posted by: YEAL9 | March 7, 2010 1:44 PM
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FREEDOMJOURNAL REVELATIONS SERIES
11 February 2010
TALKING WIND: FALLING SNOW
www.freedomjournalpress.com
carlapatton@comcast.net
Greetings Brethren,
Peace be unto you. These are the days as we liveth that many see and some come with eyes closed as they see only the human aspects of life. However, there is much to be seen in the elements because this is where we find the great power noted as energy. The greatest energy is not found are determined in any scientific theory like E=mc². We bear witness that to be able to see who controls and propels the movement of anything look to God. He controls energy in the First Book Genesis. Here we find the Creator who sends falling snow as well as rain as the seasons change. This same Creator has sent the scribes today to determine the ultimate aspect of Energy in the theories of the Spiritual Scientist T=ss².
Warm Hearts: Cold Hands
As the ice melted and the snow subsided
we bear witness that many tales have been
spoken. The Creator still speaks as the snow
comes and goes as the Wind blows.
No one paid attention to what had been written
as they looked to all things tangible and things
that could be held onto. However all things are
tangible with God as we feel and smell the fresh air.
There was love and tenderness in the warmhearted
man and woman. His hands were cold as ice as he
picked up the snow. Meanwhile the hands of doubt
also reached down in disgust rejecting the miracles,
Of the elements. These miracles came whenever God
sent them. In and out of season as He called the time
when the clock changed not man. Once more than once
again we see the birds endorse the snow.
Did they know more than the cold-hearted man and
woman? What could a fowl of the air that did fly tell
us of our sojourn? How did the elements take part in
our trip to Paradise?
When I heard Him speak I listened. Although He came not
as the newscaster or the meteorologist. I did, I saw Him
speak. What did He say? Was it a testament of His control
of all things that liveth and died?
Who came to their knees in prayer thanking God for the
bread they did have? Who made a testimony that from
hereafter I will serve the King? “Talking Wind: Falling Snow.”
The earth shakes the mud slides the rain fell and the rivers,
Ran over but man still did not hear nor did he listen. Listen
to the Wind and see life this day and beyond. Is there then
a miracle also in the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost? While the
Ghost was given up there was joy and not grief.
This is truly Paradise and a day that all will see on this side
as it will stipulate the days to come. Glory to God on High.
We are grateful for the rain in snow and the ice in water and
the clouds in sunshine basking in the Rainbow.
Peace and Paradise,
Dr. Carl A. Patton writing for the FreedomJournal Press 11 February 2010 in the year of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
Posted by: carlapattonFreedomJournal | March 7, 2010 12:40 PM
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PS: Any chance of linking Wendell Berry's essay?
After all, I did give you the poem. It's certainly worth an essay.
Posted by: BlaiseP | March 7, 2010 11:33 AM
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But the question of evil, and pain and suffering, as we come up to the Passion, we must face it. And there is no answer, really, is there? As you wrote, we need the courage to face it and the humility to recognize we are ignorant. (This is not to fault God’s teaching and revelation, rather to highlight our own limited ability to understand).
I have a good Orthodox friend and we agreed that the Passion and Easter are central to the Orthodox liturgy while the Incarnation is almost on equal footing for Roman Catholics. How else to explain all the gorgeous, tender Madonna and child so beloved by Italian artists, how else to explain the many “Annunciation” painting like this:
http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/StaMariaSopraMinerva/annunciationLippi.html
(Here the patron of Lippi places himself at the wondrous event. You find none able to put themselves at the foot of the cross).
Or this tender medieval poem (by that great man, anon), lovely in its delicacy and simpleness:
He cam also stille
There his moder was,
As dew in Aprille
That falleth on the grass.
He cam also stille
To his moderes bowr,
As dew in Aprille
That falleth on the flowr.
The Passion: suffering and death and the Incarnation: beauty and love and life. They are both in Christ's Church and in his revealed Truth--they are both in all our lives-- and we must find our way amongst them.
Posted by: BlaiseP | March 7, 2010 11:31 AM
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Halfway through Lent today, aren’t we professor? The priest wore pink vestments today. And, funnily enough, the gospel preached today answered Pat Robertson’s assertion that the Haitians were visited by disaster because they sinned. Christ said, no, and clearly:
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
2 Jesus answered, Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?
3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Luke 13: 1-5
So we are, all of us, except maybe the great saints and they would be the last to proclaim it, guilty of leading ungodly lives.
Posted by: BlaiseP | March 7, 2010 11:06 AM
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I think I understand this one but let me express at my own educational level. If that makes sense.And, I might add probably is completely incorrect and has nothing to do with the subject.
My friend and I were discussing how she could educate her students (2nd and 3rd grade) on goverment and how to make it fun, so that they would remember.
As we talked , her expression with her hands were so powerful, it looked as she was trying to form her thought with her hands, on what she wanted to do.
We settled on "School House Rock",raising the dead sorry... Freedom of expression (singing)would teach that phase. Make it fun and interactive,
Her fav was Making Bills into Law, mine was the Constitution.
With regard to song, Oh, it clearly is intoxicating and fills the heart. "your soul is full of wine!" I have heard on many occasions.
I consider the ignorance, "The Betrayal"
A riddle and confusion for those that enjoy puzzle and scripture, and laughter to those who's souls are filled with wine.
Posted by: EarthCraft | March 7, 2010 9:01 AM
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And then there is this in far fewer words:
From Father Edward Schillebeeckx, Church: The Human Story of God,
Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)
"Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" .
"Nothing is determined in advance: in
nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices.
Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we
and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."
Posted by: YEAL9 | March 5, 2010 6:46 PM
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The simplest explanation is that there is no god, that he was made up when humans were in their infancy. It has always seems strange to me that people cling to the god hypothesis when it's clearly wishful thinking, with not a scrap of evidence to support it.
Over the eons - millions of gods have been invented; invented out of fear and ignorance. None actually existed.