The Universe’s Redemption Structure
Oct 14th, 2007 by Micah Tillman | 9 Comments |
There is a structural preference for Good in the nature of things. Every time some Bad is brought to an end, some Good occurs (because the end of a Bad is a Good).
Good things, however, can come to an end without the occurrence of a Bad. (E.g., the kiss may end, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There may be more on its way).
Things are such that even Bads can be used as an occasion for Goods. (E.g., hurricanes can be taken as an occasion for charity work and giving.) Evils, in other words, can be redeemed.
Every Bad provides an occasion for Good just because Bad and Good are what they are and our Universe is how it is. Imagine a Universe in which Bads couldn’t be redeemed, where individual Evils were never terminated and negative things couldn’t be taken as occasions for doing positives.
Our Universe has a redemption structure. And that is a wonderful thing.*
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*There’s a personal reason for this post, but I won’t go into it now.
Interesting post on your theodicy (or close to it). It might also be noted that what is considered a bad thing in reality might not even be a bad thing. Discipline for example.
Hmm… Theodicy… I love theodicies, but don’t think any of them work.
I actually don’t think the “redemption structure” thing shows how God is still just, in spite of evil. God set up the Universe so that even evil doesn’t have to go unanswered. But I don’t think that justifies God, if we think God needs justifying.
:-)
I take a lot of comfort in the redeemability of things. It’s not unlike Dr. Collins’s connection-building theodicy, though I don’t think you mean it as an actual explanation for evil.
But then I don’t know if his works as much as a theodicy as it does an explanation of how God works and redeems things. It doesn’t justify the bad but it shows how even in bad situations good things can happen. So you’re on similar philosophical ground.
I’m so glad of that, too. Because lots of crappy stuff has happened in both our lives, but that can make us better writers, friends, etc.
P.S. More kisses are coming. Promise! ;-)
By saying you don’t think any theodicy’s work are you saying you do not beleive that a good god and an evil world can be reconcilled? Or do you just mean that that the ontology of God with evil cannot be proofed? (is that a word?)
Nice!
Um. I don’t think that a good God and an evil world need to be reconciled necessarily. I’m comfortable with some absolute dichotomies. I think they prove transcendence (I should write about that sometime).
But I also don’t think the world is evil. I think it’s disconnected (and now in the process of being reconnected. “Religion” = “re-ligio” in Latin: “reconnect”). I think only persons are evil.
I think that God, being outside of time, cannot be spoken of as having “reasons” (which I can explain later) and therefore asking “what good reason God had” for doing something is question without sense.
But I should say more about that later.
What is your take on Alvin Plantinga’s ideas of good, evil, God etc? If you have done any reading of his.
My first real philosophy mentor was Dr. Robin Collins (who teaches at Messiah College, Grantham, PA). Plantinga was his dissertation director, so I entered my philosophy path with a deep respect for Dr. Plantinga.
Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to study Plantinga’s work. He is on my list of thinkers to study once I finish my dissertation.
Please do enlighten me!
I am in the process of reading some of his stuff, what he has written is very interesting to me since it a lot of it has to do with how scientists should think. Specifically concerning naturalism, epistemology and ontology. But I am reading God, Freedom and Evil right now. Sometimes I wish I was a philosophy major as enjoy there seminars often times more than my own but I imagine if I changed into philosophy that I would start enjoying the biology seminars more than the philosophy ones.
[...] Thank God for the grunge pleasures (their part of our world’s redemption structure). [...]