Sometime during my eternally long journey through graduate school, a professor put the following events on the board, in correct chronological order:
*John Milton got married
*John Milton wrote Paradise Lost
*John Milton's wife died
*John Milton wrote Paradise Regained
I wonder if anyone will notice if I change "Satan" to "The Giant Nag"
Now, the point of this exercise wasn't to rag on the Miltons' marriage, but rather to make an important point: cause and effect relationships aren't always that easy to discern. (By the way, I looked it up: Milton was married three times, and, no, I didn't bother to figure out which wife is referenced above).
Normally, we get this. We understand that events usually have complex explanations. This is why no one goes around claiming that Abraham Lincoln was killed because John Wilkes Booth had unresolved anger problems, then stops as if that is sufficient. One philosopher, David Hume, even went as far as to claim that cause and effect relationships are impossible to prove. (This is one of the things that caused me to hate philosophy in college ... or, well, I think it caused my hatred ... )
You can't prove that Thomas being a giant nerd caused him to include a reference to me
The funny thing is that alot of this caution seems to fly out the window when it comes to explaining what God is up to these days. With 9/11, with Katrina, with Haiti -- each time we saw prominent Christian leaders more than willing to explain to us exactly why God had allowed these things to happen, what their true cause was. I cannot think of a single instance where these "explanations" did not do more harm than good, yet there seems to remain this irresistible urge to offer them.
Another "Planet of the Apes" movie: proof that God's judgement is falling on our nation
Personally, I don't believe that history is without purpose or fully unknowable. Like many Christians, I affirm the providence of God at work in history, and believe that the Scriptures show me where human history is ultimately heading. The Bible claims to explain the start of history, the end of history, and give little glimpses of God at work in history along the way. Where Christians get into trouble is not in insisting that history has purpose, but in claiming the ability to trace God's hand at every step of the way. The Scriptures are full of countries that prospered for reasons you might not expect, people that suffered where judgement was as far from the explanation as you can get, and quite a few ambivalent human and divine actions we're still not sure how to explain fully.
Because a jet ski suddenly appearing in the Mediterranean and carrying Jonah safely and comfortably to shore
wouldn't have driven the point home in quite the same way ...
Recently, Christian historian Mark Noll had this to say on the issue:
"A Christian has to affirm Providence, but a Christian historian should not assume to know the mind of God about most particular events ... For most historians, I think it's wiser to affirm a general sort of Providence and yet not presume that you as an individual can know what God intended for any particular situation in the past." (Interview in August issue of Christianity Today)
I think that's good advice for Christians in general.
6 comments:
i try to keep my christian agnosticism to a minimum. somethings we won't know, but most if not all of what we need to know, can be acquired through scripture.
Hi Sharideth,
I'm not sure what you mean by Christian agnosticism.
It sounds like you and I are on the same page as far as the Bible being divinely inspired. I'm guessing you would also agree with me when I say that the only reason we know much at all about God or what He's up to is because He bothered to reveal it to us.
The point of my post, then, was to say that the same confidence with which Christians approach Scripture shouldn't automatically bleed over into everything else in life. In other words, we should be very very cautious and humble in trying to speak about God's intentions in historical events outside those events explained in Scripture -- if we should even attempt to do so at all!
With 9/11, with Katrina, with Haiti -- each time we saw prominent Christian leaders more than willing to explain to us exactly why God had allowed these things to happen, what their true cause was.
I don't think it's inappropriate for a pensive person to want an explanation for such seemingly senseless destruction and violence. I mean when God allows/causes 300,000 people to die at once, it's not unfair to say "wtf God?" I'm not saying it's right for anyone to pretend to know the answer, only that it's entirely appropriate to question the motives of a supposedly loving god who allows such terrible things on a regular basis.
I agree, Justin. We shouldn't be afraid of or feel condemned for asking such questions. I probably could have been clearer that my beef was the self-confidence and certainty with which some Christian leaders offered these answers ... as well as the content of some of the answers, but that's a different post altogether :-)
From a previous comment: "the Bible being divinely inspired"
This is a good example of how Christians make wild assumptions and then accept the idea despite there being not one shred of evidence for it.
Did the magic god fairy whisper into the ears of the uneducated morons who wrote the Bible? Or what?
Christians, just once in their lives, should try to think these things out, instead of blindly accepting their childhood indoctrination.
To a normal person (also known as an atheist) the whole thing, every Christian fantasy, is 100% pure bull****. The difference between normal people and Christians is their ability to think. Christians seem to have had their brains permanently destroyed, and all their curiosity about how the world really works, which comes naturally to a child, has been sucked out of them.
http://darwinkilledgod.blogspot.com/
Human Ape,
I do hope you realize the irony of talking to other human beings that way, then accusing them of being childish. If you want to have a meaningful exchange of ideas, which all my mature atheists friends enjoy, that would be great. Otherwise I'll be ignoring future comments from you and hope others have the common sense to do the same.
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