Just a thought …
I was watching The Incredibles (again) and after Bob Parr throws his boss through several walls (at least they were “modern” drywall — and poorly made at that because the studs appear to be on 10 foot centers or so — and not the plaster and lathe or, worse, the plaster and metal mesh that we had to deal with in our home) he talks to Rick Dicker at the hospital.
Bob: I’m fired, aren’t I.
Rick: Oh, do you think?
Bob: What can I say, Rick?
Rick: Nothing you haven’t said before.
Bob: Someone was in trouble.
Rick: Someone’s always in trouble.
Bob: I had to do something.
Rick: Yeah. Every time you say those words it means a month and a half of trouble for me, Bob. It means hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars.
As Mr. Incredible, Bob could not help but help those in need. Even when that meant someone else could/would get hurt. It seems that the only criteria was who was in more immediate danger. For example, when Incrediboy was leaving the bank with the bomb on his cape, Mr Incredible allowed Bomb Voyage to escape in order to save Incrediboy even though allowing Bomb Voyage to escape would most likely result in more danger to the public. But there really was no “right” answer; in either case, someone gets hurt.
Perhaps this is the same quandary in which God is embroiled? Perhaps God is acting — all over the place and in many situations — for the good. But there are some situations where someone is going to get hurt no matter what God does. And those situations are the “evil” we see in the world. Now, this is just a thought and not fully-reasoned and I may change my mind tomorrow. It just struck me as a similar situation.
We can cite countless situations where there are multiple possible actions to take but we don’t see a single one in which someone does not get hurt. And so we pick one or the other based on some reasoning or other. And people get hurt and we get blamed. This is so common that we often don’t even notice it. There must be some implied (at least I’ve never heard anyone say it) idea that God would be able to take some action in which no one gets hurt. But is that really so rational? I don’t think so. Perhaps, if God miraculously intervened with his uber-human omnipotence then there may be solutions to some of these situations. But I think a more rational approach is to realize there are no-win situations, no matter how incredible you are!
But, like I said … Just a thought.
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You can talk all you want about the “watch needing a watchmaker” but some Christians seem to think that Christianity is somehow validated by this. I’ll grant you the Intelligent Design argument and say “yes, there is a watchmaker.” Now, show me how, exactly, this validates Christianity? How does one go from an Intelligent Designer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How does one go from an Intelligent Designer and not get to the myriad of other Gods who “created” the world in other relgions’ cosmologies?
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