In this blog post, I’m sharing a snippet from the God After Deconstruction book. We’d love to get your feedback!<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nEvil Leads to Deconstruction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No issue leads more people to deconstruct than the problem of evil. According to polls, questions about suffering are the primary reason some choose atheism and others are agnostic. For many, evil kills belief in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Questions about evil lead many who remain believers to be confused or apathetic. Why doesn\u2019t a loving and powerful God prevent genuine evil? If God doesn\u2019t make the effort, why should I? Evil stumps believers too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rachel Held Evans describes the questioning process concisely: \u201cFirst, I doubted God was good. Then I doubted He was real.\u201d (Rachel Held Evans, Monkey Town) <\/em>Rachel\u2019s reasoning makes perfect sense if one assumes that God can prevent harm but doesn\u2019t. A loving and omnipotent God would stop pointless pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who believe in God often address questions of suffering from the perspective of the perpetrators rather than the victims. \u201cGod wants us to exercise free will,\u201d say some, \u201cand our misuse of freedom is the price God chose to pay for free relationships.\u201d Rarely are the relationships, free will, or well-being of victims considered. Doesn\u2019t God care about them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t know good if there wasn\u2019t evil,\u201d say others. Perhaps this is true, but we don\u2019t need so much <\/em>evil to know the difference. Besides, most Christians believe in an afterlife of pure bliss. If we can\u2019t appreciate good without evil, there must be oodles of evil in heaven!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excuses for why a good God doesn\u2019t stop evil lead many to deconstruct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God is in Control?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI announced on Facebook I was joining the deconstruction movement,\u201d wrote Calvin. \u201cI was in complete free fall; I posted a meme of Wile E. Coyote hanging midair. The Bible, hell, salvation, and more were all in limbo. Even the existence of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem of evil was Calvin\u2019s primary issue. \u201cA God who allowed the Holocaust to happen for any reason didn’t exist. Couldn’t<\/em> exist. I found the usual responses to questions about God and evil unsatisfying. If God could stop evil and didn’t, He is diabolical. That God didn\u2019t love us. I was pulled towards agnosticism or atheism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others who deconstruct share Calvin\u2019s experience. \u201cThe notion of an omnipotent God of love rang false in the face of my direct experience of shaming and abuse in my home,\u201d says Marva. \u201cI asked for bread and was given the equivalent of stone, all while managing appearances in our church community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hannie said that for her, it all started with a question: \u201cIf God is love, how come all this trouble in my life?\u201d She continues, \u201cI did not have a loving upbringing, and my parents were strictly religious. So the answers I received to my question centered on hell, the cross, the devil, and the Old Testament. Eventually, those made no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2019God has a plan for this\u2019 was the repeated phrase for any catastrophe,\u201d says Jeff. \u201cThat phrase sounded less like faith in God and more like a determinism that erodes any sense of human freedom. I lost interest\u2026 and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary-Anne puts it succinctly: \u201cIf God allows<\/em> evil, I\u2019m often more loving than He is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Allure of Omnipotence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people believe God can do anything. \u201cOmnipotent\u201d is the philosopher\u2019s word for this, although many believers prefer \u201csovereign,\u201d \u201calmighty,\u201d or \u201call-powerful.\u201d Most think God can singlehandedly bring about any result that\u2019s logically possible. \u201cGod is in control,\u201d they say, and the Almighty guarantees at least the outcomes that really <\/em>matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believing in an omnipotent God offers to some a sense of security. \u201cAn all-powerful and good deity would only allow pain that benefits us,\u201d they say. What we think <\/em>is evil, goes the argument, is actually positive from the divine perspective. It\u2019s part of a Plan or the collateral damage needed for a functioning universe. Suffering is required for greater good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea God causes or allows horrors does not<\/em> assure and console most survivors, however. Some think God abandoned them when they most needed rescuing; others assume pain is divine punishment. Saying to victims, \u201cGod chose not to take away your abuser\u2019s free will,\u201d sounds like God values the harmer\u2019s freedom more than rescuing the harmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Priests, pastors, and politicians sometimes appeal to omnipotence to justify power grabs. A sovereign God ordained their authority, they claim. How convenient! If God is all-powerful, however, it\u2019s hard to argue against them. An omnipotent deity installs or permits the tyranny of every power-hungry demagogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Christians think an omnipotent God is the only hope that right eventually triumphs over wrong. Only an all-powerful deity can guarantee justice. While things are bad now, they say, we must believe the Sovereign One works all things for some foreknown good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The omnipotent One who can win at a later date, however, could also win now. After all, nothing can stop omnipotence. Rather than preventing pointless pain, an all-powerful deity permits it. That\u2019s not love! Besides, who wants to spend eternity with Someone who allows the rape, destruction, and torture He could have prevented singlehandedly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We shouldn\u2019t trust an omnipotent Bystander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tripp Fuller and I are writing a book, doing a podcast class, and holding an in-person lecture tour on the theme, \u201cGod After Deconstruction.\u201d The first two tour events are coming soon. Find info here for the Drew University event this February 9-10 and the Denver, Colorado event this April 12-13. For information on how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[289,7306,7308],"yst_prominent_words":[1093,1153,1357,1958,2004,3879,4782,5330,5928],"class_list":["post-6660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open_and_relational_theology","category-postmodern_philosophy_theology_and_culture","tag-deconstruction","tag-rachel-held-evans","tag-omnipotent-bystander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6660"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GAD_Drew_Square_v2-1024x1024.jpg\")
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