The Problem of Evil (Revisited via The Walking Dead and the Chicken Pox)

And now for a short break from our discussions of Relational Theology and an Ethic of Relationship.

So it's Easter Sunday morning, and I'm listening to the pastor preach while scenes from The Walking Dead flash through my head; in so doing, quite by accident I stumbled onto a Christian analogical response to the ancient Theodicy problem.  Wanna hear it?

Of course you do.

The pastor was making the point that the Resurrection is not simply a historical fact to be believed, but also a present reality to be experienced, much as the original thunderstruck disciples did, with awe and wonder.

Intellectual assent to the historical Resurrection is a necessary but not sufficient condition for salvation, and the same can be said for the experience of it - it must somehow be appropriated by us, becoming our own internal witness to the Resurrection in our hearts - but neither is that experience enough without intellectual assent to the historical reality of it.

The pastor then quoted from Saint Paul in Philippians 3, the part where the apostle wrote about sharing in Christ's sufferings, becoming like him in his death, so as to somehow attain to his eternal life as well.

Okay, so... what's the connection to The Walking Dead?  Well, in the same passage, Paul talks about our old self dying so that we may live a new life; all must die, yes, but not all will be raised to new life.  Faith in Christ is required for that last bit.  And that's when the zombies came stumbling into my mental picture.  After all, aren't we all just walking dead?  Dead in our present condition, awaiting some kind of cure.  For the zombies on TV, it doesn't come.  But for those TV characters not yet infected with the virus, death will still come, whether by eventually succumbing or by natural causes.  Every analogy has it limits, and I realized I was quickly running up against the limits of that one.  Surely, though, there were other analogies that could do a better job, and my mind went searching for some.

When you were little, did you catch the Chicken Pox?  And weren't your parents relieved, even happy about it, although it caused you discomfort?  Did your Mom or your Dad even go so far as to drive you to some kid's house who they heard was sick with the Chicken Pox to purposely get you infected with it?  My parents did so, and I did the same with my own kids.  The reason?  It's so pervasive a virus, with no known vaccination, that everyone is sure to get it someday.  But, when you're a child, the symptoms aren't nearly as severe.  The earlier you are exposed to, and so deal with, the virus, the easier a time you have of it.  If you wait until later in life, it becomes a very difficult and painful disease to go through - and some don't make it, the effects of Chicken Pox defeat them.

Okay, so again... what's this got to do with the Problem of Evil, the Theodicy?

There is a virus running making its way through the human race, like the Chicken Pox, or the walking dead.  Except it's not physical, it's spiritual.  The virus... is sin.  I did not create the Chicken Pox virus, but I saw to it that my kids were exposed to it as early as possible, because it was better for them to suffer a little - early - than to suffer a lot - later.  So with sin.  God did not create the "sin virus".  We did, Adam & Eve did, back in the Garden of Eden.  The tempter offered the infection, cleverly disguised as something beneficial, and they bit.  And now, that Original Sin virus is working through the species - in fact, it's genetic, it's hereditary, and not a regressive trait but a dominant one, so it is sure to pass down.

In some people it stays latent for a long time, in others it presents early in life; the symptoms are worse in some, milder in others. All are exposed to it, all must go through some degree of suffering because of it.  But God did not bring it, our forebears chose it voluntarily (using the free will given them by God) which made them free moral agents and culpable.  And who's to say we wouldn't have done the same, in their same place?

So, what to do?  The longer you wait to deal with what's malicious and latently resident in your spiritual "system", the harder it is on you when the virus catches up to you, and it will.  Oh, it will.

For some, the effects of sin undetected and untreated become like a terminal cancer discovered too late to be treated.  The virus will have eaten away too much of the spirit to permit treatment (redemption through conviction, confession, repentance, turning to God).  Their spirits are already dead to God, and they only wait for their body to follow.  The problem is that once that happens, the next life holds nothing for them but more of the same: separation from God and all that is good.

But what if there was a Cure?  A spiritual vaccine that would limit the symptoms to only those that you could handle (I Cor. 10:13), and would hold the promise of your spirit being whole, healthy, alive to God now, and in union with God in the next life, even while your body suffers, decays and dies here.  Either way, our physical, mental, emotional suffering in this life - which is what is at the core of the arguments about the Problem of Evil, all the suffering in this earthly existence - is only temporary!  One way or another, whether experienced while following God or ignoring God, the suffering of this life will pass.  It is in the next life where how we deal with this life really matters.  If there is a Cure, it does not eliminate suffering in this life, but it does provide the strength to bear it, and assures us of complete and total remission in the next life.

Is there a Cure?  And if so, what is it?

Well, my posting this on Easter Sunday should give you a clue.

Scenes from two different movies provide further analogies that we can mine for understanding.  One is I Am Legend in which Will Smith plays a bioscientist who is combatting a virus that is responsible for turning the human race into violent, flesh-eating, light-hating subterranean (and sub-human) creatures.  He happens to be resistant to it (unaffected), and decides to stay at his lab and do experiments on infected rats with synthesized versions of his genetic material, in order to create a vaccine that will provide a cure for the infected.  He dies in the process, but his last version of the vaccine proved successful, and he got it to another survivor who could reproduce it and spread it.  Smith is a Messianic figure, who gave his life to create the cure - from his own blood.

Another movie is "Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?" which portrays a deteriorating society and an increasingly oppressive government (remember this is the novel by Ayn Rand, a hard-core Libertarian, so the virus infecting and tormenting people is the seductive and oppressive world government).  Select individuals, recruited by word of mouth, flee and survive in a secret mountain refuge, under the tutelage of a man named John Galt, another Messianic figure, but one who saves people from the Libertarian version of the Problem of Evil - massive central governments which first make citizens dependent on government benefits, and then use increasing coercion and force to dominate them.  John Galt founds the secretive communities which withdraw from the world.  Through the suffering which comes from denying themselves the resources of government, they also can avoid the viral nature of it.  Oh, but don't get me started on politics!  ;)

Back to the Problem of Evil, then.  Christianity's answer to the "problem" is that this virus of sin and its resulting effects of suffering is not from God... it was brought in from the outside by the tempter, and voluntarily chosen by humanity.  Now that it's loose, it's inevitable that we will succumb to it, and will suffer.  And what has God done about it?

God has created a cure, through the suffering and death of Jesus.   God created the antidote by experiencing the sufferings which we do, as well as experiencing full remission.  God now makes that antidote available to all.  Anyone who, in this life, accepts the antidote, can be confident that:

1) our suffering is temporary, it will stop when the body dies
2) the symptoms we suffer through on this earth will be bearable, and
3) there is life after death, and in that life we will live in complete, permanent remission from the sin virus - forever.

Problem of Evil?  Not for Christianity (at least not for the theological tradition of the faith in which I live).  God not only was not the originator of suffering (we were), but suffered himself (on the cross) to create the cure (faith in Jesus), and makes it freely available to all who choose to receive it.

Happy Easter!