September 11, the problem of pain (part 2)

There are probably a thousand arguments that theologians might make in trying to "prove" either the existence of God, His characteristics as an active, Living Being, a divine plan that included our Creation, and also just as many to refute these ideas. Again, I'm going to borrow from C.S. Lewis. I will attempt to show that this problem of catastrophe is not natural and hopefully leads to an implication of a divine plan to conquer death.

Death is one of the most approached subjects in fictional literature. It's portrayed in many ways: as an attempt to communicate in Mrs. Dalloway, as an escape from trouble in Madame Bovary, or an unavoidable tragedy in Hamlet. Hopefully we can agree that under most circumstances our society sees death as unwelcome visitor that often arrives without warning. If we knew in advance that they were coming, perhaps we could come up with an excuse to discourage their visit. In the same way, much of our resources and time are dedicated to warding off death: finding cures to diseases, upholding laws against murder, exercising, promoting as much peace as possible. Lewis recognized our contempt for death. He wrote that two facts were useful in deducing Christian theology: "that men make coarse jokes, and that they feel the dead to be uncanny." The fact that self-deprecation is so common shows an amount of discomfort in ourselves. "Dogs," Lewis writes, would not "see anything funny about being dogs." Yet we seem to object to our humanness. To death we also shout out an objection. There is something unnatural there. Would it make more sense if we knew it wasn't supposed to be this way?

The mistake of many is holding up the Christian doctrine and weighing it against our present society. Yes, at first glance, evil could appear to refute the existence of an Omnipotent Controller who supposedly loved us and had great plans for us. This is the wrong way to approach the situation. Doing this is like a young child visiting NYC and seeing the trade center rubble and saying: "Look at that. It's a pile of cement and rocks, how could there ever have been two large monuments of human achievement standing in this spot?!" Instead, what preceded the ugliness is where the true beauty is found. A picture of the Twin Towers is needed to allow the child to piece together how things came to be. This picture does not look the same as the view does right now in NYC. Similarly, a "picture" of Christianity and Jesus Christ and the Triune God does not match up with the reality we face right now. C.S. Lewis writes that "we believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer not because we can clearly see the sun but because we can see everything else." Just as the the sun is always present and brings light, the doctrine of Christianity can illuminate the mysteries of this world, not in the least excluding this problem of death.

Death and self-deprecation were not intended for us. Rather, humans were created as unified beings. The spiritual and the natural were both made perfect by God in a way that we were to be immortal like our Creator. Sin compromised this perfection, but only temporarily. Shortly after the World Trade Center fell to the ground, it was announced that it would be rebuilt and redesigned by an expert architect. In the same way, this fallen world will have its own renewal, but by the Divine Architect! Only then will we be able to look at the physical reality and see it is not just a picture, but a reflection of its true source.

Death is the ultimate evidence of the glaring imperfections of this world, and the ultimate source of sadness and evil. Jerry Falwell only hit the tip of the iceberg when he isolated several groups as the cause of September 11. The ultimate Ground and Consequent cause of the event, and all the evil of the world, is the collective sin of all who ever lived (with the exception of Christ, another story), live now, and remain to be born.