The Devil and God's Plan

There is an interesting facet to human actions. It's nothing new; you've heard it all before. When individuals do "good" we generally praise the individual. Rarely do we praise God for the actions of a "good" person. But when someone does something truly evil, we are quick to blame the Devil. No one (especially those of religious faith) wants to accept that people can do "evil" on their own, or that God could allow such actions. Again, this is no great revelation.

However, there is another peculiar irony in which we are also guilty...one which I have not heard discussed very often. Let's examine the human reaction to "natural" phenomenon.

When we see beautiful things in nature, we are apt to praise God. When a new child is born, when the crops come in plentiful, when the sun breaks through a particularly heavy storm, etc.... In these cases we so often thank God for his creation, wisdom, and mercy. But when major catastrophes occur, something interesting happens... we do not blame the Devil. When an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, etc.... kills countless humans, we do not blame the Devil (in fact we don't blame the Devil anytime a life is taken). Instead we consider it to be part of "God's Plan". "God works in mysterious ways." We still cannot accept that God would allow these actions to occur, but rather than seek out something to vilify, we rationalize the occurrence as being a part of a grand scheme which we cannot understand. And this leads to 2 conclusions.

First, the "Devil", that is to say a negative deity, was created out of the distinctly human condition known as "free will". You see, even the perception of free will ultimately leads to the concept of morality...that our actions are a result of choices. The concept of the "Devil" was created to both rationalize "evil" actions, while at the same time creating a negative consequence in an attempt to deter future evil actions.

Second, because we cannot associate the "actions" of the natural world with free will, we cannot associate these unfortunate natural occurrences with choice. And as such these events seem to be outside the realm of the Devil. The natural world, the events which govern it, and its consequences are all solely governed by God.

Now...why is this important to recognize or understand? Well in many ways it just comes down to rational thought processes. If we choose to believe that God is in control... If we choose to believe that God takes an active role in this world... Then we are forced to believe that God either makes these horrific tragedies occur, or that (at very least) he allows them to occur. And the only way to rationalize that concept is with the absolute epitome of all Deus ex Machinas..."God's Plan". When humans cannot know the cause, or rationalize, an action, they have no choice but to admit that their conclusions were wrong, or resolve the problem with some unknown force/creation.

And now the plot thickens. As I pointed out in my last blog, the reality is, no one can ever fully know the original cause of all that is. So in many ways, we are all forced to accept (at some point) a Deus ex Machina. But the current problem is that many accept that Deus ex Machina long before they should. Bill O'Reilly was famously quoted recently as justifying the existence of God because of the tides. Right or wrong, for Bill O'Reilly his Deus ex Machina was the tides. To him, that was the ultimate unexplainable proof that God existed. We, of course, know that the tides do have a very real cause (gravitational pull of the Moon) as governed by the physical laws of nature. But for many others, their Deus ex Machina comes in when they can no longer rationalize the shear horror of natural catastrophes. Because they are incapable of accepting that their concept of God is wrong, they must rationalize that it is simply God's Plan which they are incapable of understanding.

But there is a far more logical answer. The universe was created by God, but the universe operates without God's interference. Admittedly, the concept that "God created the universe" is, in itself, a Deus ex Machina. But it is one which no rational thought can disprove. Regardless what scientists discover, they will never be able to prove that God did NOT create the universe; they can only continue to prove that His creation does not require his involvement. Within the universe, all actions are governed by a set of physical laws. The universe simply exists. It's actions are only "bad" when we deem them to be bad because of the impact to us as a species.

In Summary: Rationally speaking, the Devil cannot exist without God. But the opposite is not true. God can exist without the Devil; and in all likelihood...He does. And God does not cause "good" things to happen, nor does he allow "bad" things to happen. God's creation simply exists as it was meant to.

Then again, I could be completely wrong...