Why do many people feel compelled to offer excuses for the actions or inactions of the Good Spirit?  They always claim the Good Spirit lives among us, is all-powerful and loves us.  Is this claim consistent with a Good Spirit’s inaction while witnessing the slaughter of millions during the Holocaust, or its “creation” of the bacterial strain that infected and killed millions during the Bubonic Plague?

Even in the face of all the unimaginable human suffering occurring in the world many individuals still insist it is all a part of a Good Spirit’s plan so we should stop worrying and be happy. Others claim all the suffering is caused by an Evil Spirit who will, in due time, be destroyed by the Good Spirit and all the suffering will end. Still others suggest that human suffering is due solely, in part, or in combination with “chance” occurrences, natural forces(geological, evolutionary, biological, chemical), or human behavior. Since it is too painful for most of us to believe a loving Good Spirit would hatch such an evil plan or allow an Evil Spirit to even exist, the latter explanation seems, at least to me, the more rational and palatable. Many individuals, nation states, and other groups strongly, sometimes violently, disagree. Why so strongly?

Many individuals believe everything in the universe was made by an eternal supernatural spirit to play a special role in a long-running movie. They insist that even though the purpose and running time for the movie is still unclear, the script is still being directed by this spirit, and nothing in the movie can happen without the spirit’s approval. The degree of confidence these individuals have in this belief is usually revealed immediately after a major accident or natural disaster. Whenever the outcome of the event is a good one, some survivors and others credit it to benevolent actions taken by this spirit and sometimes speculate at length about why the spirit favored them.

However, when the opposite is true and victims suffer a gruesome and agonizing death, or extremely painful injuries, many of the same people avoid thinking and talking about why the spirit allowed this horrible incident, and quickly assert that since humans are incapable of understanding the spirit’s motives we should never speculate about them. This avoidance is psychologically necessary because they know there are only three possibilities why an all-powerful spirit does not prevent these incidents.

The first possibility is the spirit does not exist. The second is the spirit does exist in the supernatural world but cannot intervene in our natural world. The remaining possibility is that the spirit could have prevented the incident but instead chose to allow it for its own reasons, such as retribution for disobedient behavior by one or more of the victims, to warn and intimidate others, or to reward those who benefit from the consequences. If they were to conclude that any of these possibilities was true they would lose the psychological comfort derived from believing and trusting in the spirit, so for these individuals it’s best to avoid thinking about it.

Others, however, grope to find some psychologically pleasing explanation, and usually suggest ways the spirit was helpful during the incident such as enabling and motivating rescuers and medical personnel, and preventing further deaths and injuries by directing others away from the site that otherwise would have been there when the event occurred. Recently, a suicide bomber in Iraq detonated his vehicle alongside an army convoy killing several soldiers, wounding many others, and killing and wounding many civilians who were shopping in a street market. A reporter interviewing the general in charge of the convoy said he was very grateful to the spirit for spacing out the vehicles in the convoy so more of his soldiers would not be killed or wounded.

The strong desire by some individuals to find benevolence from a supernatural spirit during every horrific event arises from their need to preserve their own hope for it going forward. Some non-believers in the existence of supernatural spirits label this hope a crutch, and some believers call it an anchor, but in my opinion no matter what you call it, for many it offers some hope for a better life and feel very strongly that believing life began “by chance” threatens this hope, and, therefore, must be strongly rejected.

Read Settled Science to learn how we got here by”chance” events pieced together by natural selection.

Average user rating

   (0 vote)