It is common to regard the suffering (and death) of "innocents" such as young children, babies, unborn babies; as especially difficult for Christianity to explain or justify. This derives from the assumption that the suffering and death of the wicked is justified, in proportion to the degree of wickedness.
But, at least since Paul, much of official Christian doctrine emphasizes that there are no innocents, All Men are sinners - and this state is original and inescapable.
Therefore, the argument goes; it is justifiable and expected that because all are guilty of sin, then everybody deserves to suffer and and die - and ought to expect this.
This sees god the creator as essentially a judge - despite that this characterization removes a motive for creation in the first place!
Justice works as a secondary means to some other end; but when accorded primacy, justice points towards annihilation as the only and final solution to a situation of endemic and intractable sin.
It seems to be natural and spontaneous to regard the demands of justice as the reason for inflicting suffering and death on transgressors; but commonsense falls to pieces when everybody dies, everybody suffers, and there is no strong or clear proportionality between degree of sin and of suffering.
...For instance, when the chosen people or worshippers of the true-God are conquered or enslaved.
Also, when it is believed that everybody is a sinner and justifiably suffers and dies; and when this is combined with a dogma of god as omnipotent creator of everything from nothing...
Then we get a god who created everything, and then found it Bad.
3 comments:
Christian theology has always had a problem with how to handle the deaths of young children, hence the invention of Limbo. I am working out my own approach to this problem, which is unique and not necessarily right.
I disagree with the common attitude that God created a ton of rules for us to follow, and rewards us for following the rules, and punishes us for breaking them, an attitude that Jesus at least explicitly and repeatedly argues against in the Gospels (also St. Paul in the earlier, more authentic letters).
I am leaning more towards the approach that this is the first of a series of lifetimes, and in this lifetime is for people to learn how to deal with suffering.
Also that the soul (a concept unknown to 1st century AD followers of Christ, it was brought in later) is something that develops over the course of a life, people are born with a spirit, but not a distinct soul.
So my guess is that the spirits of people who die in infancy are recycled into some parallel universe, similar to this one, where they try again to develop a soul, and everyone's spirit in this life has probably been through this.
@Ed. I have often written about reincarnation in some of its many variations, as may be seen from a word search of that term. Reincarnation was probably very common in the past, and may remain an option for those who desire it.
But for myself, I am convinced by the IV Gospel account of Jesus as offering resurrected eternal life in Heaven at the end of This mortal life, for those who follow him - and that is what I want.
If Creation is a school, it stands to reason there might be an ascension of "grades". Perhaps this particular incarnation is kindergarten.
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