BART EHRMAN

Anyone who has read my Blog will be aware of the fact that one of my primary areas of interest is the relationship between belief in God and the presence of evil and suffering in the world. For anyone who shares this interest I would like to recommend a book by Bart Ehrman which I have just finished reading entitled: God’s Problem. In this book, Ehrman, who is a professor at the University of North Carolina, discusses the question of whether it is possible to believe in God and still be aware of the massive amount of suffering that goes on in the world.

Professor Ehrman considers all of the explanations for suffering given by apologists, philosophers, and by prophets in the Judeo/Christian Bible, and one-by-one he dismisses each of them. He shows that the explanation of suffering based on free will simply does not give any reason to believe in God. He demonstrates that the idea that suffering is redemptive cannot be reconciled with a loving God. He rejects the idea that suffering is a test of faith or the idea that suffering is caused by forces of the devil. He does not accept the idea that suffering is caused by God, but that its reason is a mystery that will be revealed and explained after we die. This is the conclusion reached by the biblical author of the Book of Job.

The most powerful section of the book is near the end where Ehrman discusses the part of the book called “The Rebellion” in "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoevsky. There, the brother Ivan, who still believes in God, says that even if, after we die, there is a full explanation of the reason why God allowed or perpetrated the suffering in the world, he, Ivan, will never accept the explanation. Ivan points to the acts by Turkish soldiers, tossing babies up in the air before their mothers and impaling the babies on their bayonets. He also tells the true story of parents who punished their little daughter for wetting the bed by smearing her face with excrement and locking her outside in the freezing-cold outhouse overnight. Of course the child died.

I found myself totally in agreement with the ideas of Professor Ehrman. Even if I could believe in God, which I cannot, I could never accept any explanation he might give for the horrors of the world. Even if the explanation was free will, I could never accept any excuse for the suffering of children. What does free will have to do with the suffering caused by tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, diseases, birth defects, and hundreds of other causes? If God is perfectly loving and omnipotent, how could he allow things like the holocaust, other genocides, plagues, war, mass murder, and suicides? The only explanation is that there is no such thing as God.

But Ehrman gave me something to latch onto besides the sad absence of God. He somehow finds a redemptive resolution of suffering in, of all places, the Bible. He says: “I have to admit that at the end of the day, I do have a biblical view of suffering. As it turns out, it is the view put forth in the book of Ecclesiastes. There is a lot that we can’t know about this world. A lot of this world doesn’t make sense. Sometimes there is no justice. Things don’t go as planned or as they should. A lot of bad things happen. But life also brings good things. The solution to life is to enjoy it while we can, because it is fleeting. This world, and everything in it, is temporary, transient, and soon to be over. We won’t live forever—in fact we won’t live long. And so we should enjoy life to the fullest, as much as we can, as long as we can. That’s what the author of Ecclesiastes thinks, and I agree.”

Ehrman says that enjoying life means not just relaxing, going to the theater and the symphony, eating great food, drinking the best wine, dancing all night, (although we should do all of those things), but it also means working to alleviate the suffering and bringing hope to a world devoid of hope. We can enjoy life and still try to live upright, decent, helpful lives in which we refuse to accept the explanation that life is hopeless and miserable. We can be good, kind, generous, and loving. We may not cure the horrors or ills of life, we may not be able to save mankind, but we can be kind to those around us and show love for our fellow man. In the end, that is the real message of Jesus.