In an earlier post, I alluded to the question of theodicy, or the question of God's justice, or why bad things happen to good people. In class, we talked about why innocents are taken away. When people were sharing their personal stories, I couldn't help but think of something that recently happened to a friend of mine in high school. JD and I were in cheer and stunt together; he graduated a year ahead of me. After he graduated, he enlisted and has been in Iraq and Afghanistan. About two weeks ago, he stepped on a land mine and lost both of his legs and an arm. But he's okay otherwise...if you can call that okay. JD has two facebook pages so people can stay updated on his condition. Both of them center on prayer or something. People are thanking God he's still alive, but he'll never walk again. In fact, there's still a chance he could die of infection. His family says he's in 'good spirits.' What does that even mean? He lost 3 of his 4 limbs. Sure, amazing things are done with prosthetics nowadays but JD will be in a wheelchair for a damn long time. JD has a wife and a kid. What if the government doesn't provide him with enough financial aid to help them survive? What kind of justice is that, God?
Theodicy is a touchy subject. CS Lewis probed it in Mere Christianity. I dislike listening to Christians butcher the question by giving some sort of apophatic line of reasoning..."God is ineffable. His ways are too mysterious for mere mortals to understand." That kind of statement doesn't really leave much room for debate, but it's not an answer I can accept. A benevolent God would never let a baby die, an omniscient God would know it's about to happen, and an all-powerful God could stop it. If these are all true statements, then why do innocent babies (and people in general) suffer and die all the time?
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