Greetings Everyone, Welcome to the podcast “Close to the Bone.” I’m Carl Vreeland.
This is episode #57, it’s called, “Why Blame God?”
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So, why blame God? Well, many blame God because they’re dissatisfied with their lives. Things aren’t going their way. Their dreams aren’t coming true. They feel like they got dealt a bad hand. They wound-up divorced, they’re getting old, and their middle-aged mother is depressed because dad died. God didn’t answer their prayers. And they cry, “Why does God take the good ones, and let the wicked ones live?” And so, they turn angry, resentful, and bitter, spending their days complaining about life. Some turn to alcohol and pills, feeling as if God abandoned them.
Others blame God for all the suffering in the world. “If God’s a loving God, why all the wars, the Holocaust? The school shootings? Why let innocent children die? And some are outspoken about it. When the English actor was asked in an interview, “. . . and you walk up to the Pearly Gates, and you are confronted by God. What would Stephen Fry say to Him, or Her, or It?” He responds by saying, “Bone cancer in children? What’s that about? How dare you, how dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God, who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain.”(1) Indeed, many can relate to his anger. Worth pointing out, is that Mr. Fry’s gripe takes on a particular, perhaps more reasonable view. Namely, blaming God for “misery that is not out fault.” Yes, it is somewhat of an impersonal, more realistic, objective argument. It implies that most of the suffering in the world is our fault; suffering stemming from war, murder, rape, poverty, homelessness, starvation, and on and on. But. . . bone cancer in children? Well, one could say that the cancer came from the parent’s bad genetics, bloodline, and or poor health habits such as cigarette smoking or whatever. Regardless, a child is innocent. Why let it happen? Why would God not intervene? Why doesn’t He put a stop to the suffering?
Well, giving it a great deal of thought and study, perhaps the world needs to possess opposites. Simply, how would we know good without evil. How would we know hot without cold, front without back, up without down, happy without sad, and joy without pain. We wouldn’t. And how would we grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually without challenges? How would we build character? How would we appreciate good health without bad health? How would we turn more compassionate and empathetic without experiencing and knowing pain.
If we think about it, our desire for a perfect paradise, where pain, past traumas, impoliteness, and pettiness doesn’t exist, is not unlike the dream of living on a private island in the Pacific. A place that’s quiet, sunny, and warm, where we spend every day on the beach smoking cigars and sipping margaritas. A blissful Valhalla, where beautiful bikini-clad ladies or hunky, handsome men fulfill our every need. I mean, reflect on this. . . imagine this, every day for eternity. How tiring would that get? How boring? We would no doubt lose our minds. Human beings need challenges, we need risks, we need to stir things up, we need to know that life is short. This is what drives us. Yes, knowing that life could end at any moment, creates the energy of fear and an urgency to get things done, to do something purposeful, to immortalize ourselves. This fear is the spark that drives us to create, to explore, to experiment, to withstand pain, and to love.
Now, consider this. We human beings, sit here complaining about all the suffering in the world. But what do we know? I mean, in the Cosmic sense. We question a Higher Intelligence. How bold of us to think we know better? Look at nature and how complex it is. And we have the nerve to think we know better. We, mankind, who understands about a thumbnail size amount of the universe. We, who are far from solving the great mystery of the cosmos, its design, and its purpose, if any? Really, we think we know better and can do better?
Don’t get me wrong. I did my share of complaining, and on occasion I still do complain. We are human; flawed, imperfect, and selfish by nature. That said, this is why the spiritual path, and spiritual living has become useful to me, and helpful to the people around me who are suffering. On this path, we begin to see and know our nature, and understand it. And we come to know how it serves us. We discover what doesn’t serve us, and how to no longer be a slave to these aspects of our mind. No doubt, left to our own devices and our primitive wiring, the unskilled mind always leads to suffering. And so, as the Buddhists put it, there are no bad or evil people, only unskilled minds. And bad, good; these are our judgments. Nature doesn’t judge, it just is.
Truth be told, we are responsible for most of our own suffering. Not just by doing wrong, cheating, lying, and avoiding the work it takes to overcome our unhealthy habits and cravings. But by resisting life, as it is. By judging it, and unrealistically wanting life to be the way we want it to be, and by wanting it to always be the same; positive, happy, and free from pain and suffering. And wishing that our happiness and loved ones would never go away, wanting things to be stable, secure, and permanent.
It’s clear, by not accepting life on life’s terms, we create our own suffering. And so we look at the Serenity Prayer and how it sums up life, as it should be. That is, if we want to make peace with life, and for some of you, with God.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.(2)
In the end, none of us know the meaning of life; it is a mystery. And that’s OK. That said, I know this much for sure; when I endure the pain and not run from it, when I accept it, and work with it and work through it; I grow. And when I surrender to what is, to the laws of the Universe, to God’s will, and to what I’m powerless over; I suffer less. And that’s been a life changer. For sure, life becomes extraordinarily fascinating and beautiful when we accept it as it is. And that’s a wonderful thing, that I, for one, am immeasurably grateful for.
As always, thank you so much for listening.
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1) Stephen Fry on God | The Meaning Of Life | RTÉ One YouTube·RTÉ - IRELAND’S NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA·Jan 28, 2015
2) The Serenity Prayer was originally composed by Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930s.