Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism

142 J.J. Haldane
there existed an omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient being then there
could not be evil, or – contraposing – that the existence of evil implies the
non-existence of God. Thus, premiss (2) is false.
What I have offered is a sketch of a theodicy but it is incomplete in various
respects. First, there arises a question of the scale of collateral damage. An
implicit assumption of my argument has been that the goods of organic and
rational life outweigh the harms resulting from them. It is difficult to conceive
of how the various values and disvalues might be compared, but I would
allow that if it could be shown that overall the universe is a bad thing then
that would refute the claims of theism. Since I maintain that theism is true,
I hold by implication that the universe is overall a good thing. However, one
significant aspect of its deficiencies is not within God’s power to limit, short
of destroying the universe, or a part of it. For much that is bad results from or
consists in human wrongdoing, and God cannot inhibit this while still maintaining
our powers of free agency. He can, and I believe he does, act exceptionally
to limit the evil caused by human choices but to do so always and
everywhere would involve his removing our freedom, frustrating our agency
or reducing us to the level of unreasoning animals. Rather than do that,
which would involve a reversal in divine creation, it may be that if human
action falls so far short of the good to which it is called then the human story
will be brought to an end. There is reason for God to co-operate in our
actions so long as more good than evil results, but it would be folly to assume
that he will keep us going come what may. Indeed, it is required for the
justice of providence that he should not. In such circumstances, for God to
close the book on human history would not be a reversal of the divine plan
but a completion of it – and there is scriptural support (couched in harrowing
imagery) for the expectation of this:
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of
the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his
kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of
fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine
like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
(Matthew 13: 40–4)
This passage suggests a partial remedy to a second omission in my treatment
thus far, namely the absence of any account of how, if at all, natural and
moral evils are addressed by God. So far as the matter of strict compatibility
with bare theism is concerned no such issue may arise. It may be enough to
show that evil is a privation parasitic upon the good and that the good
outweighs the bad. But I remarked that any fully adequate theodicy must
have a religious aspect and that this should express the content of a particular
theology. Here I must be brief. Christianity teaches that suffering is a route