Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism
Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism
Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism
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<strong>Atheism</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Theism</strong> 143<br />
to moral self-realization <strong>and</strong> that God himself entered into the valley of<br />
death. What is to be made of these claims?<br />
It is a fact of human experience that suffering has immense potential for<br />
growth. Anyone who has lived through painful illness, emotional distress,<br />
anxiety <strong>and</strong> depression, <strong>and</strong> other familiar terrors <strong>and</strong> woes, knows that these<br />
give rise to ‘spiritual’ challenges which, if met, leave one a stronger <strong>and</strong> wiser<br />
person. To put it paradoxically, people are often grateful to have suffered<br />
harms. This is not perverse <strong>and</strong> nor does it imply that the experiences were<br />
not really harmful. What it suggests is that it is possible to fashion something<br />
good out of evil by accepting it for what it is <strong>and</strong> by making oneself stronger<br />
so as to be able to absorb it, <strong>and</strong> in the process reorder one’s priorities in<br />
better accord with the hierarchy of objective values. These are commonplaces<br />
of mature human reflection. What Christian theism adds is an account of<br />
how heroic victory over evil is possible. How can someone be so gracious in<br />
the face of evil as to forgive the murderer of their only child? ‘By God’s Grace<br />
alone is it made possible’ – is the Christian answer. An atheist may speak<br />
in psychological or evolutionary terms of ‘self-preservation’ <strong>and</strong> of ‘adaptive<br />
utility’, but it is difficult to see how he can construct out of these any adequate<br />
account of what so forcibly presents itself as a moral or spiritual victory.<br />
To suffer evil, <strong>and</strong> to a lesser extent to contemplate such suffering, is to be<br />
faced with an occasion for moral growth. It is obvious, however, that not all<br />
harm elicits gracious <strong>and</strong> heroic virtue. Where the victim is a rational agent<br />
the failure to respond morally may be culpable <strong>and</strong> not a ground for complaint<br />
against God. Yet there is much suffering involving natural <strong>and</strong> moral<br />
evils that cannot be an occasion for growth on the part of the victim because<br />
he or she is a non-human animal or a sub-rational human. May we not call<br />
out to heaven in protest against this? It might be reasonable for a heathen to<br />
do so, but the doctrine of the incarnation <strong>and</strong> crucifixion of Jesus Christ<br />
should give the Christian cause for hesitation. 24 This is the most profound<br />
religious idea ever entertained by the human mind: that God, the unconditioned<br />
cause of being, entered into the precarious condition of his creation.<br />
From St Paul to the present day, libraries have been written on this theme.<br />
I must rest content with five sentences. (1) Whatever else is to be said about<br />
the incarnation of God in Christ this much is true: that by becoming a<br />
human animal God rendered himself vulnerable to the harms arising from<br />
the divinely ordained activity of bacteria, the uncertainties of being born of<br />
a poor young woman in first century Palestine, <strong>and</strong> the self-interested actions<br />
of imperial governors <strong>and</strong> religious leaders. (2) Sacred history teaches that<br />
this was for the sake of re-establishing (for ever) the original covenant between<br />
man <strong>and</strong> God; but it also meant that God moved among the dark shadows of<br />
his creation. (3) Justice did not require this of him, since the shadows are<br />
a consequence of the light, <strong>and</strong> hence not something that might have been