A few brief remarks on two common obstacles to "taking God seriously"

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[The following is taken from a larger conversation originally conducted elsewhere. It has been edited for congruity and sensibility, including some new text, but the integrity of its original meaning is left intact.]


Common objection one is the so-called problem of evil. We can merge it with the deep desire for justice, reconciliation and renewal.

 Evil isn't a naturally occurring substance. It is a moral judgment in an ethical context. It arises from an evolved strategy for recognizing and viscerally reacting to threats to social beings and it is enabled by a recognition of others as self-aware individuals with similar feelings and experiences. Suffering is an integral aspect of conscious awareness in a body with limits and needs, and death is an fundamental component of life. So, a universe without suffering and death would be a universe without sentience or life. A world without good and evil would be a world of indifference. The problem with theodicy arises when God is seen as a cosmic architect who somehow chooses among options for how the universe could have been formulated and when we are dissatisfied with what we assume are God's choices. If it is suggested that existence reflects God's nature then God must be capricious and cruel. Yet many secularists will argue that life is (more) precious and meaningful because each moment is so fragile -- full of the potential for joy, pain, life, death, wonder, fear and a million other experiences -- and each moment and each life is therefore unique and irreplaceable.