Some thoughts about theodicy

An explanation for the existence of evil from a spiritual or theological perspective is called a theodicy. There are many theodicies, but they tend to fall into a handful of categories. Sometimes an individual theodicy might combine several of these categories.

There is the idea that we’re being punished for our sins and that we deserve what we get. The flipside is that we’re blessed when we’re righteous. Karma is a variation on this theme, and so is the modern prosperity gospel. The trouble is we often see people who aren’t all that righteous being blessed while the good suffer. With karma, it’s easy to justify that. Those suffering did something in a previous life. How can you argue with that? And in the Christian tradition, there’s original sin. According to this viewpoint, we’re all worthy of damnation and that it’s only by the grace of God that some of us are saved.

Some claim that evil is necessary in order to accommodate free will. But what about disease and natural disasters? Those things cause a lot of suffering, but they have little to do with our free will.

Duality is another explanation. The world or some aspect of reality is fundamentally good, but there is an evil force at work mucking things up. In Platonism, there is a realm of perfect forms, but something happens in their material expression, and they’re polluted. In Zoroastrianism, a good spiritual god is in battle with a nasty god. They are, more or less, evenly matched, so the struggle is ongoing. At some point the belief in duality made it’s way into ancient Judaism, and this version of duality is generally called apocalypticism. Of course, this concept became a cornerstone of Christianity. Adherents readily admit that the present world is unjust, and that’s due to a cosmic battle being waged between God and his army and Satan and the forces of evil. Eventually God will win, and humans will be resurrected and judged. Those who were righteous will be rewarded in an afterlife, and the meanies will be dispatched to hell. You might suffer in this life, but that’s only temporary. The good times are on the way. Sounds pretty good, I suppose, but I can’t figure out why an omnipotent deity would allow demons and devils to run amok. I guess some would claim even Satan was given free will, and all this suffering is the price we pay until things are put right.

There’s also the claim that suffering is somehow redemptive and that we can’t appreciate fully our blessings until we know pain. That’s interesting, but I wonder why some would need to experience more pain than others.

The explanation that I find the most plausible is that life and the world is a mystery, and we can’t possibly understand or know exactly why things have to be as they are. The Book of Job seems to offer this explanation. Job wants to know why all these awful things has happened to him when he has led a righteous life. God seems to say that we don’t see things from a godly perspective and never will, so just shut up and deal with it. Isn’t this pretty much what parents often say to their children?

Another explanation is that evil is a human concept and the universe is what it is. We might suffer, but it’s nothing personal. Things just worked out that way.

War On Compassion and Common Sense

I’ve never been a social person, so when I was a teenager and young adult, I never hung out with the druggies or the stoners, and I wasn’t invited to many parties. I didn’t take my first drink until I was in college. Even though I drank to excess a few times, I never became a regular drinker. It just doesn’t appeal to me that much. I enjoy feeling tipsy now and then, but I don’t like the taste. It costs money, too, and I’ve never had much of that. I’ve never taken any illegal drugs. I’ve taken prescription tranquilizers off and on for years due to my anxiety. They help, but I like to be awake and alert, so that’s not something that’s all that alluring either. Same thing with prescription pain killers. I was given a steady supply for a year following my head surgeries, but I was happy to switch to ibuprofen when I could. For a long time, I’ve wondered if marijuana might help with my anxiety, and I’ve resented the fact I couldn’t try it without breaking the law.

So I guess I have been directly affected by the war on drugs, but not so much that I feel persecuted. However, I do think addicts have been seriously harmed by anti-drug laws and our society’s general attitude toward addicts. For years, I’ve believed addiction should be treated as an illness, not as a crime. I’ve also become increasingly aware of the racial aspects of the war on drugs.

I can’t say Johann Hari’s Chasing the Scream changed my mind about many things, but I was deeply moved by it. I’m now more convinced than ever that we have been making a bad situation worse for decades.

For me, the most striking part of the book was the personal stories of the addicts and the conclusion that these are mostly people who have faced some serious problems in their lives aside from addiction. Many were abused and traumatized as children. Many are paralyzed by depression, loneliness and fear. Most people who drink don’t become alcoholic, and most who take drugs don’t become addicts. So why do addicts get hooked? It might be that the physical dependence isn’t the clincher. Many if not most addicts might turn to drugs for the same reason we all do after slipping on ice, or getting a tooth pulled, or getting a head tumor removed. They want to kill the pain. Turning them into criminals and giving them records that make it difficult for them to get jobs, apartments or student loans only exacerbates the problem.

Prohibition does not eliminate drugs. It only pushes them completely out of the sphere of regulation so that criminals are the ones delivering them. The criminals typically sell to anyone with money, including children, and because they can’t rely on police protection, they resort to barbarism and terrorism to get their product to market. Users can never be sure of what they’re getting, and dealers also tend to sell the most highly potent form of drugs. Before and after alcohol prohibition, beer was the most popular form of alcohol, but more concentrated alcohol became prevalent in the ’20s, and many were poisoned. We’ve all heard the stories of coke in soda and allegedly medicinal syrups. Those doses were mild compared to what addicts today usually take.

Prohibition also drives up the cost, which means addicts often engage in criminal activity to pay for their habit. Some steal, some prostitute themselves. Many become dealers themselves so that in order to buy drugs, they recruit new drug users.

Chasing the Scream is illuminating and informative. Most of the information might not be all that shocking to those who have been paying attention, but there was one thing that did surprise me. Many addicts stop using on their own without any treatment. They simply grow out of it. Maybe they work through their personal demons. Maybe they found something that gives them hope. Maybe drugs are especially appealing when we’re young and filled with anxieties, and once we’re settled and have been around the block a few times, we relax. Who can say for sure? Hari believes one of the most important things addicts need is connection. They need to feel connected to other people and to the community at large.