Reasoning by the absurd; Do you know what it is? I imagine not! Be assured, I do not know much either. I just know that the word absurd means: that has no sense. So, for me, the reasoning by the absurd will be to make sense with what has no sense. Come on, let us try this new technique…
Many people think that the existence of God is absurd; something that does not make sense, do you see what I mean? And the arguments they put forward are varied; but usually some often come:
– there is too much evil on earth
– there is too much misery and suffering on earth
– there is too much injustice and oppression on earth…
In short, we point out all that is negative in existence to refute the existence of God. But, does the existence of these things mentioned above prove the inexistence of God?
Imagine that suddenly we find ourselves in a house. It is winter and the heating system is bad; awfully bad. And we feel cold; very cold. Then comes summer, it is the turn of the ventilation system to malfunction; and it is hot, extremely hot. When it rains, water comes in through the roof. Then, when it is windy, the wind enters the house through breaches on the door and windows. Are we going to conclude that the house did not have a builder? Of course not! It seems either that the owner of the house is negligent, or that the tenants before us have poorly maintained the premises …
So, all that we have mentioned above, evil, misery, suffering, injustice, oppression, do not prove the inexistence of God, but rather the existence of an evil force which produces them. Because sometimes these things happen in a way that is beyond our comprehension.
Now, let us reason by the absurd: it is established logically that we always need two opposite elements to create a balance. For example, when a force is exerted on us, trying to destabilize us, we react with a contrary force at least equal, if not superior, to that which is exerted on us: this force is called resistance.
We know that hot reduces the effects of cold; that we need water to put out the fire, and I can give you many other examples of the sort … So, if from the visible elements of this existence we can prove the existence of an evil force, then , to oppose it there is necessarily a non-malefic force; people just don’t know where to look for it or how to find it, mostly because of their paradigms…
What is a paradigm?
The paradigm is a word that has at least 5 definitions, some more complicated than the others. We will keep it simple and say that the paradigm is a point of view common to all on a given subject. This point of view is so strong, and so blinding that most of the time it prevents from nuancing situations.
One of the greatest paradigms in the world is this statement: God is good and merciful to everyone. Another great paradigm is this statement: God is just for everyone.
Because in people’s minds these statements have no nuance, it is enough that an unfortunate event happens to them for them to doubt the existence of God. It is enough that they suffer an injustice for them to question the existence of God. Because they say to themselves, if God is good, merciful, and just for everyone as they say, and if He is creator and Master of the universe as they still say, why would these negative things happen to them?
Let us try to nuance a bit the situations and see how to consider our paradigms. Many people ignore, or want to ignore, that God has an opponent; most of the time it is he who acts when things go wrong. Well, I can hear people say, “It is too easy to accuse the opponent of God; but Himself, why does He let it happen, if He is Almighty as they say? »
Well, imagine that you live in a dangerous city. That your life can be at risk at any time. You use a security officer to protect you, and he tells you: my protection services are free, but only I work alone. The day you contact another security agency, our contract ends. Tell me, would he protect you if you disobey this clause in the contract? Would he protect you effectively if it gives you guidelines to follow but that you break them? This security officer, because he is good, said to you: » When you will not respect a clause in our contract, I will leave you in uncertainty for a time; and as soon as you respect it again, I will protect you again.» If during the period in which a misfortune happened to you, you were not under the protection of your security agent because of non-compliance with your contract, would you say that he is mean? Or would you say he does not exist?
God is that security manager!
Now let us talk about justice; and there, it is much simpler! God is fair to everyone, it is said, but when some are confronted with injustice, they find that God does not exist.
We will take once more the example of our manager of security ; you sign a contract where one of the clauses says this : “ When you face injustice, stay calm and make me a private complaint; the rest is my business. « If it happens that you do face injustice, and you complain to everyone in the public square, without following the instructions of your security man, would he solve your problem? And if he does not, does that mean he does not exist?
And that is how it goes. We complain to everyone about what is happening to us, without thinking of doing it to God first, then waiting for His reaction; normal that He does not answer us!
So, if we recap: some people think that God does not exist because the god they made in their heads, or through their paradigms does not exist. A Book teaches who is God: it is The Bible! This is the contract where the clauses necessary for total protection in a risky world are written!
Be blessed my brothers!