What are the BIG Questions?

Listening to the account of St Augustine's confessions as described by 'In Our Time', I am prompted to record my own unanswerable questions.

Philosophical.

Where did evil come from?

We conceive of God as complete holiness and purity.  As the only creator of all things, God therefore created and allowed the most heinous and evil thought and acts conceivable.  In other cultures and religions this is understood by Yin/Yang.  The Manicheans of the Zoroastrian faith saw good and evil as separate in origin, and in a constant struggle.  

The concept of evil is fascinating.  There is personal evil, and institutional evil.  The fact that I have enough to eat, and many, for no fault of their own, do not, is a great evil. I continue to conjecture that the potential for evil is intrinsic to freedom.  In a perfect world I will have the same potential for evil, but no inclination.  I can understand this because even in my imperfection, I have no inclination to harm those I love (or anyone else at the moment.)

It is clear from a quick glance at evolutionary biology that the 'Lion never laid down with the Lamb'. 

In fact the virus, that scourge of humanity, is described as evolution's needle.  It is seen as a possible mechanism for the mixing of genes; a creative force.

It is clear that morality is not morality when the sparrowhawk knocks a pigeon out of the sky, or in fact, the worm attacks a baby's eye.  They are doing what they are programmed to do, and doing it well.  The morality comes when humans have a choice based on our power to influence and moderate biology.

So the perfect world before the christian doctrine of 'the fall' ever kicked in, was an brutal 'dog eat dog' affair.  Our understanding of this is very much affected by our understanding of 'death' and 'pain'.

The Question of Death and Pain

As Woody Allan said, 'I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.'

Isaiah wrote in 8th century BCE  "He will swallow up death forever."  Paul says in 1 Corinthians "Where oh death is your sting?"

Freedom, not only from the concept of death, but also the physical action of fear of death and pain, is a wonderful gift.   

One of the criticisms of the current fashion for 'mindfulness' is the risk of avoiding anxiety about the future, including pain and death.    

The Question of predestination- freewill and Manicheanism.

We have just watched the Star Wars spin-off called Solo, telling the story of Han Solo (and how he got his name in the first place- very important.)

I am reminded of the Jedi religion phenomena again. In the UK 2001 census, 0.8% of people recorded their religion as Jedi, taken from the Star Wars stories.  This could be interpreted as even greater if the numbers who recorded themselves as 'Sith' or 'Dark Side' (scary) were included.  Numbers dropped off in the 2011 census to about 177,000 adherents.  Star Wars as a story confronts some of the big questions in life.  What is good? what is evil?  Who is going to win?  The story is essentially Manichean is identity, with good and evil in a cosmic struggle.  

For me their are two lessons I take from Star Wars.  

1) Keep your eyes on the light- on the source of goodness which provides the mysterious force that provides the hope required for each day.

2) Even the most sophisticated systems are full of  failings.  Expect 'cock-up' over 'conspiracy'.  

My understanding of justice is that our starting point, and ending point are critical.  This goes for the era we were born in, whether it be 35,000 BCE, or some futuristic planet out of Star Wars.  

The place of Accidents in Perfection.

Accidents, random events, do happen.  When the world was perfect (before the fall), tectonic plates shifted, volcano's raged, and dinosaurs bit the heads of unsuspecting  peace loving herbivores.

As I walked home from dropping the car off at the garage, I saw a small child crossing the street with his parents.  Cars were zooming up and down the road.  I felt for the vulnerability of the little child, and saw the protective arm of the parents permitting the 'run to the other side'.  It struck me that 99.99% of the drivers would have no inclination to harm this little child, but accidents do happen.

What about in a perfect world, where there is no inclination to evil or to do harm?  There may still be accidents, which cause great sorrow.  And then I thought of my childish memories when I had felt the presences of a protector with me.  Who knows how serious it might have been, but I do recall the sense of a presence with me.  The first was scrabbling up a sandstone bank in Hong Kong, near to a reservoir. Small holes in the rock offered hand and foot holds.  Then one gave way and I slid slowly down the incline.  I could have gone down a long way, but a hard rock, that stuck out of the sandstone, caught my fall, like a platform.  I remember thinking "You put that there".  The next was when Peter and I were on an onward bound camp with my Uncle Adrian in the Lake District.  I opted to climb Skiddaw, the local mountain to where we were camping.  On the way up, near the top, the path became steep.  An adult in front of me lost his grip and fell back onto me.  Amazingly I was not knocked off my perch, though I was very young at the time.  I remember feeling I was protected then, an invisible hand behind me.  I remember hearing Adrian say that he was going to have to tell me that that climb was not for me, but it had been too late.  The third was when I was in hospital having had an operation to remove a melanoma from my back.  That first night I sensed a presence with me.  Sure there was a student nurse by my side through the night, dealing with my sick, but there was more than that.  I felt protected and safe.

So accidents in a perfect world?  With risk comes protection.