Is God Masochistic?
There is an atheistic view that flourishes in the world that simmers down to the idea of something like this: “because there is pain there is no God,” or “God wouldn’t let such terrible things happen, therefore there must not be one…” I think this festers in the idea that negative thoughts, experiences, and feelings are only bad, or not worth having and to be avoided at all costs. Or in other words there is no benefit or anything worthwhile if it is something that most (or at least I) consider negative. But maybe the negative physical and emotional feelings we have are also created by God and very much worth experiencing. Part of the grand adventure of life that God has gifted all of us.
We have a young cow under a year old that has a sprained leg, it may even be broken. It’s swollen at the knee and she is struggling. But she walked almost a mile on three of her legs, hobbling onward. We motivated her with some sweet grains to get her to a barn. It was inspiring, and she didn’t really seem to complain one bit. She did wear down from time to time and we’d leave her for a long rest and only did two sessions a day. In our view she was struggling and this had some negative associations to it all. I felt for her. In her view she was using her strength to get to some yummy grain, and maybe it wasn’t very negative at all.
My youngest daughter has been ill lately. She was hungry, tired, weak, and nauseous. She started eating again today and is progressing quickly to full recovery. During her sickness her mother and I would check on her pretty often and felt nervous. Her body was rejecting food and most liquid, she would vomit anything up quickly after trying. In my short sighted view it is a somewhat dreadful situation. But after a couple days she’s recovering quickly. She didn’t seem very worried through it all, just tired and hungry. It seems to me people overreact to other people’s sickness, trials, and pain. The person having the experience is often less concerned than the people around them. Of course there are exceptions to this, but I’ve seen it a bit through life.
Anytime people, animals, or even plants have pain often people react in a sort of repulsive way. As if nothing good can come of it and we have to end that pain. And in a way I believe that is mildly correct. But only if that pain is caused by people, something that we can stop.
An example would be war, or imprisoning people that are non-violent offenders. The war in Ukraine in my view is end-able. Just stop funding it, Ukraine cannot continue very long without outside help. A group of people that were originally part of Russia but then instantly became part of Ukraine when Soviet Russia fell recently voted to rejoin Russia. Well, why not just let them rejoin Russia and end that war in Ukraine? NATO and the USA were breaking agreements before the war broke out, Russia is not the only guilty player in all of this – in fact Russia seems the most justified and level headed through all of this so far. The war in Iran was not started by Iran, they had Israel and the USA blowing them up, well maybe they should stop? These are man made pains and violent actions that aren’t natural – they could end by choices made.
Perhaps those are too controversial of examples. Here’s another one: Maybe the people in prisons all over because they use substances that their country calls illegal should be let go so they can go back home and end the suffering caused by prison life. The USA has a farm-bill that has gone under attack which will re-criminalize THC delta-8 and more that is derived from hemp. This will turn many people into criminals overnight. Why not just, stop doing silly things like this? Let people have their gummy-bears and not be criminals. Another non-violent offense the world over is political activism. People in prison for speaking against their governmental systems – they should be let out of prison and left alone by their government. All of this is human created pain and violence against non-violent offenders. These things should come to an end.
People like to create pain, conflict, and strife – and do such a thing while pretending they are doing the will of God or at least the will of their government (god). What if the will of God is nothing like this and has nothing to do with that kind of suffering? What if the will of God is more like a smooth river rolling through the landscape that humanity put all their efforts to choke out? When left to flow freely sometimes it is rough on a rock and smooths it out or even kills something. But those are not man-made conflicts, they are natural conflicts which do cause pain but not fictional strain. What I see is that God has given us the ways of Heaven through scriptures, and people continually reject that way and follow the ways of man. Rejecting the Laws of God and trying to fix those ways by creating their own man made laws and kingdoms. Far less misery would be had if people would follow God’s Law over man’s. If you don’t know what those Laws are I suggest reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7. The Ten Commandments are also a good starting ground.
My knees have been hurting this year. It’s been interesting and I’ve even put in some effort to have it stop. But it doesn’t lessen my belief in God. I’m fine enough with pain, it teaches me things even if I’d rather it go away. Pain is a good teacher and it isn’t drastically different than joy. Our range of feelings and emotions is pretty limited, just like our visual reception. We see and experience only a tiny blip of this reality – we all have heavy blinders on with our receptive capabilities through this physical body. The joys in life are lessened by the lack of pain. With pain I more fully realize and understand happiness and joy. If my daughter never had sickness would I really fully understand and appreciate her health? If my knee never hurt would I appreciate being able to do labors as much? I’ve been taking borax to increase my borate intake, it’s a cheap source that I had on hand. I read about how societies low in borate have higher rates of arthritis and joint pain and many people have cured themselves with borax. So I tried it out, I’m taking ¼ tsp one or two times a day and it’s helping. I’ve decreased my joint pain dramatically and my knees are doing much better. Not 100% recovery but over 50% so far. Would I even learn about this if I didn’t have pain? Seems reasonable to try and diminish some pain if we can. But pain and misery existing seems a silly reason to completely reject the idea that there may be a Creator who loves us. Maybe pain is a gift and one of the reasons we are here, one of the many experiences we can have while in this temporary flesh.
Good things come from negativity. Negativity can blossom into beautiful things. Why not embrace the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything that weaves between and outside of it all? Not to the point of causing pain intentionally, but accept it and learn from it when it comes our way.
Personally I have overall come to deeper understandings through times of pain than I have through times of joy. I believe my God is much wiser than me. If we were only to receive pleasure and joy we would be shallow and weak. If you are rejecting God because there is misery and pain, it might be time to have a second look. Relationship with the Divine is a slow process that takes patience and effort. Play with faith, act as if there is a God and you can communicate with God. As I’ve done this I’ve come to slowly know my Creator, and it’s awesome – I now have no doubt. I don’t think I’m special, I think everyone can do this. But I do not think it happens often to those who choose to disbelieve and think it an impossibility.