For some time I have been aware that I wanted to take a topic rich in meaning and examine it first from the perspective of the old, outmoded religious paradigm and then again from the emerging new paradigm. I wanted to ask a question that was universal and timeless that would provoke a reaction in the old narrative or myth, and a response from the point of view of a narrative that was profound enough to contain it. The importance of this essay to me is that it reveals the central challenge facing the human community today. You will most certainly be provoked and hopefully illuminated if you can find the courage to truly grapple with one of the most central dilemmas that the human soul has encountered. Your choice has everything to do with the future of humanity. The global village awaits your decision.
Religion, as it is often practiced, must be transcended because it is an unconscious paradigm, a small, stifling prison that holds humanity hostage to paralyzing beliefs. Let us use one issue that is fundamental to all religions as an example of what I mean. That issue is theodicy from the Greek theos = god + dike = justice or in other words the subject of divine justice. How does religion reconcile the existence of injustice (bad things happening to good people) to the existence of a superhuman deity? Is God indifferent to human suffering or is He powerless to do anything about it? Or does reality fail to fit with religious dogma?
We have all struggled with these aspects of human experience and have probably come up with the following conclusions at one time or another:
Tough it out. The belief that suffering is temporary and that the patient and faithful believers will be rewarded (Christians in heaven and Muslims in Paradise) in the afterlife.
Live and learn. The purpose of pain is to teach us profound lessons about existence. Life is a school and we are the long-suffering students.
Anthropomorphic illusions. The atheist believes there is no personal, imminent god nor a transcendent god—but only human projections—a type of wishful thinking. There is no judgmental god to fear but no seventh cavalry galloping to the rescue either.
Dastardly dualism. God is benevolent but there exists another superhuman nasty being who loves to put us on spits over the open fires of hell. This answer to the theodicy question is that God doesn’t do it, the Devil does it to us.
That woman and that serpent doomed us all. We are all guilty of original sin and are justly punished for being bad boys and girls from the moment of birth. All suffering is appropriate and deserved. So there! Quit your whining.
Many scholars think the Book of Job is the most important book in the Old Testament precisely because it addresses one of the thorniest issues concerning the human condition. No paradigm can be considered profound that does not satisfactorily answer the question of theodicy.
Let’s summarize the story. In a wager with Satan, God sets out to prove that Job will remain steadfast in his loyalty. Job’s family and fortune are destroyed by God even though Job is innocent. Job’s three friends witness his experience but only preach religious dogma at him and offer little compassion. Job’s “learning style” is to favor experience over dogma but he doesn’t understand why he suffers such misfortune. In the epilogue, the God of Israel praises Job for submitting to the mystery of the universe and condemns his friends for thinking that they knew it all. Job is compensated by God and is “better off than before.”
That’s fine for Job but our problem of theodicy has not been solved. To arrive at that solution we must abandon the paradigm of religion and take a deeper look at this fruitful and challenging dilemma. Scholars and philosophers trapped in the old worldview were not up to the task but that was not their fault.
We are all familiar with the old religious paradigm so I will focus on outlining how our question would be addressed in the new myth (P-A). Remember our question is: Why do bad things happen to good people? Let’s start with Adam where all the troubles of humanity began. In the new narrative, that you and I are in the midst of creating, all human suffering is caused by unconsciousness. The beginning of human suffering is called in religious language—the “Fall.” So, when Adam “fell,” he fell “asleep.”
Sin (an imagined, Self-Imposed Nonsense) has no place in the new myth, hence, notions of punishment would be nonsensical and are thus also eliminated. We must admit that all “Adam’s and Eve’s” have always done the best they could, considering that they are trying to negotiate life in an unconscious state. They have only a vague notion as to what the nature of Reality is.
For a profound response to the issue of theodicy we must shift the context, and in reframing the picture we also change the contents of everything within the new frame. For example, when Harold Kushner posed the question in the title of his book Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?, he is asking a question that would not make sense in the new picture. First, you could not find any “bad things” in the new picture nor would you find any “good people” in the sense of their being the opposite of “bad people” which, of course do not exist either. And finally, you would not find any “people” in the sense of an “I” or an “ego,” separate from the rest of creation. The new picture would be one of a completely interrelated and interdependent creation, whole, perfect and complete—flawless in every detail. How could it be otherwise? This “painting” was rendered by the one and only Artist, the Creator from whom all truth and beauty originated.
We are all innocent but not powerless, far from it, as we shall begin to see as our narrative continues. Now we get really radical. In the Judeo-Christian interpretation of the story of Job, Job was totally at the mercy of Jehovah. In the new richer myth, God is equally dependent on Job. The new story is informed by the relatively new science of C. G. Jung’s so-called depth psychology which sees God and the unconscious as synonymous. There is no anthropomorphic God which is obviously a projection of humanity and evolves according to the evolving consciousness of human beings. So instead of the word God, a much more logical designation is that of the Self. Hence, a synonym for consciousness would be Self-realization.
Now back to God’s dependence on Job (human beings). Jung said our existence is only real when we are conscious of it or “experience” it. The Self (God) also needs conscious humans to experience Him/Her. Why would God bother with the process of creation if there were no one to experience it? From the psychological perspective because Job (human beings) have seen God’s amoral nature in the mistreatment of Job, God is obliged to change. Again in Jung’s psychological terms, because the Self has been seen by the ego, the Self’s consciousness has been increased. In this way, God—or the Self—needs man to attain more awareness, in order to grow in consciousness.
Let’s describe the process in Biblical terms first. In a sense Job was more conscious than God. As Job become aware of God’s true nature, and revealed that true nature to God, then God began learning to know “Himself.” It would not be possible that Job could see God’s unconsciousness while God was oblivious of that same lack of awareness. Therefore, human beings have an effect on God as they themselves grow in awareness. Job’s suffering as God had attempted to corrupt him had not only changed God but had given meaning to Job’s life and liberated him from the old paradigm. The Old Testament God had been destroyed and Job, thereby, had been emancipated from his relationship to an unconscious God. In terms of the new myth, humanity is bringing contents of the unconscious (Self) into awareness by surrendering to Simple Reality, by living in the present moment.
Bad things do not happen to good people because there are no “bad things” there is only life as it is. People who label things “bad” are in resistance to Simple Reality which is the cause of their suffering. If they accept life on its terms they are free to respond to life and suffering is transcended.
The great way is not difficult
if you just don’t pick and choose.
– Sengcan
And so to wrap it all up, what do we conclude? Notice as we shifted paradigms and changed our perspective that Job, Justice and Jehovah were totally transformed. And so, what was the answer to our central question: Why do bad things happen to good people? They don’t. A question that from the perspective of the old paradigm terrifies and tortures people and fills books with philosophical and theological speculation is answered simply—and emphatically—they don’t! And we learned that we have entered into a reciprocating partnership with the Self in the process of co-creation. And what are we creating? We are creating consciousness itself just as Job did. The whole of creation is engaged in a truly beautiful, endless dance of ever increasing awareness. And we are the dancers.
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry:
Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
