*brief interlude*
Nom nom. Oh yeah. I'm bored. All there is to do at my house is clean stuff, and I'm sick of it already. There's only so much dusting I can do before I want to punch somebody (and not a rug!). Anyway. In an effort to be less bored, I walked down to the library today. I got a few good books, and one that I read today made me think.
For a long time, I've been meaning to read Night by Elie Wiesel. I had heard that it's a life-changing book about the Holocaust, and that intrigued me. I hoped that reading it would help me to become better in some way. Reading his tragic experiences made me sick--but also made me ask questions. Wiesel was very religious before his family was taken--but he believed that God couldn't allow such atrocities to happen to his people. In a way, his religion and beliefs died during that time.
Which brings me to ask:
Why did the Holocaust happen? Why did millions of people have to die in horrible ways? Why did the perpetrators of such a sick crime not fall victim to divine punishment right away? How could God allow that to happen to his children?
I've been thinking about this all day, and I've come up with a few theories. Maybe the Jews were so good, He wanted them back with him. Maybe it was some sort of lesson that helped those involved to grow in some way.
Or maybe it's just the consequences of free agency: God allows each of us agency, which means that people can make bad choices too. We have to live with the effects of those choices, even when they're monstrous and in huge scope. The light in the world is brighter when seen against the darkest things we're capable of. Opposition in all things, right?
Truly, though, I don't know why things like this happen. I hold to my faith and trust that God knows, and someday he'll share that with everyone. There's so much that we, as mortal beings, simply cannot comprehend yet. But I think we can do our best. Questions like this help me to think about the world in a better perspective, and I hope this little exploratory writing has helped one of the 3 or so people who read this in some way.
I am impressed an interesting twist on the holocaust from a religious perspective attempt to find good in evil. Yet i think the question can be devolved even further, why does an omniscient benevolent god permit suffering to exist? Could not a god that knows the end from the beginning prevent the holocaust by altering some minute detail at creation or at any time since, could not by altering the circumstances or as each action is just a resultant of multiple factors could he just alter one of those to change if not to prevent all human suffering. Why does he permit (if not willfully cause) events like the holocaust, noah's flood, herods killing of babies, and multiple genocides both in the past and contemporary that all resulted in the death of at least in principle "innocent" individuals. Or does and has god analyzed every possible situation and circumstances to use the one that will do the best good, is it that every action will eventually have a net benefit as opposed to a net detriment? How many individuals have learned from the holocaust and are a determined to prevent it from every happening again (not many but "don't doubt the ability of a group of a few determined to change the world, indeed it is the only thing that every has), how many have reconciled with the Jewish race, and perhaps most incredible of all the the creation of a Jewish nation (required so that all of their tears can be wiped away) unthinkable before the holocaust arose mainly because of sympathy because of it. Every action has reason and meaning with a omniscient god, the world can not devolve into chaos, and every action will eventually turn out to tlhe be the best of all possible options. Perhaps we can not comprehend all that an all knowing god does, but how else do you expect to know what he does without thinking, "never cease to contemplate the mysteries of godliness" -Joseph Smith
ReplyDeleteThis is what i get for looking around on facebook, 20 min. writing a response