Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? And Where Do We FInd Goodness? **Seminar 1 Topic**

Seminar- reference readings explicitly, use course terminology and use it accurately, take the conversation further

Intro to Theodicy- Case Study: The Cambodian Genocide

Video : Scream Bloody Murder

Examples of genocide: armenian genocide, genocide with indigenous peoples, holocaust

• Pol Pot (May 1925- April 1998)
• Leader of the Khmer Rouge- killed villagers and destroyed village (burning), those opposed to government were killed, many died from illness
• Led Cambodia from 1975-1979
• Classified people into distinct groups: full rights people, candidates, and depositees
• Returning Cambodia to its agrarian golden age
• People who were smart wore glasses and were killed
• At prisons- would dunk prisoners into barrels filled with human waste
• Killings Fields of Choeung Ek, Cambodia- lush, tropical landscape of the camp that is dotted with mass graves of victims, clothings from victims is seen along the path winding through the camp
• Multiple mass graves (20,000) of victims of the Khmer Rouge
• Memorial stupa, honouring those who died at Choeng Ek

Theodicy: answers the question why is there evil in the world, why do good things happen to bad people- why is there suffering in the world? Why is the innocent made to suffer?

• Theos (Greek ‘God’) + dike (Greek ‘Justice’)
• =‘The justice of God’ or God
• Traditional understanding: justifying the ways of God in the face of chaos and evil in the world
• Social scientific understanding: describes a wide range of religious and ideological explanations of the anomic (the chaotic and evil experiences faced by both individuals and societies)

Theodicy: The ‘Trilemma’:***on exam — defining theodicy and trilemma

How to understand suffering in the world in the face of belief in a loving, benevolent Ultimate Reality that is omnipotent and omniscient

• Suffering
• Omnipotent
• Omniscient

Major Theories of Theodicy: ***EXAM- memory or recall question and application question

• Sin and ‘free will’ theodicy
• Eschatollogical
• Karma
• Educative
• Theodicy and mystery

Sin and ‘Free Will’ Theodicy:

• All human beings participate in or inherit the sin of humanity’s first parents, Adam and Eve, whose violation of God’s commands (Genesis 3) justly brought death and suffering into the world-adam and eve’s choice to disobey god brought consequences to their actions (introduces sin, death, hardship, pain and suffering into the world)
• Human beings exercise their free will which brings consequences into the world– we carry this sin with us because of Adam and Eve
• Explain trilemma- we inherit the original sin because we are the descendants of adam and eve- god didn't create the suffering, humans disobeyed god–humans brought the suffering. Yes god is omnipotent and omniscient, but humans have free will to make choices

Educative Theodicies: the suffering has something to teach us about the consequences of sin in the world - someone else’s suffering can teach us something

• Emphasize the educative role suffering can play in human life
• Vicarious suffering serves an educative purpose by manifesting the consequences of sin to the world and by helping to purify and uplift those who suffer
• “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Christian New Testament– Romans 5:3-5)

Eschatological Theories: yes u suffer now in this life, ut in the next life your wrongs will be rewarded (heaven)- the idea that suffering will be rewarded in the afterlife

• Locate fulfillment or reward for innocent suffering in a realm beyond this world
• Eschaton (Greel, ‘end’)-- refers to the end times, end of the world

Theodicy and Mystery: cannot rationalize the suffering or make sense of it because we are not God. i cant understand your ways

• Innocent suffering overwhelms rational efforts at explanation
• The problem must remain a mystery to humans because, although God is just, humans lack the knowledge or insight to judge God’s ways

“Then Job replied to the Lord:

“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely, i spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, i despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Jewish Tanakh- Job 42:1-6).

Karma and Theodicy: suffering is the result of our karma- inherit consequence of our thoughts, choices- not just a result of this life but also other lives (good and bad karma)

• The law of ‘cause and effect’ causes suffering
• Suffering is not innocent because of actions/choices in our past lives

Critical Theology and Social Sin:***USE MODEL FOR SEMINAR

• Gregory Baum (1923-2017)- idea of critiquing the practices of the church against their own teachings
• German-born canadian roman catholic theologian and sociologist; created dialogue between sociology and theology
• Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology, 2nd ed., Novalis Books
• Developed the ideas of critical theology and social sin
• Critical theology:
• Theology is the reflection of believing christians on their religion; study of one;s own religion
• Critical theology discerns the structural consequences of religious practice and evaluates them in light of the Church’s own teachings– EXAM
• Critical theology is an attempt to explain evil in the world–systemic view of evil and suffering, including what manifests evil/suffering and impact of evil/suffering
• Baum uses a system lens to suffering in the world- the church’s practices do not match up with their teachings which causes suffering in the world.

Critical Theology and Social Sin:

Social Sin: *** ON EXAM

• Resides in a group, community, and people— not in individuals themselves
• Is not produced by deliberation and free choice
• Produces evil consequences, but no guilt in the ordinary sense
• Is committed out of collective blindness
• Social sin is a model for raising awareness of injustices built into institutions; a model for revealing social sin/evil that we all participate in without being aware of it; it is a systemic approach to suffering
• Social sin is connected to individual sin
• “Personal sin is freely chosen; social sin is collective blindness. There is sin as deed and sin as illness.” - Gregory Baum
• The choice to purchase something cheaper (from sweatshop) as opposed to something custom made (more expensive) shows our collective blindness and how our actions hurt others. (Under what conditions were things made?) — individual choice magnifies someone else's suffering

Critical Theology and Social Sin:

• “Social sin resides within a group or a community of people. It exists within any structure in society that oppresses human dignity, stifles freedom and or imposes great inequity. The only way we can recognize these sinful structures is if we step outside our own world and consider the world from another person’s perspective. Once we have recognized these patterns and structures that are sinful, we need to move toward action on behalf of justice and the common good.”

Four Levels of Social Sin:

1. Injustices and dehumanizing trends- trends built into systems— built into institutions (political, social, economic, religious, and other) which embody people’s collective life
2. Cultural norms and religious symbols- allow dehumanizing trends or suffering to continue—no change— operate in society, that legitimate and reinforce unjust institutions, thus intensifying the harm done to people
3. False consciousness- created by these institutions through which people involve themselves collectively in destructive actions as if they were doing the right thing.
4. Collective decisions- generated by the distorted consciousness, which increases the injustices in society and intensifies the power of the dehumanizing trend and suffering

Pick 1 dehumanizing trend for seminar 1) (example women’s wage difference to men’s)

2) Religious symbol- women’s submission to men

3) individuals thinking they're doing the right thing (industry standard) -individual level

4) we dont change what is wrong and amplifies it -social level

The Search for Goodness:

When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold Kushner

Challenge the reader:

• Instead of asking ‘Why did this [suffering] happen to me? What did i do to deserve this?, ask ‘Now that this has happened to me, what am i going to do about it?’
• “Suffering comes to enable man, to purge his thoughts of pride and superficiality, to expand his horizons. In sum, the purpose of suffering is to repair that which is faulty in a man’s personality.”
• We can’t pray that God makes our lives free of problems; this won’t happen, and it is probably just as well. We can’t ask Him to make us and those we love immune to diseases, because He can’t do that. We can’t ask Him to weave a magic spell around us so that bad things will only happen to other people, and never to us.
• People who pray for miracles usually don't get miracles, any more than children who pray for bicycles, good grades, or good boyfriends get them as a result of praying. But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost, very often find their prayer answered.”

The Search for Goodness- L’Arche

• International federation of communities of persons, with and without intellectual disabilities, live, work, learn and grow together to create communities of friendship and belonging.
• Founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier; first home opened in Trosley, France- response to society’s call to bring people with intellectual disabilities out of institutions.
• Recognizing persons with intellectual disabilities as full human beings deserving of respect, dignity, and inclusion
• Second L’Arche community (called Daybreak) was founded in Richmond Hill, Ontario in 1969
• Today, 149 L’Arche communities and 14 projects in 37 countries worldwide, including 9 communities in Ontario, (e.g., London, Stratford, Toronto)

Self Reflection:

Where do you find goodness…

• In your life?
• In others?
• In your family?
• In your community? In my hometown, i saw a post on Facebook that the local Salvation Army raised over 900lbs of food for their food drive for the food bank to help those in need.
• In the world?

Seminar topic— poverty in Canada

What dehumanizing trends in canada about poverty— affects BIPOC, indigenous, immigrants, newcomers, children who come from different social-economic

“Poverty disproportionately effects______ to _______”

School nutrition programs

Mental health

Topic: Indigenous peoples face the highest levels of poverty in the Canadian social institution.