Somebody on the internet compared God planting the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden with Adam and Eve to a parent leaving a loaded gun on a table and telling their 4 year old not to touch it. But then the four year old picked it up and shot his brother. Surely, we'd blame the parent, not the four year old since the four year old didn't know better. In the same way, God is to blame for the fall, not Adam and Eve. God should not hold mankind accountable when it was all God's fault.
In my response, I didn't go into the genre of Genesis and whether the story is literal, historical, or whatever. I just took the story at face value and made my argument from there. Here's what I said.
I do think God is responsible for the fall. What is it you are claiming that Adam and Eve didn't know when they ate the fruit? They knew the fruit existed, and they knew God had forbidden them to eat it. In fact, that's the first thing they pointed out when the snake suggested they eat it. So they knew they were doing something God had forbidden. Ignorance was not an excuse.
In the case of the four year old, yes, you would carry some blame for leaving the gun with the 4 year old. But suppose you gave a gun to a 21 year old, and the 21 year old shot his brother. In that case, the 21 year old would be to blame. Who carries what blame depends on several factors.
If you know that the 21 year old wants to kill his brother, and you give him the gun, then you are responsible. But the fact that you are responsible doesn't mean the 21 year old is not responsible. He is responsible. You both are.
If you give a gun to a 4 year old, and he shoots his brother, you are definitely responsible. But is the 4 year old responsible, too? He may be. A person who is four years does have a rudimentary understanding that they should obey their parents. If the four year old is told to put the candy down, but he doesn't do it, then the parents has the right to punish the four year old. So if the parent tells the four year old not to touch the gun, and the four year old does it anyway, then the four year old is responsible. You might could say the four year old does not carry the same degree of guilt as the 21 year old would in the same circumstance, but at best that's only diminished capacity.
Adam and Eve did not have diminished capacity in that sense. They were fully aware that God had forbidden them to eat the fruit, and up until they met the snake, that's the reason they hadn't eaten it. And having met the snake, that's why they were initially reluctant to eat the fruit. So they knew good and well not to eat the fruit. Diminished capacity was not an excuse. They were blamable.
Now when it comes to whether God is responsible or not, there are two senses in which God is responsible in the case of Adam and Eve. The first is that God knew good and well what was going to happen, but he set things up in such a way that they could. He didn't hide the tree. He didn't put a hedge around it. He didn't keep the snake out of the garden, etc. He knew that if he made things just the way he made them that Adam and Eve would eat the fruit. So he is responsible in that sense.
But I would say he's responsible in a stronger sense. God actually intended Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. He meant for it to happen. He had a purpose in it.
That raises the question of whether God was guilty in the same sense that Adam and Eve were. In that case I would say no. While God is responsible in the sense that the event happened because of God's decree, he is not responsible in the sense of being guilty for a wrong. Adam and Eve were guilty because they did what God told them not to do. But nobody told God not to put them in that situation. Moreover, whether God is guilty or innocent depends on whether or not God had some morally justifiable reason for arranging the fall.
The ultimate reason for why God does anything is for his name's sake or for his own glory. God's glory consists of everything that is true about him. A thing's glory is what makes it shine. For example I recently saw this moon lamp that was really cool. It looked like the actual moon with detailed craters and everything. But imagine if somebody owned that lamp and never plugged it in. The glory of the lamp is in its ability to resemble the moon. But if nobody ever plugged it in, it would not shine. It's glory would not be manifested or expressed. So the whole reason God created everything was for the sake of his glory. Creation is an expression of everything that's true about God--all his attributes. That's what makes God shine.
God's attributes include aspects of his character that could only be expressed or realized if there is such a thing as sin and evil. For example, if there's no sin, then there would be no justice or mercy. God is glorified in the redemption of sinful people, and he is also glorified in the punishment of sinful people. Both require the existence of sinful people. So God had a purpose in there being sinful people.
Now, that raises the question of whether God is morally justified in making his own glory his final end in everything he does. I would answer that yes, he is, and the reason is because God is the greatest, most beautiful, magnificient, sublime, wonderful being possible. Everything about him contributes to his excellence, and there isn't anything in him that lacks excellence. With that being the case, there is no greater good than the full expression of the glory of God. If God himself is perfectly good, then that entails that God would have a desire to see himself glorified. If God were to diminish the expression of his own glory, then that would undermine his perfect goodness. That is also why God requires worship. It isn't because he's an egomaniac. Rather, it's because the love of what is good is itself good, and since God himself is the greatest possible good, then the love and worship of God is morally required.
If God, in pursuit of his own glorification, punished innocent people, then that would be a good reason to question his morality. But God doesn't do that. Everybody God punishes is guilty of sin. They actually deserve to be punished. So God is doing them no wrong.
You might say, though, that people are not responsible for their sins as long as God decreed their sins. If God arranged the world in such a way as to ensure that people would commit sins, then they are not responsible. So God is unjust in punishing people who he intended to be sinners.
But I don't think that's true, but this post has probably gone on a lot longer than it should have, so I'll stop here.
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