On The Imperfection of Nature
Abdul Haq, you write, re nature:
With our limited ability to investigate, discover and make sense of it, we find plenty of evidence through our somewhat flawed recording system that it is, in fact, perfect.
Who is this we?
When Leibniz argued that we live in the best of all possible worlds (i.e., in the most perfect of all possible worlds), Voltaire parodied him as Dr. Pangloss in Candide, that classic picture of the imperfections of this world.
I guess "we" are still divided into Leibnizians and Voltaireans.
In this discussion, we started off with the "problem of evil," that is, with the question of how an all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing Creator God could create or at least allow evil. Next came the problem of evil specifically as manifested in Nature, in natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, floods, plagues, & etc. (Let's leave moral evil out of it, for the nonce!)
Now, Nature may be "perfect," in the sense that it is admirably fitted to do what it is supposed to do (whatever that is), but it is not "benign." Nor, for that matter, is it consistently "malign". It is generally (IMO, of course) just neutral, amoral, which makes it hard for some of us to accept the notion that any all-powerful being alleged to have created it could at the same time be all-good.
For example, anyone who would deliberately create a black widow spider, which devours its mate in the midst of the "act of love," has got to have a pretty sick imagination. <gg> Maybe this is the "perfect" way to perpetuate the black widow spider species -- but why have that species in the first place, if you have a choice as to what to create and what not to create?
In other words, if you want my opinion, it is this: Nature is "perfect", in the sense that It Is What It Is -- unless you insist Nature is the handiwork of a Creator God who is at once all-powerful and all-good.
That's where you run into trouble. That's when someone can legitimately say: "There had to be a better [more perfect] way."
My special objection has always been to the fact that animal life can only sustain itself by devouring other forms of life. That, frankly, is gross, not to say cruel. There had to be a better way!
Joan |
