Shining Through the Clouds

One of the most common questions I have heard from atheists is, how can a God who doesn't control everything and determine everything directly also be providential? If, as Christians believe, every event in the universe is not personally caused by God, but rather controlled by His natural order and subject to the chaos of sin, how can He also have Providence, and how is it fair that He apparently ignores human evil and suffering? This reaches to two of the deepest issues atheists have with theism, especially Christianity, and reflects two of the deepest concepts within Christianity and indeed all theism: why does God permit suffering, and how can an invisible God work providentially through nature.

Throughout history, two predominant forms of belief have existed: the sacramental, providential view of theism, and the Gnostic-type belief in a secret, hidden knowledge, separate from nature, accessible only be special techniques and complicated logic, but in and of itself impersonal. Both of these have taken hundreds of expressions over time, as branches splintered into branches of branches, but they are an accurate umbrella description.

The hallmark of theism, in all its forms, is belief in a supernatural (meaning, beyond physical nature) entity with personality of some kind, directly involved in the world with intent and sentience, as personal and distinct as ourselves. Exactly what sort of entity this is, how many there are, and in what way they are involved with the universe depends on the specific type of theism - but all share that same fundamental belief. Even in its simplest or most remote forms, theism has powerful implications for human life and other beliefs which stem from it, often taking of incredible complexity, breadth and cultural identity over the centuries and millennia of its people's devotion. A theistic worldview calls us to not merely acknowledge our deity but to have a personal relationship with it, in some way - to contemplate it, follow it, worship it, and sacrifice to it, to love and obey it. And a universe ruled by theism, especially in its most ancient forms, involves two essential ideas: sacrament and providence.

In a theistic worldview where all the universe is purposed, intended, nothing left out or uncontrollable by its Sovereign, everything takes on a greater, deeper significance. Nothing is random or meaningless. In Christianity, this takes on a special form: not only does every single object and event bear spiritual meaning and symbolic importance, God has acted through the world with revelation and personal Incarnation. He has both told us His purposes, and lived them Himself as example and redeemer.

But the Christian God, while being King of the Universe, is not a tyrant, and while His purposes involve goodness and truth, they are primarily concerned with freedom and the unity expected of it. With freedom comes responsibility for humanity; but freedom is also in the world. Within the context of the laws of nature which God has established from the beginning, nature is free to behave as it will. However, there is also another factor in freedom, without which it cannot exist: sin. Nature is free to exist and function as it will, but because sin was burned onto the universe, it now involves injustices, death, chaos and confusion, but within itself and in relation to man. The cycles of nature, though tainted with sin, continue to function by the order God has established, which is supreme over any additives, even sin; but because of freedom, God allows sin to affect the world, even to affect humanity. Without freedom, there can be no justice; morality without freedom is irrelevant, sin without freedom is cruelty, truth without freedom is detached from human life as the lies and deceit derived from a lack of truth cannot lead to any wrong choices on our part, as without freedom, there can be no real guilt or blame. We become animals and instruments of God, who Himself becomes a tyrant.

This is not the true Christian view of God and His Providence, however. While God is personal, He is not human - He is Divine. This confers both higher authority, and a completely different state of existence than we experience as physical, mortal, limited bodies and souls. If God was directly visible to each of us, we would care about nothing else but adoring Him. We would ignore one another, nature, life, ourselves, and all else. Since God created everything, He obviously did not intend this to happen, so He must necessarily remain remote, interacting with us through a veil, a cloud, indirectly, never showing us His face but only giving a glimpse sufficient for faith, but insufficient for the tyranny of certainty. Even Christ kept His God nature secret, revealing it only by the Spirit who confers wisdom (Matthew 16:17); without faith, it would not have been revealed. Christ's apostles followed Him even before His divinity was directly revealed, and this was not enough for all, such as St. Thomas and Judas Iscariot. God not only intends freedom, but the unity, responsibility, and charity derived from it and its counterpart, sin. Further, with man being limited in power and victim to the sin of the world and himself, he is given stewardship of the world, gifted with the powers of reason and knowledge, as well as a conscience to use them properly, giving the ability to use nature for the betterment of mankind, ordering it according to God's own orderliness. As medieval scholars believed, order is the language of God.

The Gnostic approach, on the other hand, has its own implications. By denying a personal, theistic divinity, atheism naturally leads to the belief that knowledge itself, invisible yet verifiable and very powerful, to be the highest thing, even spiritual, and the methods of acquiring knowledge to be the secret tools of the elite by which we attain enlightenment. Now, there are many different expressions of atheism, just as there are of theism. But as I said, this Gnostic umbrella seems to apply generally. More specifically, I have seen a common trait in its view of enlightenment which even the most nihilistic atheists, such as Nietzsche, espouse: through knowledge, we can conquer and control nature, fulfilling our evolutionary purpose. By liberating ourselves of the delusions of theistic religion and morality, of traditional gender roles and free charity, of the ideas of redemption, grace and redemptive suffering, we can use the tools of science which the philosopher Francis Bacon designated as the tools of human salvation to overcome the limitations, consequences and errors within nature. We can make things the way we want them to be, and avoid the repercussions of the means we use to attain those ends. As J. R. R. Tolkien said, in his essay "On Fairy-Stories", it is an "improved means to deteriorated ends". And in this utilitarianism, where the worth of something is determined by its usefulness towards the attainment of enlightenment for oneself and the human species, morality is power and charity is a wasteful residue of a more primitive age when human life was universally sacred and helping the poor sinners was an act of good mercy, rather than an "opium of the people" as Karl Marx, one of the most influential proponents of this philosophy whose effect was deeper than many believe, said (Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right).

While the Christian God does not directly control every event or any human choice, His purposes, intentions and attributes are revealed through the sacramental universe as symbolism and transubstantiation, through God's personal communications, prophecies, laws and miracles of the Word, infallible guidance of Tradition and realization of His Incarnation. But His Providence is not a momentary miracle or a symbolic message. It is the personal relationship He has within the heart of every person. God's highest goal for His Creation is the salvation of every single human person, so that we may attain the destined Beatitude for which we were made. In our temptations, trials, loves, hopes, fears and sorrow, He is there with us, conferring grace, offering solace in His warm light, and encouraging us to take comfort in the loving, peaceful unity we can have with one another. For "wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there I AM in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20 Amplified Bible (text in parentheses omitted)