Life is randomly cruel
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 12
Issue Numbering: 3
Section: B
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 31
Formal Sub-Theme: None.
Individual Publication Date: June 22, 2024
Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2024
Author(s): James Haught
Author(s) Bio: James A. Haught, syndicated by PeaceVoice, was the longtime editor at the Charleston Gazette and had been the editor emeritus since 2015. He was thought to have been the first investigative reporter in West Virginia. He won two dozen national newswriting awards and was author of 12 books and 150 magazine essays. He was also a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine and was writer-in-residence for the United Coalition of Reason. He died on Sunday, July 23 (2023), at the age of 91.
Word Count: 393.
Image Credits: None.
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Keywords: Almighty, Australia, brain cancer, cerebral palsy, death, Down syndrome, evil, God, Harold Kushner, nature, theodicy, tragedies.
Life is randomly cruel
One of my in-laws, a lovely young mother in Australia, has two adorable, bright-eyed, intelligent sons. But the second one, age 3, has developed unstoppable brain cancer that has kept the family in agony for a year. Now he’s just weeks from death, and everyone is grieving.
This rouses questions about life’s horrible cruelty that hits a few innocent victims, leaving others untouched.
Cerebral palsy maims about three babies out of every thousand born in America. Down syndrome hits one per 700. Spina bifida about one per thousand.
The families did nothing to deserve this nightmare. All they can do is struggle to cope, while others grieve for them.
For years, I attended a philosophy club led by a brilliant surgeon with vast knowledge. In high school, his teen-age son developed cancer in his nasal passage. The family went through years of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation — hopes rising when symptoms vanished, then falling again with each recurrence. The young man finally died while a university student amid 20,000 healthy students. All we club members could do was lament.
I’ll be 90 on my next birthday. I’ve never had a serious disease or injury. Why was I lucky while others weren’t? It can’t be because I’ve lived in piety, since I’m a sour old skeptic.
Famously, Rabbi Harold Kushner had a beloved son who died of a grotesque wasting disease while parents and congregation prayed fervently for God to save him. The rabbi wrote a best-selling book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, asking why God didn’t help. He concluded that the deity isn’t all-powerful. This contradicted most visions of The Almighty.
In philosophy, it’s called the problem of evil: If God is all-loving and almighty, why does he permit earthquakes — and tsunamis and hurricanes and twisters and floods and wildfires and mudslides — with sometimes calamitous tolls?
Similarly, why did he design hawks to rip rabbits apart and cobras to kill children?
Finally, why does he doom us all to death? For centuries, theologians have tried to answer these damning questions — but they cannot. Their futile struggle is the field of theodicy.
Obviously, the answer is that no all-loving, almighty god exists. Logic doesn’t rule out a vicious god, but it precludes a kind one.
So we have nobody to blame, except nature itself, for the tragedies that ravage a few, sparing others.
This article is adapted from a piece that originally appeared at Daylight Atheism on April 19, 2021.
Bibliography
None
Footnotes
None
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Haught J. Life is randomly cruel. June 2024; 12(3). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Haught, J. (2024, June 22). Life is randomly cruel. In-Sight Publishing. 12(3).
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): HAUGHT, J. Life is randomly cruel. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 3, 2024.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Haught, James. 2024. “Life is randomly cruel.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 3 (Summer). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Haught, J “Life is randomly cruel.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 3 (June 2024).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel.
Harvard: Haught, J. (2024) ‘Life is randomly cruel’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(3). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel>.
Harvard (Australian): Haught, J 2024, ‘Life is randomly cruel’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Haught, James. “Life is randomly cruel” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.12, no. 3, 2024, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel.
Vancouver/ICMJE: James H. Life is randomly cruel [Internet]. 2024 Jun; 12(3). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-cruel.
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