If God Created War, Does That Mean That War is Good?
I used to think that war was bad. But no longer. How can we believe that war is bad, when the whole universe is at war, from the micro level to the macro level?
When white blood cells grow too abundant, they attack the healthy red blood cells at the micro level, killing the whole organism in the process. We call this “Cancer.” Balance and harmony are necessary, then, to promote health and life. Without balance, the larger organism dies, killed off by very, very tiny things. So, to preserve the whole organism, war must transpire inside this vast human machine, comprised of a nearly infinite number of separate parts. This is when war is necessary, whenever the delicate balance is threatened.
Even the land and water are at war. Floods groove canyons, destroying the old landscape as tectonic plates shift, deep within the earth, creating tsunamis. Without these tectonic plates, the earth could not exist as it does, and there would be no life as we know it. These appear to be random occurrences, but are they?
Likewise, asteroids traveling vast distances impact the earth and kill everything in their path. While the earth simply adapts to this apparently purposeless act while life and nature continue on.
Insurance companies call these “Acts of God.” Meaning, they are beyond the purview of human wisdom and control. Few people (myself included) think that God directs such events like an angry landlord, evicting the present inhabitants in order to cleanse his property. Although, clearly, some people do.
There are two ways to view these events from a religious point of view (at least, as far as I can tell.) One is the notion that earth and all its inhabitants are a part of a single organism. That trees and water, man and animal are not separate but interconnected in ways that tend to mystify the Western mind. Just as potentially warring red and white blood cells appear separate, but are also a part of what we view as a single organism.
An oak table, for instance, is a single object, comprised of trillions of microscopic atomic particles, subdivided yet again, into sub-atomic particles, and then into quantum particles, which have their own rules, independent of rest of the organism, or so it seems. In other words, the table is not solid. This is just an illusion of the senses, not reality.
Eastern religions call this Pantheism. Meaning, God is a part of creation, and creation is a part of God, including humans, and that all things are essentially one.
Western religions hold a more segmented view of reality; there is body, mind, soul or spirit, earth, land, water, trees, and animals. All, separate things, apparently, but occupying one space called earth and governed by a variety of invisible forces, including gravity. Gravity ties together all things, even out into the vast reaches of the universe. And, it helps to make them work with a peerless precision.
What is gravity? No one knows. Just as no one knows why it exists, only that we can observe its effect and predict its behavior.
All three monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam appear to be different from Eastern Religions in that regard. However, all three began as Eastern religions, having emerged from the Asian continent, albeit in the Middle East and closely connected to North African and Europe by the way of the Mediterranean. This is probably why the scientific method emerged from this part of the world since science is about peeling the onion to find core ideas, so we can see how their individual parts work.
There are many ways, though, in which the pantheist and the monotheist agree. That being, that unnecessary violence is wrong. But, sometimes, violence is needed, in order to restore harmony. The idealist notion that pacifism is moral, regardless of circumstance, is to argue that cancer is no different than good health. Who, but a child believes this to be true? Therein is the problem of moral relativism. The universe as a whole testifies against this.
That’s why I believe that war can be good. When? When it’s necessary, and only then. War is as much an observable part of God’s intention as harmony. If you’re an atheist, substitute nature.
So, let’s go back to the notion of an angry God evicting his tenants thru “Acts of God.”. If nature has a purpose, then, the way in which the universe works reflects the nature of its creator. If it has no purpose, we should expect randomness and not order, but we don’t really find that. What we do find, is a fine tuning so refined, that the universe would collapse if the various forces that govern it, didn’t exist. This is just as true at the micro level as it is at the macro level. Meaning, that what appear to be random acts, are simply the way in which a material universe needs to work in order for it to be "Alive" and self-sustaining.
So, now that we know that war can be good ( at least in some limited capacity) let’s decide who is wise enough to make these decisions and what standards they should use. Which, in the end, may be far harder to decipher than the mechanical processes that make it all work. Unfortunately, even if we eventually figure out the one, the other, remains as much a mystery as it ever has.
Mark Magula
When white blood cells grow too abundant, they attack the healthy red blood cells at the micro level, killing the whole organism in the process. We call this “Cancer.” Balance and harmony are necessary, then, to promote health and life. Without balance, the larger organism dies, killed off by very, very tiny things. So, to preserve the whole organism, war must transpire inside this vast human machine, comprised of a nearly infinite number of separate parts. This is when war is necessary, whenever the delicate balance is threatened.
Even the land and water are at war. Floods groove canyons, destroying the old landscape as tectonic plates shift, deep within the earth, creating tsunamis. Without these tectonic plates, the earth could not exist as it does, and there would be no life as we know it. These appear to be random occurrences, but are they?
Likewise, asteroids traveling vast distances impact the earth and kill everything in their path. While the earth simply adapts to this apparently purposeless act while life and nature continue on.
Insurance companies call these “Acts of God.” Meaning, they are beyond the purview of human wisdom and control. Few people (myself included) think that God directs such events like an angry landlord, evicting the present inhabitants in order to cleanse his property. Although, clearly, some people do.
There are two ways to view these events from a religious point of view (at least, as far as I can tell.) One is the notion that earth and all its inhabitants are a part of a single organism. That trees and water, man and animal are not separate but interconnected in ways that tend to mystify the Western mind. Just as potentially warring red and white blood cells appear separate, but are also a part of what we view as a single organism.
An oak table, for instance, is a single object, comprised of trillions of microscopic atomic particles, subdivided yet again, into sub-atomic particles, and then into quantum particles, which have their own rules, independent of rest of the organism, or so it seems. In other words, the table is not solid. This is just an illusion of the senses, not reality.
Eastern religions call this Pantheism. Meaning, God is a part of creation, and creation is a part of God, including humans, and that all things are essentially one.
Western religions hold a more segmented view of reality; there is body, mind, soul or spirit, earth, land, water, trees, and animals. All, separate things, apparently, but occupying one space called earth and governed by a variety of invisible forces, including gravity. Gravity ties together all things, even out into the vast reaches of the universe. And, it helps to make them work with a peerless precision.
What is gravity? No one knows. Just as no one knows why it exists, only that we can observe its effect and predict its behavior.
All three monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam appear to be different from Eastern Religions in that regard. However, all three began as Eastern religions, having emerged from the Asian continent, albeit in the Middle East and closely connected to North African and Europe by the way of the Mediterranean. This is probably why the scientific method emerged from this part of the world since science is about peeling the onion to find core ideas, so we can see how their individual parts work.
There are many ways, though, in which the pantheist and the monotheist agree. That being, that unnecessary violence is wrong. But, sometimes, violence is needed, in order to restore harmony. The idealist notion that pacifism is moral, regardless of circumstance, is to argue that cancer is no different than good health. Who, but a child believes this to be true? Therein is the problem of moral relativism. The universe as a whole testifies against this.
That’s why I believe that war can be good. When? When it’s necessary, and only then. War is as much an observable part of God’s intention as harmony. If you’re an atheist, substitute nature.
So, let’s go back to the notion of an angry God evicting his tenants thru “Acts of God.”. If nature has a purpose, then, the way in which the universe works reflects the nature of its creator. If it has no purpose, we should expect randomness and not order, but we don’t really find that. What we do find, is a fine tuning so refined, that the universe would collapse if the various forces that govern it, didn’t exist. This is just as true at the micro level as it is at the macro level. Meaning, that what appear to be random acts, are simply the way in which a material universe needs to work in order for it to be "Alive" and self-sustaining.
So, now that we know that war can be good ( at least in some limited capacity) let’s decide who is wise enough to make these decisions and what standards they should use. Which, in the end, may be far harder to decipher than the mechanical processes that make it all work. Unfortunately, even if we eventually figure out the one, the other, remains as much a mystery as it ever has.
Mark Magula
