Religion 200 Kushner

Discuss the phrase "acts of God"

When others try to help out those in need.

Is there a reason why bad things happen? Explain why "yes" and why "no". What is Kushner's point about how there can be no exceptions

Yes - science explains natural disasters, residual chaos etc. No - it is random/a coincidence. We cannot control the laws of nature because there are no exceptions. Pain is the price we pay for being alive.

Is anger wrong? When could it affect our relationship to God or others?

"Because out anger is more than we can contain, we find someone to blame, guilty or not, convincing ourselves that they could have and should have prevented the tragedy... Sometimes if we can't find another person to dump over our ager on, we turn it on ourselves." (117-118). This can lead us to become angry with God because we hold him responsible for what happened. Anger isn't wrong. Instead, we should try to, "be angry at the situation, rather than at ourselves, or at those who might have prevented it or are close to is trying to help us, or at God who lets it happen. (120). Being angry with ourselves effects our disposition. Being angry with others can scare others away, which makes it harder for them to help us. Being angry with God creates a barrier be religion and us. By being angry at the situation, it allows us to associate the anger with being hurt, without making it harder for us to be helped.

What does Kushner mean by "the devil's martyrs"? 'who makes them into that? Use this idea to explain how our suffering does get its meaning

"people whose death weakens other people's faith in God and in His world... Witnesses against God, against the meaningfulness of a moral life, rather than a witness in favor... It is our reaction to their death," (151) rather than those who died for God. Depending on our responses to suffering, we give suffering a positive or negative meaning.

2 things prayer does do for us

1. "The first thing prayer does for us is to put us in touch with other people, people who share the same concerns, values, dreams, and pains that we do." (131). 2. ??

2 ways prayer takes us out of isolation

1. Assuring us that we do not need to feel alone, rather we are a part of a greater reality and more of a future than we could have on our own. 2. "If we come to understand what prayer can and should be, and rid ourselves of some unrealistic expectations, we will be better able to call on prayer, and on God, when we need them the most." (135).

What are the 2 assumptions that explain our willingness to feel guilt - even when we should not?

1. Explains our willingness to feel guilt is, "our strenuous need to believe hat the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for every thing that happens." (102). This then leads us to make connections that are sometime made up in our minds. 2. We believe that, "we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen." (103).

What are the 2 prayers of Jacob?

1. For God to help him on his journey, and tries to "bribe" God by saying that he will let the Lord be his only God if he helps him out. He asks this of God because he is frightened, thinking that he cannot do something hard on his own. When he returns home twenty years later: 2. He "acknowledges that there is no currency in which God can be paid for blessing and helping us... Jacob asks God only to make him less afraid, by letting him know that He is at his side," (137-138) so he does not have to face what will happen on his own.

3 ways to solve the question why Job Suffers, why?

1. God has all the power - nothing happens if he does not want it 2. God is just and fair - people get what they deserve 3. Job is a good person A religious person want to believe all 3 things, but cannot believe all 3 when bad things happen to Job (a good person). Either 1 or 2 are false (theodicy problem)

What are 3 things for which you cannot pray?

1. God to change the laws of nature for our benefit 2. Prayers meant to do someone else harm 3. Ask God to for something that is within our power.

Basic Solutions we give to why bad things happen to good people?

1. People get what they deserve (punishment) 2. There's a purpose, plan 3. Makes us better/teaches (may God abuse his children?) 4. It's a test (a fair test) 5. Heaven is better (a better place)

Include 2 stories from the Hebrew Bible (OT) used by Kushner

1. The Creation story: He says, "As the crown of Creation, human beings are created, part animal, part divine." (82). Choice differentiates us from other animals. 2. The story of Adam and Eve: he gave them the choice between doing good and evil, and how they chose to go against God's wishes.

2 ways in which prayers are answered

1. Those who "pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, and for grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost." (138). God gives us the strength to cope with our problems. Kushner also says that, "reassures us that we don't have to face our fears and pains alone." (142). 2. By discovering that the people around us, with God by our side, gives us the strength within ourselves to help us survive tragedy.

Theodicy

Defense of god in the face of human suffering (no problem until the Enlightenment because of the rise of scientific method and atheism)

What good is God, then?

God "created a world in which many more good things happen than bad things happen." (152). He also says that God inspires people to others by protecting them from, "the danger of feeling alone, abandoned, or judged." (153). Although God neither causes or prevents tragedies, he helps people by inspiring others to help out (153). Kushner says that, "God may not prevent the calamity, but He gives us the strength and the perseverance to overcome it." (155).

My God is not cruel; sorry about yours - Explain.

God is not the cause of our misfortunes. He says that some misfortunes are, "caused by bad luck... by bad people, and some are simply an inevitable consequence of our being human and... mortal, living in a world of inflexible natural laws." (147-148). Painful things that happen to us are not punishments from God, instead we can turn to God for help with overcoming them.

Is guilt always wrong?

Guilt is sometimes appropriate and necessary. He says, "sometimes we have caused the sorrow in our lives and ought to take responsibility." (104). Having an excessive sense of guilt gives us the "tendency to blame ourselves for things which are clearly not our fault, robs us of our self-esteem and perhaps of our capacity to grow and act." (104). He says that in order to move on with our lives, we have get over the irrational feeling that anything bad that happens is our own fault because not everything in the world is the result of our doing.

Why didn't God stop Hitler and his death camps?

Humans have the freedom to choose to do good or bad. God is not there to act like a parent to us. "In order to let us be free, in order to let us be human, God has to leave us free to choose to do right or do wrong. If we are not free to choose evil, then we are not free to choose good either." (89). He agrees with Dorothee Soelle that, "He does not control man's choosing between good and evil." (94).

Can we explain why bad things happen? What can we do?

Kushner says that we cannot avoid the problem of why bad things happen to good people (157). He says that we should, "forgive the world for not being perfect, to forgive God for not making a better world, to reach out to the people around us, and to go on living despite it all." (161). Kushner is saying that if we can be forgiving towards God towards others, and even events we cannot explain, we have the potential to "be able to recognize that the ability to forgive and the ability to love are the weapons God has given us to enable us to live fully, bravely, and meaningfully in this less-than-perfect world." (162).

Does this mean my suffering has no meaning?

Kushner suggests that we can give meaning to bad things that happen to us. He suggests that instead of asking, "Why did this happen to me?" we should ask ourselves, "Now that this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?" (149).

Which proposition is the author of the book of Job willing to drop? Which one is Kushner willing to drop and why?

The author of the book is willing to give up 1. That God has all the power - nothing happens if her doesn't want it Kushner thinks that God is never responsible for human suffering