Atheist Comfort?

Dinesh D'Souza makes an interesting point in What's So Great About Christianity. He says that Christianity might not have a good explanation for evil but that's not what we need when we're suffering. "When I get sick, I don't want a theory to explain it; I want something that will make me feel better. Atheism may have a better explanation for evil and suffering, but it provides no consolation.... Theism, which doesn't have a good explanation, nevertheless offers a better way for people to cope with the consequences of evil and suffering" (274). Christianity speaks to our need not our curiosity. It does not respond to the atheist's anger either, except to say, "Calm down. God is God and is not aloof to suffering but has suffered in our place."

D'Souza says this is why there were no atheist sermons following the Virginia Tech massacre. Instead, "Every time there was a memorial ceremony or a public gathering, there was talk of God, divine mercy, and spiritual healing" (274-75). D'Souza says atheism has nothing more to say about evil than evil is not a problem because it does not exist. He quotes Richard Dawkins who writes: "At bottom [there is] no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference" (275). It's no wonder there were no atheist homilies in the aftermath of the murders--that message won't preach!

We know evil exists and D'Souza points out that this turns the tables on the atheist's materialist doctrine. "If we are purely material beings," he writes, "then we should no more object to mass murder than a river objects to drying up in a drought. Nevertheless we are not like rivers. We know evil is real .... But if evil is real, then good must be real as well. How else would we know the difference between the two" (276). This reminds me of Boethius who, in the Consolatio Philosophiae, asked, "Whence comes evil if God exists? But whence comes good if he exists not?"

Christ is the good God whose holiness defines evil by stark contrast and the only answer to the problem. Evil exists according to God's will and is remedied by God's self-sacrifice! Gloria in excelsis Deo!