Why Didn't God Create A Perfect System?
It's a question that is asked thousands of times over each day.
Why did God create a world that would allow these terrible things to happen? I
was contemplating this question today while studying for my National Board Dental Exam Part One. I was studying oral bacteria specifically. You see, in a healthy
individual you have several different kinds of bacteria colonizing the mouth.
These bacteria are normal and actually work to keep your mouth clean on a
normal basis and protect against other forms of invasive bacteria. What
often ends up happening, however, is that people began to eat the wrong types
of foods, and worst of all begin sipping on soda throughout the day. These bad
habits combined with poor oral hygiene lead to tooth decay and a host of other
possible diseases such as gingivitis and periodontitis.
So the question then arises in my mind: Why did God create a
system that could be manipulated like that? At first glance it seems like a
good system. The bacteria live a symbiotic relationship with us and do not
cause problems. But it actually isn't a perfect system is it? A perfect system
would be free of the potential for disease. Take cancer for another example.
The cell processes which allow cancer to develop are normal cell processes. The
cell normally has the ability to replicate and reproduce itself. The problem
arises when there is a mutation in a gene that normally inhibits tumor
production. This mutation allows a tumor to grow unchecked by the body’s
natural defense system, which would otherwise program the replicating cell to
die. Why did God allow such manipulations to even be possible? Why didn't he
just create cells that always functioned a certain way and never mutated no matter
what kind of substance they came in contact with? It seems as though the most
logical answer is one of two choices, either God is not good, or God does not
exist.
Before we go too far down that road though, let me propose
another question. Why did God create us? You realize that He could have created
perfect little robots that always did the right thing, right? He could have
created robots that lived in perfect harmony with everything around them. He
could have created us without the ability to choose for ourselves, to think,
reason, and to form our own thoughts and conclusions. God could have created us
without a brain. Instead, we do not live in harmony with everything round us.
We have depleted 90% of all the large fish in the oceans. We continue to
slaughter 100 million sharks a year just to put their fins in soup, while we
dump their bodies in to the ocean to drown. We cut down millions of acres of
forest to fuel the demand of our economies. We dynamite entire mountains to get
at the metal inside. In our lust for power, money, or adventure, we have
systematically began to destroy the environment of our planet. The very
environment that keeps us alive. Why did God create such an awful creation?
The answer is simple. Because the same mechanism that allows us
to do such terrible things also allows for one extremely important process that
we refer to as love. The ability to feel, to interact with others, to fall for
someone, to experience emotion, to cry for joy. The ability for a parent to
look at their child and feel a desire to protect them and cherish them. These
things are all a product of this terrible gift of free will. Without free will
there would be no conscious mind. Without our ability to make choices and to
perform tasks that are not predetermined I do not believe there would be
intelligent life at all. Intelligence requires autonomy.
God designed this autonomous system from the ground up. In my
theory, everything has autonomy. From the electron that follows it’s
undetermined and incalculable path through space, to the bacterial cells that
inhabit our body, all the way up to the eukaryotic organisms such as animals
like ourselves. Each of these has been put into a system that allows for an
infinite number of variables and choices that creates the environment in which
utter and complete free will is possible. God created a system that could
interact with itself, adapt to changes and choices made. What makes this system
terrible? Simply put, we do. Free will acted upon in an irresponsible order
leads to the state we are in. A huge percentage of human disease is
self-inflicted. HIV didn't even exist as a human disease until the 1980s. How
many more of our diseases were created by practices we take part in? Heart
disease, lung cancer, liver failure, all of these things are estimated at 80 to
over 90 percent self-inflicted.
So if everything was originally
created to coexist with each other, how do we get back to that original system?
How do we once again make our world that Biblical ideal that has been handed
down from generation to generation? How do we make our world a garden planet
once again? It may be too late for our planet. After tens of thousands of
years, we may have pushed it beyond its ability to become that garden home so
many desire, but that should not stop us from trying. It is the simple things
that make the most difference in this world. Eat a balanced diet and exercise.
If you do those two simple things you will protect yourself from the majority
of disease spreading throughout our country. Decrease your reliance on society
and its consumerism mentality. The next time you eat out remember where your
food comes from and then make intelligent decisions on how you order. Heck,
become vegetarian and never slaughter another animal for food again if you
really want to solve an ethical dilemma. If God exists, he didn't create a
flawed system, he created one with the potential for life, and that more
abundantly. Knowing all this, how should we then live?
