Why Didn't God Create a Perfect System?

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?