The Edge of My Questioning

One morning, as I was walking out of the house to go to work, I saw a huge spider web. My first thought was that God had "commissioned" the spider to do what it was doing. But then I thought about the fact that the spider was trying to catch flies. One could argue that God had commissioned those flies to do their thing also.

Why would God give those flies a purpose but give the spider the purpose to be their natural predator? Does this mirror how God might treat the rest of His creation? Does God tell you and I that He loves us and is on our side, but then create enemies to hurt us?

On a human scale, why do bad things happen to good people? Why does a seemingly good person get cancer and die? Why does a little child get sexually abused or drowned by a mother that is supposed to love them? Is there anyone more innocent than a little child?

Am I even asking the right questions here?

But here is where my questions lead me. There is an evil force (or being) that wields significant influence and control over our world. One could therefore argue that this force is God and that He is evil or has a dark side. However, this contradicts all of the good that we see in the world.

One might say (as I have heard by people before), that the world is full of contradictions so why not believe in a god who has an incoherent nature? In other words, why not believe in a god who is both good AND evil in contradiction? To such a questioner, I ask them whether they want an answer that is also free of contradictions....

We can't even engage in a discussion, let alone an argument, if we abandon reason. So I hold on to it as I proceed.

I mentioned the innocence of a little child. Just look at a newborn baby. Can anyone say that a good God didn't create it?

So a bipolar God doesn't make sense. It blurs the lines between good and evil, where good is supposed to be the essence of creation being used for its intended purpose.

So the only other option is that there is another being in the world that is evil. The scary part is that this being (what Christianity calls "Satan") might have more power than we often suspect. He might have the power to turn the spider against the fly as well as the mother against the child.