Life is complicated.
Reality and beliefs are often at war with one another—and often for good reasons. I would be naive to assume otherwise.
Lately, I recalled a conversation I shared with a friend almost ten years ago. They were openly atheistic, shaped by many struggles from childhood onward. Whenever they narrated their life story, I could always pick up hints of bitterness and anger.
Their argument was that if a truly all-powerful entity existed, why do we suffer, experience the loss of loved ones, and face such imbalance of opportunities and resources—even though the world has more than enough to sustain everyone?
They believed that if such an entity exists, either it is not all-powerful, or it thrives on the suffering of its creation.
The concept of an afterlife determined by actions from our past life seemed far-fetched and difficult to believe. Why would an all-powerful being, full of compassion for its creation, make us jump through hoops just to prove our allegiance? Why not eliminate suffering altogether, since none of us asked to be born into it? From the day we are born, we have no true “free will”—we can only choose from what is laid before us, which is often not much.
When we suffer, where does their attention go? Do they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear? Is it a demonstration of sovereignty—that our suffering means very little on a cosmic scale? What will justice feel like for those who were miseducated or grew bitter because of the way they were raised? Would the murderer and their victims share the same table in an afterlife where all has been forgiven?
And what about the memories of horror carried from past lives? How will those be justified—or perhaps subdued?
To this day, it remains one of the most frightening conversations I have ever had. Though I was raised to believe, I was, deep down, too ashamed to admit that I share the same questions.
I believe that just as we cannot fathom the size of the universe, we cannot understand why things are the way they are, no matter how good our intentions as humanity may be.
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
Ecclesiastes 1:2