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What questions about the nature of God have arisen in response to the Holocaust?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
The Holocaust has had one great impact on theology. It has showed us the destructive effects of thanking God. The Jews (and Christians and Muslims) often put God into the events of their lives. If a man decides to become a teacher, believers of those three religions say that God's plan for him was to be a teacher, and that he found his vocation. If their crops succeed, they say that God has blessed them with their crops. However, when we attribute our worldly successes to God's love for us (or to a reward for our good deeds, or to some other divine intervention), then when we fail in life, we are met with a question. Why is God no longer intervening to help us? Some say that is is because God is teaching us, that is, punishing us for something wrong we have done. Some say that it is because God is testing us (testing our faith). Some say that God is making our happiness (when it will come) more meaningful by having it be preceded by suffering. Some say that God is showing us (in a way that we did not expect) what our vocation is. Some even say that God has forgotten us, or that God is evil (which is absurd). But the Holocaust denied the possibility of the first four ideas. The Jews had done nothing wrong to deserve the Holocaust (and if they had, God would have punished them in such a way long before then). And it was quite hard for Holocaust victims to believe that God was testing their faith. Did God value faith so much that he would put people through the Holocaust just to test it? And why did he pick that specific time to test the Jews' faith so cruelly? And after a few months, why would God not accept that the Jews had faith and liberate them? The third idea also could not be true; it was apparent to most Jews in the Holocaust that their experience in the Holocaust, even if they survived, was enough to prevent any future happiness ever (although not for Viktor Frankl, one Survivor). And if God had created the Holocaust to make future happiness more meaningful, why did he do this so severly only once in the history of the world and only to the Jews living in Europe? And finally, the Holocaust experience could hardly serve to show Jews their vocation; there is no vocation to be had in a slave camp full of death. Because the Jews had been so used to attributing worldly happenings to God (e g they would thank God for the food they received), and becaue it is absurd to think that God is cruel, most Jews of the Holocaust concluded that there was no God. And their conclusion evidenced the real danger of attributing wordly happenings to God, that is of thanking God: if we thank God for success, then how do we explain failure but by Atheism? But the Holocaust victims' conclusion that there is no God is not entirely logical. We are certain now that there is no God who in any way affects the happenings of the world, but there could still be a God who does not "touch" the world at all. This makes sense. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe in free will (except Calvinists). So couldn't the events of the world be the result of people's choices? The Holocaust, then, occured because the collective decisions of people caused it to happen. And if there is no free will, we can attribute the Holocaust to the laws of physics, psychology, etc., which (as fatalists say) have caused every event in the universe, rather than to decisions on the part of God. In short, the Holocaust has showed us that God does not in any way affect the happenings of the world and it is dangerous to believe that he does.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoIt's not really a new question, but the holocaust certainly caused a lot of people who perhaps wouldn't have given it a thought otherwise, to ask, "how can a loving god allow this to happen?"
It also happens to be an excellent example of what "begging the question" means.
In other words, if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and loving, (and that is the assumption), how do we account for all the misery that innocent people suffer? God knows it's going to happen, (omniscience), can stop it, (omnipotence), but does nothing, (loving?).
Either you conclude that there is no God, or you have to produce some pretty slippery excuses.
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