Solace in Reason

I don’t think a day goes buy when I don’t hear or read some version of, “Everything happens for a reason.” Does it? Does it really? And if so, why should I find that comforting?

The usual point of view I see for this sort of passive Pollyannaism is that God knows all, there is a reason for everything God does, God is good, thus–even if we don’t understand the details–whatever that is in God’s plan for us is ultimately good. Of course this goes against the whole “free will” thing (despite the inevitable protests to the contrary), but that’s neither here not there for the time being.

I’m amazed at the sort of hubris that believes that God’s reasoning will ultimately be sound and beneficial. I mean, to know God’s mind like that…seems sort of presumptuous, don’t you think, for mere mortals? I think the ancient Greeks had a sounder view when they used phrases such as, “the capricious Gods”. There’s no presumption that the Gods would be beneficent or even have a good reason for the things they did. They were Gods, after all.

Celeste: I had my reasons. Maybe they were dumb reasons, but they were reasons.

—Soapdish

I suppose people like to feel that someone’s in control…somewhere. I take it as it comes. Even if something grander than I am (and, really, what isn’t?) has the power to dictate the events surrounding my experience for their own reasons, I don’t know what those reasons might be. Without that knowledge, how are things different from my point of view from a world where everything happens for no reason whatsoever? The same events happen in any case.

Perhaps it comes from childhood. After we grow up, we find that many of the things our parents did actually had a reason behind it. So, when the adult us must confront the inexplicable, we take it another level and say that <insert grander something here> must have had a reason. Again, if I’m not privy to the reason, it really makes no more difference to me now than it did when I was a child. Saying that, “There must be a reason,” gives no increased comfort.

Penny: But, you know… everything happens–
Billy: Don’t say “for a reason”.
Penny: No, I’m just saying that… everything happens.

—Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

I’m sure many will say that’s depressing, but if you feel like the universe is just dumping on you, incessantly, since the day you were born…wouldn’t it be comforting to know that there wasn’t a reason? Of course, since you are the subject of a universal dump, that means that someone would doubtless come by and tell you that there must be a reason for all of your misery. That would make it all better, then, wouldn’t it?