Where Was God in Aurora?
As a Colorado native the shooting in Aurora much like the Columbine shootings in 1999 have had a profound impact on me. Like most people I'm saddened, outraged and have many questions. In fact every time a horrible tragedy occurs whether its a mass shooting or natural disaster questions from believers and skeptics alike abound. One question I do not have however is the question of where God was when this tragedy unfolded.
The question of "where was God when..." is asked probably most frequently because our concept of God is of a being who dislikes tragedy and suffering and it doesn't seem to jive when tragic events occur.
I am writing from the perspective of a believer and Christian so my view is obviously different from that of a skeptic. I do think there are good answers and want to try and explain as simply as possible to bolster the faith of the believer and to try and answer the questions of the skeptic.
The Problem of Free Will
When someone asks the question "where was God when...?" typically behind the question is a frustration that God did not step in and prevent the tragedy from occurring. The source of the frustration is that God is supposed to be all-powerful and could prevent anything that he desired. So why didn't he?
First ask yourself this question. How much would you want God to intervene? Would you wish him to prevent all natural disasters? Would you want all murders stopped? Would you want all child-abuse to be eliminated? I think all of us would desire those things. But take it a step further. Would you want all lying to be stopped or to get fairly trivial would you want God to intervene so you never stubbed your toe?
The point is, where you draw the line for God's intervention in human affairs? At what point does God's intervention prevent us from having free will?
And that really is the point. Because God has chosen to give us free will he cannot by definition "make" us only choose to do good all the time. And because all humans have free will they have a choice to help their fellow man or harm their brother.
It all Seems So Pointless
The problem of suffering and evil in the world is undoubtably one of the hardest questions for the believer to answer but I do think there are some good answers.
Many skeptics have said that a good, all-knowing, all-powerful God would not allow pointless suffering in the world. Because there appears to be much pointless suffering they say God cannot exist.
Tim Keller in his book The Reason for God makes this point: "Tucked away within the assertion that the world is filled with pointless evil is a hidden premise, namely, that if evil appears pointless to me, then it must be pointless."
Of course what this assumes is that our minds should be able to plumb the depths of God's mind and understand every reason he has for what he does. Many people assume that if there are good reasons to allow suffering then they should be accessible to our minds but why should this be? Logically this doesn't hold up.
Also consider how hard times and suffering actually help people to get through life. Many people would admit that most of what they really needed for success in life came out of their experiences with pain and struggle. A lot of times in hindsight people will look back and see that suffering is exactly what they needed to help them in the future.
Keller says later: "...with time and perspective most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life. Why couldn't it be possible from God's vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them?"
If you are mad because you believe God is all-knowing and powerful enough to stop suffering and hasn't, you have to realize that the same God is all-knowing and powerful enough to have reasons to allow it.
God Really Does Care
One of the reasons I am a Christian is because the Christian faith has answers and hope for suffering. Some people don't care about logic and philosophy and whether or not it all proves or disproves God exists. They are hurting. What I would say to that person is to understand that Jesus put himself on the hook for all of human suffering.
Before God created mankind and gave him free will he knew man would reject him and so Jesus volunteered to come to earth to suffer on our behalf. Not only did Jesus suffer the torture and execution of the cross but he suffered the breaking of the infinite relationship with his father which in my opinion is the greatest suffering anyone has or will go through.
Think of when you have lost a relationship. It hurts to be left by a friend or co-worker. The pain only intensifies if you suffer the loss of relationship with a family member. Now think of the infinite loving relationship Jesus had with his father. To lose that relationship, to have his father turn his back on him as the Bible says would have been more terrible than anyone could imagine. But he did it because he loved us.
So Where Was God in Aurora?
He was where he has always been. Colossians 1:17 says: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. God was actively watching and holding this world together. Watching and working with pain as his creation hurts itself and others. Watching and working with love as he desires for his creation to love him back.
God was sovereignly allowing this event to happen not so that we might have the most happiness in life but so that people would ultimately be drawn to him. And when that happens the Bible gives us a promise in Revelation 21:4 that one day suffering will be no more and that every tear will be wiped away.
That is my hope.
Five Ways The Dark Knight Rises Stumbled
While movie trilogies are fairly common its rare that all three movies are epic hits. In fact some might argue that there have only been 2 epic trilogies - the original Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. More common is when either the first or the first two movies are epic and the third falls flat. In my life there have been three movie trilogies that I was really excited to see the end to. And when I say "excited" I mean stand in line for hours, pre-buy tickets excited.
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
- The Lord of the Rings Return of the King (2003)
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
I absolutely hated the Matrix Revolutions and was severely disappointed - mainly because I wasn't smart enough to get the trilogy while Return of the King exceeded my expectations and is the gold standard when it comes to ending out a trilogy in my opinon.
As of now I feel like The Dark Knight Rises falls somewhere in the middle. All said I did really like the movie and it was very entertaining but it doesn't come close to being better than its predecessor The Dark Knight.
This could change as I've only seen it once and these are only my initial thoughts but here are five things that I think The Dark Knight Rises swung and missed on.
1. The pacing in the first act was glacial.
We're treated to a Bond like sequence out of the gate that blows away any action sequence in the previous two Batman movies but are left after that to suffer through was seemed like five or six Michael Caine monologues (and I really like Michael Caine monologues - it was one of the best moments in The Dark Knight).
2. I never connected emotionally with the city under siege.
We weren't really invested in the plight of the cops and we're never really shown how terrible the conditions must have been for ordinary folks. The resistance can for the most part walk around the street and observe the bomb truck unmolested. Really the only horror of the siege that was show was when the rich dude (who probably deserved to die anyway) was exiled onto the ice. And even that wasn't built up very much. And come on did nobody tell these guys how you walk on thin ice? You crawl and spread out your weight...
I guess if you really think about how much of a effect it would have on the world in general to have a city the size of New York under a nuclear siege - to try and convey exactly what that would mean is almost too big an undertaking. I thought this area of the plot fell flat.
3. I didn't understand why the regular people of the city were so fed up with the elite.
This is never explained and we were never able to emotionally invest in the plight (if there was one) of the common person being held under the boot of the elite. Selina Kyle has this great line that says "you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us." When did this happen?
4. The death of Bane was cliched and really weak.
What do you do when your hero is about to die, you've already had an epic fight scene and you need a reason to get Catwomen back into the city? You have her come bursting in at the last movement guns a blazing and save the day by killing Bane just as he's about to kill our hero.
I really liked Bane as a bad guy. Tom Hardy brought so much presence even without seeing his mouth that he was believable as a terrorist. I even came around on his voice by the end of the movie. But a great villain deserves a great death and being shot by a gun by Selina Kyle just doesn't cut it.
5. The fake death of Batman.
If Batman dies my opinion of this movie skyrockets and moves this trilogy very close to the Lord of Rings. If Batman dies I don't write a mostly negative review. If Batman dies I don't care about nitpicks one through four. But he doesn't.
For all of Christopher Nolans talk about doing things different, and making this a darker grittier version of the Batman genre, and closing out the trilogy I really expected Batman to die.
One of the greatest lines in the movie is when Batman exclaims in his funny gruff voice that he hasn't given Gotham everything yet... implying his life. At the very least I wish Nolan would have let the movie goer decide and debate about whether or not he was dead.
You could have left in the part about the auto-pilot being fixed and you could have even had Alfred lifting up his head after he takes a drink in that little cafe but roll the credits there. Don't show Bruce Wayne's face. Let us debate. Keep it dark.
It also would have seemed to fit better with Christian Bale's portrayal of Bruce Wayne throughout the movie. He was tortured and upset that Batman had to take the fall for Two-Face and he seemed like he had so little to live for anyway. His redemption was the giving of his life - the ultimate sacrifice that would be remembered. It seemed cheap and too easy to give us a "happy" ending.
All that said I still really liked the movie. It was very entertaining, had great action, some really good lines, a good villain and for the most part a good story. Could it have been better? Yes. Will I buy it? No.
I give it four out of five stars.