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6/13/2025, 4:06:35 AM
>>40519916
The archons tried to improve the world, but they failed.
https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-archon-abandonment-theodicy
>If there’s a God, why do so many horrible things happen? Why has the last nearly billion years of history been filled with animals suffering and dying—through predation, starvation, and disease—rarely in ways that seem to achieve any greater goods? Why would a God of limitless power never have intervened throughout the course of this horrendous process?
>In my view, the most promising explanation comes from my friends Brian Cutter and Philip Swenson. This theodicy is a work in progress, and no doubt there are more details to be figured out. But in my view, it is the most plausible account of why God would allow such horrendous things to go on for so long.
>The short idea: there are archons (angel or demonlike creatures) tasked with making this world very good. In order to do so, they’d need to work together and carry out a difficult task. However, the archons have failed—most likely they didn’t even try to make the world very good.
>Why does the world look so callous and indifferent to our welfare? Because the creatures tasked with making it not indifferent to our welfare failed. The seeming indifference of the world is, on this picture, no more mysterious than an abandoned house looking run-down.
>Now you might wonder: why the heck would God set up such a scheme? Why would he make it so that if the archons abandon us, the world has such horrendous evil? Cutter and Swenson answer: connection-building.
>Suppose that you rescue someone from a burning building. You do it at great personal difficulty and risk to yourself. You seriously might have failed. Ultimately, this heroic act will forge a kind of connection between you and the person that you saved. They’ll see you as a hero, and your relationship with them will be stronger than it ever could have been otherwise.
The archons tried to improve the world, but they failed.
https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-archon-abandonment-theodicy
>If there’s a God, why do so many horrible things happen? Why has the last nearly billion years of history been filled with animals suffering and dying—through predation, starvation, and disease—rarely in ways that seem to achieve any greater goods? Why would a God of limitless power never have intervened throughout the course of this horrendous process?
>In my view, the most promising explanation comes from my friends Brian Cutter and Philip Swenson. This theodicy is a work in progress, and no doubt there are more details to be figured out. But in my view, it is the most plausible account of why God would allow such horrendous things to go on for so long.
>The short idea: there are archons (angel or demonlike creatures) tasked with making this world very good. In order to do so, they’d need to work together and carry out a difficult task. However, the archons have failed—most likely they didn’t even try to make the world very good.
>Why does the world look so callous and indifferent to our welfare? Because the creatures tasked with making it not indifferent to our welfare failed. The seeming indifference of the world is, on this picture, no more mysterious than an abandoned house looking run-down.
>Now you might wonder: why the heck would God set up such a scheme? Why would he make it so that if the archons abandon us, the world has such horrendous evil? Cutter and Swenson answer: connection-building.
>Suppose that you rescue someone from a burning building. You do it at great personal difficulty and risk to yourself. You seriously might have failed. Ultimately, this heroic act will forge a kind of connection between you and the person that you saved. They’ll see you as a hero, and your relationship with them will be stronger than it ever could have been otherwise.
6/11/2025, 10:44:29 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1_GlpJTsys
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