Once I thought all art should be happy because then you spread happiness. But clearly God doesn't care about happiness because he made us stupid. He knew we would sin. But he still went and made a rule that if we sin then his life would suck forever.
Why did he have to make that rule!? He could’ve just not done that. All of theology is just cope over this cruel fact. God could've just not done that. He could’ve brought us back to Eden in a day. Now it’s been who knows how long and we’re still not even close. What gives?
You know what else God could have just not done? Made it so his beloved son had to have nails stuck through his hands to save humanity. Like, bro, you write the rules. Why set up the game that way? Oh what a tragedy it is! That I must incarnate in the flesh and suffer so greatly and die and wash your sins away in blood! He chose to do it that way. People can say “God can’t interfere with rules, it’s our fault!” but he wrote the laws and surely can interfere with the rules, else we’d have no miracles.
Unfortunately, against all objective data, I still believe in God and the inherent goodness of life.
The Hindu reconciliation is the only one that makes sense to me. Life is a play. Plays have tragedy. Tragedy is aesthetic. And God made man in his image so we must share aesthetic taste.
We suffer because something in us finds it fun and beautiful. Check out a spin class if you don’t believe me. Look at the faces of marathon runners. More seriously, Natalie Sudman was bombed in Iraq, nearly died, and during her near death experience found immense joy and hilarity in deciding what permanent, debilitating injuries she wanted when she came back to life. I can’t imagine it, but tons of people laugh at violent cartoons. What is that impulse?
External struggles are one thing but what about psychic suffering? Perhaps the englihtened stoic is joyful no matter the situation. But what about the normal person, constantly losing his center in the whirlind of life? And what about the mentally ill schizo who has no center? Does God enjoy that?
Nietzsche thinks so. It’s in his Birth of Tragedy. Man wants to struggle with chaos. “Chaos births a dancing star”. He wants to be wild and insane. To lose control. To wail from pangs of chaos. Somehow it’s fun for him. If our prefrontal cortex is too big, like Plato’s, life is less epic. We don’t get dramas like the Oresteia (Nietzche’s favorite). Things are slow and boring. There’s too much order.
Why is there no successful book series like "A Series Of Some Fortunate Events"? Why can't we produce a two hour movie of a crescendoing joy? The spectator in us likes tragedy, hurt, conflict. There's something epic about it. And beyond that, as the Orthodox church says, there’s some mysterious relation between love and pain. There’s love in our capacity for painful sacrifice. “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends”. Christ showed us what it looks like.
I’m convinced God wanted to see Christ suffer. He wanted to see Job suffer. And he wants to see us suffer. But Christ wanted to suffer. Some part of Job wanted to suffer. And it seems Natalie Sudman’s higher self enjoyed her limbs coming apart. What hidden part of us wants to suffer? What love are we trying to demonstrate? I can’t imagine it.