Does God Intervene in Human Affairs?

Q: I thoroughly enjoy your column and appreciate the wise and thoughtful insight you provide week after week. I was hoping to pick your brain about something that has troubled me for some time. As I'm sure you are aware, the Catholic Mass incorporates intercessions on behalf of the living and dead as part of the Eucharistic prayer. As a Catholic (and general optimist), I'm inclined to believe that God indeed listens to our prayers and intervenes in earthly affairs when and if He sees fit. At the same time, I find it hard to reconcile this belief with my general understanding of God as a perfect and sinless entity. There are sins of omission as well as commission, and so to me the thought of His coming to the aid of some but not others equally suffering is incompatible with this understanding. Einstein is quoted as saying, "I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice." But how could it be otherwise? -- T., via godsquadquestion@aol.com

A: You raise two questions so deep that they are really mysteries and not problems. The first is whether God intervenes in human affairs. The second only arises if we decide to believe that God does intervene, and it is the question of why God chooses to help some people and not others.

Let us think about what we mean when we say that God intervenes in human affairs. One thing we cannot mean -- or should not mean, in my opinion -- is that God can suspend the laws of nature. An all-powerful God could do this, but an all-wise God would not do it. Suspending the laws of gravity is not only unlikely, it is incomprehensible.

In Genesis, when God made a covenant with Noah after the Flood, God promised that the order of seedtime and harvest, day and night would never again cease. God knows that unless we can rely on the regularity of the laws of nature, which God has also made, we would have no confidence in anything. This regularity of nature is what Einstein meant when he said that God does not play dice with the universe. I agree with Einstein, but I also agree with the Bible.

I know the Bible is filled with miracles like the splitting of the Red Sea and multiplying loaves and fishes, but I choose to see most of these miracles as symbolic, or perhaps the report of overly enthusiastic observers of what actually happened. There are often completely natural explanations for biblical miracles. The Exodus, for example, could have been the result of people on foot getting away from soldiers in heavy chariots when they ran through a marshy area. I prefer a natural explanation to a supernatural one every time, but this does not mean that real miracles are impossible.

Even though some miracles test our beliefs in the continuity of the laws of nature, they still may be possible in some way we do not understand. Just like we don't know everything about science, we do not know everything about the power of God, who made science and everything else. I do not want to say that all miracles are impossible because I do not believe that. What I do believe is that everything is possible for God, though I cannot understand everything that means.

There are some things God cannot do by definition. Even though God is all-powerful, God cannot make a married bachelor or a square circle. Our definitions of bachelors and circles makes this impossible, but this is no limitation on God. What does or does not happen in the world is another matter. The belief in Jesus' virgin birth and resurrection from the dead are both claimed miracles and are both core beliefs of Christianity. I respect those beliefs deeply and admire how they inspire my Christian brothers and sisters even though I do not believe in them myself. I do not believe in them not because I do not believe they are possible, but because I do not believe they actually happened. That is a very different kind of disagreement than saying they are like believing in married bachelors or square circles. Such beliefs define us and separate us, but they cannot be allowed to cause us to demean each other. They are the sacred mysteries of faith.

There are, however, many completely rational religious beliefs that imagine God working in the world. In the religion of Taoism, the Tao is the path to enlightenment. This is also the meaning of the Buddhist term dharma and the Jewish word Torah. They are all rational moral teachings of the right way to moral virtue and personal happiness. God gave us these teachings through revelation. God's way was communicated to us in human affairs. This is the greatest miracle of all. All we have to do is follow the path that God has placed before us. We pray to have the courage and wisdom to return to the path when we stray from it, and God gives us that courage and wisdom. This is what it means to me for God to answer our prayers. It also means that God will always answer such a prayer to help us return to God. I think that is what Jesus meant when he said that he was the way. God enters our lives and directs our feet (actually, God directs our souls, which are connected to our feet).

So the only way to not have your prayer answered is if you pray for the wrong thing. If you pray the Janis Joplin song, "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz," God will not answer your prayer. God only gives us fuel-efficient hybrids, don't you know!

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