The Age Old Question That Is Still Being Debated Essay

The film God on Trial explores the controversy behind the existence of God and his goodness, in terms of the Jewish people and the Holocaust. One argument that is presented is that God cannot exist because he allowed the suffering of the Jews, despite the covenant that they shared; and if God did exist, then he could not possibly be good for the same reason. The other side of the trial that is presented is that God does exist, suffering is merely a test, and through faith the Jews and the Torah will prevail as shown in history. In actuality, this argument can be summed up in one sentence: God cannot be both all powerful and just. If God were all powerful then He would be able to put an end to suffering, and because he does not, He is not

In every religion, the holy text or the preachers ask that their worshippers believe in some form of God. Most people can blindly pursue and believe in God without question, without inquisition. Then there are those who cannot aimlessly worship a possibly fictional God. The struggle comes when there is no validation, no confirmation, of God or anything that He ever did. During the Holocaust, an estimated six million Jews struggle with their faith in every concentration camp, including Elie Wiesel. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses tone, diction, and characterization to expose his internal battle with believing in his faith and seeing the others battle with their faith as well.

Elie Wiesel’s renowned autobiography, Night, describes the numerous atrocities faced by concentration camp inmates during the holocaust. He explains that prisoners whom were not immediately murdered were subject to severe physical and psychological brutalities, all of which left lasting trauma. Like many others in these circumstances, Wiesel found it difficult to hold onto his Jewish faith when such cruelty surrounded him, going as far to question God’s very existence. These ideas are found in the excerpt: “Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘Where is God now?’And I heard a voice within me answer him: ‘Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows,’” (Night, pg. 65). This is Wiesel’s account of one of his most horrifying experiences

Faith is like a little seed; if you think about the positive aspects of a situation, then it will grow, like a seed grows when you water it. However, if the seed does not receive water anymore, it will die, which serves as a parallel to the horrors and antagonism of the concentration camps that killed Elie’s faith. After the analysis of the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the reader can visualize the horrors and slaughter of millions of innocent people that occurred in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel explains how his faith in God was tested, as he was forced to leave his home, separated from his family, and observed the death all around him; he even witnessed children being thrown into huge ditches of fire alive. Elie felt abandoned, betrayed, and deceived by the God that he knew who was a loving and giving God. It was then he started to doubt His existence. Elie tried to hold on to his faith, but the childhood innocence had disappeared from within him, and he lost his faith in God completely.

After experiencing life similar to hell on earth for nearly a year very few people could truthfully say that their faith is unscathed. Even in the modern world, people who have not been starved and pushed to work beyond their limits find themselves questioning whether or not there is a god, and if he is a just one. Throughout Night, a Holocaust memoir, it is shown that faith does not only refer to religion, but also the belief that humanity is sympathetic and warm-hearted. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, demonstrates how he loses his faith and watches those around him lose their confidence in God, and each other. Wiesel shares his thoughts with the readers writing how from a very young age he believed profoundly yet within a few months Wiesel finds himself questioning “Where is God?” (61). Loss of faith only propels Wiesel to find the strength within himself to persevere until his day of liberation.

Some people, e.g. atheists, find it unreasonable to remain at all religious after the Holocaust. For example, atheists often think that it makes little sense to believe in a God who allows such horrific evil to occur in his world. This belief ties in with the ‘problem of evil'; an omnipotent (all-powerful), omnibenevolent (all-loving) and omniscient (all-knowing) God would be able to prevent evil and would want to. So, why wouldn't he? This omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient God as described in the Torah cannot logically exist at the same time as evil or he wouldn't have let evil ever exist. Therefore, it does not make sense to believe in a God who clearly isn't the God he's meant to be. Furthermore, the God designated the Jews as his chosen people in Abraham's covenant with God (Genesis 12-17) and later on in Deuteronomy. If Jews are God's chosen people, then why would he allow an event where over six million Jews died to happen? It would be cruel and stupid to let so many of his people die, further proving that he is not an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God at all. In the Noah's Ark story (Genesis 6-9), God destroys almost all of humanity to eradicate evil in the world so that no more suffering at the hands of evil could occur. This clearly cannot be true as the Holocaust caused great suffering, despite God supposedly destroying evil previously. Alternatively, in accordance with the belief that God has a plan for everybody, he intended for Hitler to do the Holocaust and for six million Jews to die, showing he is not omnibenevolent. This means that believing in a God who allowed the Holocaust to happen must be unreasonable.

In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when he loses faith in God. ¨But there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises¨ (Wiesel 69). Wiesel is losing faith in God and not believing in him. Wiesel believes that he could still pray for God, even though he thinks God does not answer his prayers. Two significant themes related to inhumanity discussed in the book Night by Elie Wiesel are losing faith in God and disbelief.

The oppression of the Holocaust and being in the concentration camps led Elie’s faith in God to decrease. Elie states, “Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What

What God would let his people be burned, suffocated to death, separated from their families, and starved to death? Many people persecuted and sent to concentration camps questioned this thought. It was near impossible to keep faith at this time of torture. They felt as if God had abandoned his people, left to suffer the cruel events of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel grew up as a faithful and deeply spiritual young person. For a person of his age, he was greatly curious by his Jewish faith, he pursued Moishe the Beadle to deepen his spiritual understanding. Upon experiencing the torture of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel lost his faith completely. He found it impossible to believe that a God could allow his people to experience such torture. Upon surviving the Holocaust Elie Wiesel realized that faith is crucial to surviving without losing character. The hardships that Elie Wiesel faced in the concentration camps lead him to lose faith, until after when realizing it was crucial to keep faith in God despite the horrendous events of the Holocaust.

The holocaust was a terrible period of punishment and abuse for many who were discriminated against, especially the jews. One of these jews was Elie Wiesel. He is the author of the book Night a autobiography on his life as a Jew in the Holocaust. Throughout the book Elie displayed many traits. Elie’s traits include loyalty, determination, and religiousness. The characterization of Elie the protagonist and the other characters plays a role in creating and supporting a theme in the novel Night. From reading the novel we can tell that Elie Wiesel's night shows that the holocaust was a very difficult time for jews and that it made them lose faith in god.

If God is so loving and good, how can He allow so much evil and bad things to happen in this world? One of the biggest stumbling block for millions of people in the world, commonly this is the question that I have heard, keep people from believing in God at all. In reflection of reading Night, by Elie Wiesel, I think that this is an important question to tackle. One of the themes of the memoir Night is, “the silence of God in all the atrocities and evil of this world.” Eliezer becomes hopeless, we see this when he says, “And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence.” (pg. 69, Night). When investigating such a heavy topic, it is important to focus on a few different areas. The idea of a loving and perfect God, but an evil and corrupt world. On page 76 of Night, Eliezer cries, “"It's over. God is no longer with us." And as though he regretted having uttered such words so coldly, so dryly, he added in his broken voice, "I know. No one has the right to say things like that. I know that very well. Man is too insignificant, too limited, to even try to comprehend God's mysterious ways...I suffer hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God's mercy? Where's God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?"” To explain such a claim, let’s look at where evil comes from (what is the root of all evil), and, what the bible says about God being faithful/good. When it comes

Eliezer Wiesel finally arrived at Auschwitz when he was about fifteen. He soon finds out that the concentration camp is not what he thought it was which made him question his faith in God. “I did not deny God's existence, but I doubted his absolute Justice” (Wiesel 42). The reason he says this is because of all these innocent people getting beaten and starved. Eliezer realizes that God isn't acting to stop this disaster. “I no longer accepted God's silence” (Wiesel 66). Eliezer wants God to act upon this but he isn't doing as Elieser wishes so Eliezer guilts God, the “Lord of the Universe” for acting as if he wasn’t there. “The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” (Wiesel 31). Eliezer has started to question, what is he there for if he is doing

In many religions, God is considered to be omnipotent, powerful and benevolent. However, this creates a logical fallacy, if God is benevolent, why would He create evil in the world? This implies that He can not control evil, which further implies He is not all powerful or that He is not as benevolent as people think. Annie Dillard and Elie Wiesel talk about the nature of God and evil in their books Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Night. Annie Dillard describes evil found in nature, while Elie Wiesel explains his first-hand experience with evil during the Holocaust. Although Wiesel and Dillard both have similar questions about Gods morality, they both have different ideas about evil in nature and its impacts on the surroundings. However,

Eckardt presents the idea that the Holocaust was a result of three distinct factors; that it was the culmination of the church's teaching of contempt, the culmination of the church's absolute theology and finally the culmination of modern man's self-liberation from the shackles of God and morality .

The problem of evil has been around since the beginning. How could God allow such suffering of his “chosen people”? God is supposedly all loving (omni-benevolent) and all powerful (omnipotent) and yet He allows His creations to live in a world of danger and pain. Two philosophers this class has discussed pertaining to this problem is B.C. Johnson and John Hick. Johnson provides the theists’ defense of God and he argues them. These include free will, moral urgency, the laws of nature, and God’s “higher morality”. Hick examines two types of theodicies – the Augustinian position and the Irenaeus position. These positions also deal with free will, virtue (or moral urgency), and the laws of nature. Johnson