Julie Gold in her magnificent song, “From a Distance” was engaged in her own modern religious quest. Here are the lyrics to that song:

“From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight

From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes thru the land
It’s the voice of hope
It’s the voice of peace
It’s the voice of every man

From a distance we all have enough
And no one is in need
There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases
No hungry mouths to feed

From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of hope
Playing songs of peace
They’re the songs of every man

God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us, from a distance”

 

Ivan Karamazov in the novel The Brothers Karamazov asked a very important question: Can any future good justify the tears of that 5-year-old girl freezing in the outhouse in which her mother locked her for some minor offence,  all night begging gentle Jesus for help? You tell me.

Will it make sense in some day in the future when the mystery is revealed to us and we understand what God understands?  Will that answer provide the answers we need?

Dostoevsky, of course never heard Julie’s song but he did consider such an answer. This is what Ivan said in the book:

“I want to be here when everybody understands why the world has been arranged the way it is. It is on that craving for understanding that all human religions are founded. So I am a believer.”

I think Ivan, who is always referred to as an atheist, claims, claims to believe in God. He says he has faith. Faith that an answer will be provided?

Yet even Ivan, after saying he is a believer, asks, “What about the children?” Ivan says any answer they will get that is powerful enough for all creatures on earth to shout hosanna, will still not be good enough for him. That is the day of universal harmony when the answer to his questions will be revealed and universal harmony restored to the world. Then we will learn everything that will prove to us that it was all worthwhile. The evil and suffering in the world will be justified by the end obtained. The problem of evil will be solved on that day we now can see only from a distance.

But Ivan cannot accept even that. As he says, “that’s just the hurdle I can’t get over, because I cannot agree that it makes everything right. Ivan says,

“I have no wish to be a part of their universal harmony. It’s not worth one single little tear of that martyred little girl who beat her breast with her tiny little fist, shedding her tear and praying to sweet Jesus to rescue her in the stinking outhouse. It’s not worth it because that will have remained unatoned for. And those tears must be atoned for; otherwise, there can be no harmony.”

At least for Ivan Karmamazov, Julie Gold is wrong. There is no harmony.