Archbishop of Sydney

Goodness and beauty require an explanation

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
23 January 2005

In the tsunami areas we hope the worst is over and that the long and difficult reconstruction will proceed without too many mishaps.

God has received some hostile press since the tragedy, with his critics alleging that He doesn’t exist, rather than He is useless or evil.  Believers have been accused of wriggling to get our good God off the hook.

Believers are used to struggling with the problem of evil.  But what are the alternatives?  If there is no God, can there be any explanation or purpose for the good and the beautiful?

As well as pondering why bad things happen even to good people we should also pause to reflect on why good things happen at all.  I believe that the goodness, beauty, purpose and design of our world require an explanation.

No good mother or father believes that their child is worthless.  The mystery of the new life they have created inspires awe and love.  Neither do I believe that Jesus or Mother Teresa, Einstein or Michelangelo, Shakespeare or Beethoven are products of chance, as meaningless as froth on a wave.

Therefore early in this new year it won’t hurt to list a few of our blessings, which we tend to take for granted; to reflect on our precarious grasp of these good things and on the small distance sometimes between survival and disaster.

A cousin of mine was holidaying with his wife and children on the coast of Sri Lanka.  His two beautiful young daughters did not want to go to the beach as it looked a bit rough, so they went up to the pool and watched the tsunami from the fourth floor as it trashed the first two floors of the hotel.

Those of us able to get away for holidays are fortunate.  Even here in Australia, where we have longer annual holidays than many countries and even the U.S.A., many cannot afford to go away each year.  My parents, both hard workers, rarely took annual holidays.  The quality of life in Australia is untypical of most of the world and radically superior to the situation of most humans in history.  I am not claiming that we are happier, but we certainly are better off, more comfortable and very few of us would want to live in any other age (or any other country)

I cannot believe that the miracle of the human mind came about by chance.  The standards of medicine and education we enjoy, the wonders of modern travel and communication have all been produced by human ingenuity and hard work.  The odds against the human mind evolving from amino acids by a series of coincidences are much steeper than the odds against one person winning every lottery in history; like a runaway truck in a rubbish tip producing a Don Bradman.

No way.  No chance.