Theodicy #6 - Soul contracts

This is a theodicy featured in the book When Heaven Invades Hell by Josh and Rachel Rasmussen. While the book comes highly recommended, I don’t consider soul contracts to hold any weight. These are deals made between God and souls before the souls are brought to earth. Basically, the evils inflicted on the innocent are less bad if the innocent consented to the whole of their life prior to being born. But first, it’s hard to conceive of a human person making complex choices like that without having the genetic and environmental factors that play such a massive role in shaping us. Second, when you ask any person on earth whether they consented to being born, they will say no. When asked whether they are okay with the evils they have been through, they will say no again. So it’s hard to see how it could be me who consented to being born or to undergoing the suffering I did.

So this theodicy fails and unlocks a further consideration for preventing EJ’s dementia.

Anti-theodicy #4: EJ does not consent to her condition. Her situation is a violation of her consent, and is a violation of the collective consent of her community.

Side note: Christian philosopher Kenny Pearce also rejects soul contracts as a response to the problem of evil. See this interview starting at the 42 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPneTz3zD4g.