God Is... Justice

By Nick (My Experience As...)

But that's not fair!

At face value, it seems like kids are preloaded with a concept of who God is and all the attributes of God.  In fact, CS Lewis suggests that the universal morality is proof of God’s existence.  This isn’t to say that all people have the same moral values, but rather that we can make statements of “wrongness” because there is a predefined morality that we appeal to.  Something generally instinctive that we simple know to be true.  Hitler was a bad guy.  Sure some folks would argue against this, but generally most can appeal to the wrongness of what he did based on the Universal Morality that trying to exterminate others is wrong.  The proof is much more involved than this, but it is a very interesting thing to be aware of when folks try to argue against the existence of God because “If God existed He wouldn’t let bad things happen.”  Basically this proof comes back and says “If you believe there are bad things then God must exist.”

I digress; along with the general idea of morality we have the best friend to morality, justice, built into us.  From a very early age we generally know right and wrong, and clue in on consequences. That is, my two year old knows when I say, “put that down,” and he responds, “NO!” that there will be consequences.  It is based on his past experience. At some point his little brain will catch up and decide yelling no isn’t a good thing.

This evolves into the most basic sense of justice, that which is fair.  This is one of those self evident truths, justice must be fair, it cannot show favoritism, and when it does it isn’t really justice. How many times have children cried out “but that’s not fair.” This is their internal justice meter going off.  Of course therein lays the problem.  It has been corrupted by a sense of self. It affects me in a way I don’t want so it cannot be fair.

This is the greatest problem a parent faces in helping the internal sense of justice develop correctly. It is part of our job. Just like making sure our children grow strong and healthy with good food, exercise, and education. We must also help finish the development of justice in our children so that they will recognize injustice apart from self, and then be moved to deal with it.

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