As Flies To Wanton Boys (Job 1-2)

Your work has a good atmosphere, good people, good salary. You take pride in your work and it’s interesting. Your lot is better than 90% of workers. Much of it stems from how your boss Sandra runs the place. Hence, you like Sandra and often show her your appreciation. One day Sandra starts to get an inkling of doubt: is your praise sincere or a mere case of the pedestrian “great idea boss” mentality? Surely if you like her for who she is, your appreciation wouldn’t rest merely on your great working conditions? She decides to put you to the test with a rather radical solution.

As you walk to your car in the office carpark late at night, you are surrounded by thugs she has hired. They proceed to beat you to a pulp, taunting you, taking your wallet and making off with your car. But not before saying “this is from Sandra”. You’re bleeding on the ground. Shivering and in shock, you manage to make your way to the emergency room where you’re stitched up and examined. Turns out your injuries aren’t permanent or life-threatening. You’ll live.

Can Sandra still expect your praise as a boss (and a human being)? A crazy question — but the [flawed] analogy parallels Job 1-2. Job is a wealthy tycoon of the Ancient Near East. The sheep and oxen alone (7000+500) would make him a millionaire today, he’s an uber-millionaire for the time. With kids. And he’s righteous, to the point of being God’s pride and joy. At a heavenly boardroom meeting, God gloats about how great Job is. “That’s only because he has everything,” says Satan with a wry smile. He gets God’s permission to “test” Job, destroying all his property and killing all his children as an “act of God”. This isn’t enough to get Job to curse God so Satan gets God’s permission to afflict Job’s body with horrible diseases.

This is supposed to be the setup for one of the most “profound” books of the Bible. The book that asks the Deepest Theological Questions about the problem of evil. The one that contains some of the most beautiful poetry and most meaningful ruminations about the transitory nature of existence and suffering. Shenanigans. I agree with Eliezer Yudkowsky that the story is absolutely and irredeemably horrible. My main problem with the setup is it’s a repetition of the old unconditional love canard: we’re supposed to love God no matter what happens. However as the Sandra story shows there’s no reason to accept such absurdity. There are other problems that I’ll try point out as I blog my way through Job.

Even critics of the Bible are soft on this book. Eons before biblical criticism, Thomas Paine wrote a great takedown of the Bible (Part 2 of Age of Reason) absolutely demolishing almost all books. Not Job:

The book of Job differs in character from all the books we have hitherto passed over. Treachery and murder make no part of this book; it is the meditations of a mind strongly impressed with the vicissitudes of human life, and by turns sinking under, and struggling against the pressure. It is a highly wrought composition, between willing submission and involuntary discontent; and shows man, as he sometimes is, more disposed to be resigned than he is capable of being.

Actually, the whole setup is precisely treachery and murder. But Why do we see Job as more profound than it is? I think it’s that the mind naturally associates suffering with the profound. Think of the cliched tortured soul that’s meant to be a great artist. Think of the counterweight cliche of this artist’s work becoming worse as he/she becomes happier. And of course it really is easier to write angsty teen poetry that’s good over happy teen poetry. So it is with Job. I’m not a fan of Shakespeare: rumours of his profoundness have been greatly exaggerated. But he’s got the perfect description for this situation: “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport”. [Continued]