Philosopher Peter Atterton recently wrote an essay asking whether he, or anyone, has the right to exist. The basis of his objection to having the right to exist is true—none of us would be here if all, or even just one, of the world’s tragedies had not happened. Cities and their people would still exist to affect the world, immigrations would not have happened, the gene pool would be different.
This theory certainly applies in my case. If the British had not hated the Irish, my grandmother’s family would not have gone to Australia. If we had not had WWII, my grandfather would never have been on leave in Australia. My grandparents would have never met, never married, never had my father. And I would not be giving myself a headache thinking about the improbability of my own existence.
In his essay, Mr. Atterton writes that it is both selfish and presumptuous to be happy that the world’s events happened the way that they did so that we can exist. That is true. But he takes it so far as to think that by being happy that we exist, we are justifying the deaths and disasters that made our existence possible. That is not true. There is something missing from his argument, and it is enough to throw the entire thing off balance.
The piece missing is vital—the existence of God. We know that God knew us before we existed. Not just that we would be, but who we would be as individuals influenced by experiences and people. But God also knew every world event that would happen, and how they would shape us. As Catholics we know that God does not cause evil, but only allows it to happen out of respect for our free will and in order to bring about a greater good than what would have occurred otherwise. My existence is not the reason God allowed the British to persecute the Irish or allowed Hitler to gain power and make war on the world. I am not the “greater good.” But I can be a good if I make myself one by acting according to God’s will.
Every person, every social construct, every governmental power, every culture, every rule, is the result of some tragedy. And everything that follows from a tragedy, including every life, has the potential to continue the evil of that tragedy. But everything also has the potential to destroy what remains of that evil. America’s democratic republic was set up to correct the perceived evils of the British monarchy. The pro-life movement was initiated to fight abortion and euthanasia. Medical and technical advances have been made in response to biological warfare. Political and economic alliances have been formed to make amends for past wars. Everywhere you look there are positive responses to horrible situations. None of these justify the crimes that happened to bring the good things about, but they do show that a tragedy does not mean unending despair and the irretrievable loss of good.
We are not defined by the circumstances that brought us into being. There are countless stories of people born in poverty and rising to success, and stories of people born in privilege and sinking to desperation, that show that the end is not decided by the means. The two are not inherently connected to each other. As we know that the end does not justify the means, so too the means do not decide the end. But there is no doubt that our origins influence us, from our worldview and ideas to the way that we speak. This is not merely an environmental factor. God wants all of us to look at the world that we live in, the one that we come from, and improve it. In some cases this means continuing the fight that our predecessors fought, and in others to fight against their legacy. This is the responsibility that we have—to take the influence of our origins and use it for good, whether that means furthering it or going against it.
Mr. Atterton is certainly right to be sorry that tragedies have not allowed so many people to live. But he should not be sorry that he exists. Obviously no one is thankful that evil exists in the world, even if it leads to our existence. But that does not mean we cannot be thankful that we exist. Being happy that you exist does not mean you are justifying the deaths that occurred to give you a chance to live, but that you are just thankful to God for giving you life. But we should not be satisfied with simply being thankful. With our existence comes a call to improve the world, as God has charged us and as so many others have done. We have been given life because we are a part of God’s plan for the world. But we cannot act as a part of God’s plan if we let the world’s tragedies immobilize us—we are meant to go beyond them by acknowledging them and then finding a positive response to them. And then we must act on that response. Only by doing that can we fulfill our mission in this world.
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