The inscription on Franz Schubert’s tomb reads: "The Art of Music here entombed a rich possession, but yet far fairer hopes: Franz Schubert lies buried here-- born on January 31, 1797, died on November 19, 1828, 31 years old." (This epitaph was written by Austria’s greatest playwright Franz Grillparzer.)
…But yet far fairer hopes. Here is our perplexing question at the heart of this entry. The life of a genius cut short. Schubert was thirty-one when he died. Mozart was thirty-five. Pergolesi was even younger, dead at 26 from tuberculosis. Among the literary geniuses, Pushkin died at 37, Lermontov at 26, Christopher Marlowe and Percy Bysshe Shelley both died at 29 and John Keats at 25. The list can go on, but the point has already been made. The question is why is any great genius, whose life is presumably destined to benefit humanity, thus fated to die so young, before his God-given plant has been allowed to bring forth its richest fruit? God giveth and God taketh away… but why?
To be completely truthful, I am utterly puzzled by this inscrutable mystery. To me, it represents the strongest argument against intelligent design, far stronger than the deaths of billions of innocents throughout the ages of history. It is true that in many of these deaths society is to blame, but there are many more where society has nothing to do with it. Death of a disease, like Schubert’s or Pergolesi’s, etc., which disease society is not equipped to battle, can be called nothing else but a force majeure, or, as they often say with an unintended finger-pointing, an act of God. And so, there is no way of answering this question intelligently. What is, then, the intelligent design in God’s making a precious gift to the world, and then teasingly taking it away before it can be joyfully and piously enjoyed, and benefited from, at its full potential?
…But yet far fairer hopes. Here is our perplexing question at the heart of this entry. The life of a genius cut short. Schubert was thirty-one when he died. Mozart was thirty-five. Pergolesi was even younger, dead at 26 from tuberculosis. Among the literary geniuses, Pushkin died at 37, Lermontov at 26, Christopher Marlowe and Percy Bysshe Shelley both died at 29 and John Keats at 25. The list can go on, but the point has already been made. The question is why is any great genius, whose life is presumably destined to benefit humanity, thus fated to die so young, before his God-given plant has been allowed to bring forth its richest fruit? God giveth and God taketh away… but why?
To be completely truthful, I am utterly puzzled by this inscrutable mystery. To me, it represents the strongest argument against intelligent design, far stronger than the deaths of billions of innocents throughout the ages of history. It is true that in many of these deaths society is to blame, but there are many more where society has nothing to do with it. Death of a disease, like Schubert’s or Pergolesi’s, etc., which disease society is not equipped to battle, can be called nothing else but a force majeure, or, as they often say with an unintended finger-pointing, an act of God. And so, there is no way of answering this question intelligently. What is, then, the intelligent design in God’s making a precious gift to the world, and then teasingly taking it away before it can be joyfully and piously enjoyed, and benefited from, at its full potential?
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