What the Atheist Said

Job asks God about suffering.
In the normal read, God,
Omnipotent, reminds Job of his
Power, until Job repents in dust and ashes.

Man, there is no answer, except for me.

But Slavoj Zizek wonders if the story is about
Divine impotence, that God
Himself shares Job’s astonishment
At the chaos, the madness,
Of the created universe.
That rather than soothing Job’s frustration,
He intensifies it.
There is no rational answer. Indeed,
God suffers, too.

Then Zizek goes further, and wonders
Whether Job’s silence in the end is that of
Pathos, one survivor sitting with another.

“Today it’s me, tomorrow it will be
Your own son, and there will be
No one
To intervene for him.”

Man, there is no answer, except for me.