10/17/14
Theology paper
Professor Doyle
It is fair for Elie Wiesel to question God’s goodness because the horrible events during the Holocaust led many Jews to understandably question God and their doubt faith in him. Elie Wiesel, one of those many Jews expressed his doubt in God in his work Night. Wiesel does an amazing job of describing the horrendous incidents that took place during the Holocaust. Elie goes from being very religious to being very angry and doubtful because of the things he endures. Some of the experiences that caused Elie’s faith in God to falter were the witnessing of the babies getting thrown into the fire when he first arrived Auschwitz and the death of the young pipel. These occurrences show the reader how Elie’s faith is slowly diminishing throughout the novel. Elie had doubts about God and his faith in Him multiple times throughout the novel. His faith in God and belief in Him started to decline when he realized the cruelness that people were capable of. He could not understand how the Nazis were able to treat others in such an inhumane way without any remorse or compassion regarding their actions. Elie’s uncertainty about God and His presence is showcased when he first arrived at the concentration camps and watched innocent babies being thrown into a fire pit. Elie was so disturbed by this that when one someone started reciting a prayer for the dead, he didn’t want to join in. He could not comprehend why he should glorify God’s name and praise Him while such horrible acts were taking place right in front of him. On page 33, he said “for the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name, The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for?” Elie’s faith in God is reasonably tainted after he views these babies being burned alive. He begins to think about how God would allow babies lives to be taken in such a gruesome way and how He