Saturday, August 16, 2008

“WHERE was God?” refugees ask


That was the MSNBC online World News headline on a story about the refugees from war torn Georgia fleeing to Russia. Here’s the quote:

Mother Nonna said she had never seen so many terrified children clinging to their mothers' skirts. "The most difficult thing was to answer their question: Where was God?" she said. "They had so much fear in their eyes."

That question has been asked ever since man created god in their image. After every act of man’s inhumanity to man; after every earthquake, famine, flood, typhoon; during every pandemic; believers have pondered that question. For after all, if their god can see and feel their suffering, hear their screams and pleas, and yet do nothing, what possible use is the god they created and to whom they spent so many hours praying, worshipping, and praising?

Then follow the escape clauses and apologetics from the faithful and their shamans:

“Evil is the work of Satan, not God.” Thus, Satan is more powerful than God? Or Satan is working with God’s approval? And if it was not the work of God how then this?: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

“It is God’s wrath for man’s sinful ways.” Wouldn’t a warning like a flaming sword in the sky, or an army of angels hovering over the UN while broadcasting live on TV have had a better effect by sparing thousands or millions of innocent lives along with the lives of the potentially repentant sinners? Wouldn't THAT be the action of a "loving God" for His creations?

“Its part of God’s plan that we can’t possibly know or understand.” What kind of merciful loving god includes in its “plan” the horrific death of thousands of children with AIDS? Or the incineration of innocent people asleep in their village in Iraq, Darfur, Georgia? Or the hideous deaths of those who jumped to their doom from the top of the World Trade Towers to avoid the flames? “Plan”? The plan of a psychotic.

Nah, when you cut though all the inventive excuses, all the platitudes that they have been carefully taught to fend off doubt and ensure their mind slavery, it always comes back to that old philosophical paradox, I paraphrase Epicurus:
Is God able to stop/prevent these evil things, but unwilling, thus malevolent?
Or is God not able to stop these things, thus impotent?
If God is neither willing nor able, then why call him God?

The answer to that paradox, and to the “Where was God?” question that has been on the lips of refugees for millennia is the same, and found in none of the above. The answer, its lesson, is just now a glimmer of recognition in the minds of some percentage of those Georgian refugees whose reasoning has been stirred awake. It is a lesson hard learned.

Welcome to reality.

4 comments:

OliFly said...

Great post, and I like the quote from Isaiah 45:7. I like pointing out bits from the bible like that (Matt 5:17-20, where Jesus apparently states that all Old Testament laws must still be followed, is another example) to Christians to make them stop and think, if only for a second, about what they say they believe and what they are "supposed" to believe.

Dromedary Hump said...

Thanks OJ,
Most Xtians have never read the bible and know nothing of these quotes.
Naturally, when they hear them they run to the nearest apologetics site so they can be told what to think (read: distort and reinterpret to ensure they support their delusion)

Analog Kid said...

Awesome post. Since christians say it's ok to not pay attention to the old testament since Jesus died for them, why is the bible still being sold today with the old testament as well as the new? All christians who believe that should immediately tear the pages of the old testament out of their bibles and never refer to it again....even the stuff they "agree" with...like Genesis.
I love how they pick and choose and sweep the ridiculous parts under the rug.

Dromedary Hump said...

analog,

well.. the xtans need the Old testament as a "testament" to the prophesy of Jesus' coming..the messiah.

without it they couldn't claim it was fortold by their god. Naturally, the OT was the "prequel" to the NT, seeing as how every writer of the NT knew about the prophesies, they made the Jesus story fit it.

regards,
hump