As more information becomes available regarding the deadly flash flood back in my old stomping grounds of Arkansas, the one thing that should tug at even the coldest of hearts is the number of young children who died. Of the 18 bodies identified thus far, six of them are of children age 7 and younger -- six young lives snuffed out just as they had barely gotten started.
Arkansas is smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt. So, it is not surprising at all that many people are looking to their Christian beliefs for explanations. Why did this person survive? Why was this child taken?
One woman believes that an angel saved her and her family from tragedy.
Tragedies of this nature provided one of the linchpins for me finally to see the mythic aspects of Christianity and religion. It makes no sense whatsoever for a loving and merciful god to allow small children to die, while saving adults, some of whom probably are nasty, brutish people. Why take the innocent and allow the guilty to continue on?
Anytime there is some type of horrible event -- plane crash, flood, earthquake, fire, explosion, etc. -- we hear about all the saintly people who met their end. From all the various news reports, one would think that only the sinless die of tragic circumstances!
The truth of the matter, however, is that tragedy strikes people indiscriminately. People who survive these calamities are just as likely to be alcoholics, wife beaters, embezzlers, rapists, and possessors of any other vice that plagues humanity. Some people will change their tunes after cheating death, but others will double or triple their efforts to be as negative and disharmonious as before -- ruining and disrupting many others lives.
If there was a god, why would he/she allow a two year old child to die, yet "save" an unrepentant alcoholic wife beater?
It makes no sense whatsoever...unless a god is removed from the equation altogether.
Arkansas is smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt. So, it is not surprising at all that many people are looking to their Christian beliefs for explanations. Why did this person survive? Why was this child taken?
One woman believes that an angel saved her and her family from tragedy.
Denise Gaines said she was startled awake in her riverfront cabin by a noise that sounded like fluttering wings. She saw water rushing under the cabin door.I have a much better explanation! Rushing water is noisy; anyone who has ever been next to a gurgling creek can attest to it. So, it's far more believable that the water rushing into her cabin woke her up, not some supernatural being.
"I thought it must have been an angel that woke me up," she said. She woke up the six others in her cabin and started packing her things.
Tragedies of this nature provided one of the linchpins for me finally to see the mythic aspects of Christianity and religion. It makes no sense whatsoever for a loving and merciful god to allow small children to die, while saving adults, some of whom probably are nasty, brutish people. Why take the innocent and allow the guilty to continue on?
Anytime there is some type of horrible event -- plane crash, flood, earthquake, fire, explosion, etc. -- we hear about all the saintly people who met their end. From all the various news reports, one would think that only the sinless die of tragic circumstances!
The truth of the matter, however, is that tragedy strikes people indiscriminately. People who survive these calamities are just as likely to be alcoholics, wife beaters, embezzlers, rapists, and possessors of any other vice that plagues humanity. Some people will change their tunes after cheating death, but others will double or triple their efforts to be as negative and disharmonious as before -- ruining and disrupting many others lives.
If there was a god, why would he/she allow a two year old child to die, yet "save" an unrepentant alcoholic wife beater?
It makes no sense whatsoever...unless a god is removed from the equation altogether.
But if you add TAO to the equation, it does make sense.
ReplyDeleteWould not eternity in paradise be more of a gift from God than whatever meager pleasures we can attain in this life?
ReplyDeleteIf good people die young it would make sense that they would go to heaven. I would assume heaven is a greeter existence than life. Therefore those "brutish" people who may survive some event are actually the ones who lost out.
Gee Darius,
ReplyDeleteGoing with your theory, why doesn't God then take ALL children young? If all of us were "taken" before we had the chance to turn "evil," then no one would lose out. Heck, if heaven is the place to be, why have earth at all?