One of the hallmarks of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the inability to shake certain thoughts. An idea or concept gets stuck in your noggin and it simply reverberates around. You try to shift your focus onto something else, but this idea keeps popping back up.
It's even worse when a person is a philosophical sort! Not only are you dogged by this one thought; you must philosophize about it!!
Since I am the OCD philosopher, in question, the thought that keeps reverberating in me head concerns the tragedy in Arkansas that began playing out in the wee hours of Friday morning. Of course, one of the reasons this event has struck such a chord with me is that I lived for several years in Hot Springs, the nearest town of any size. I've also explored the area near and around the campground where the tragedy occurred, so the whole thing hits a bit too close to home.
My focus of thought has centered around those poor children who lost their lives in the flash flood and the various Christian explanations that I know will arise. (I feel sympathy for all the families who lost a loved one, regardless of the age of the victim.)
One of the frequent comments made when children die young is that God is bringing them home and that he has a special purpose for them. Somehow this soothes certain people. However, such a sentiment makes no sense to me whatsoever. How can a supposedly perfect being have purposes? How can a supposedly all powerful creator have needs?
But the one point that keeps churning through my mind -- the point I raised in Only the Good Die Young -- concerns why a loving and merciful supreme being would "save" a poor excuse of a human being and "take" someone whose life has barely begun. This seems completely ass backwards to me!
The faithful will tell us that, while we mere mortals may not understand it, God has a reason and purpose for everything he does. If we follow this line of reasoning, then it would appear to me that he can be one ornery SOB!
Think about this for a moment. Some of those "saved" from death in ANY tragedy will continue to live out there years making other people's lives miserable. They will spread negative energy far and wide. They will cause innumerable amounts of emotional and, possibly, physical damage. Their hurtful thoughts and actions may be confined to their immediate family and community OR, if the person exercises a modicum of societal power, they may inflict injury on a wide scale.
So, owing to the belief that "God has his reasons," why would he go out of his way to "save" such people and sacrifice young children instead? This is a particularly salient question when the all-knowing God already knows that some of these individuals will never repent of their ways.
I realize that such questions may bother those of you of the Christian persuasion, but, if we look at this rationally, it simply doesn't add up. No matter how we try to bend, twist or shape it, it doesn't make a lick of sense.
It's only when god (or the devil) is removed from the equation that it DOES make sense. Things happen. People die. End of story.
It's even worse when a person is a philosophical sort! Not only are you dogged by this one thought; you must philosophize about it!!
Since I am the OCD philosopher, in question, the thought that keeps reverberating in me head concerns the tragedy in Arkansas that began playing out in the wee hours of Friday morning. Of course, one of the reasons this event has struck such a chord with me is that I lived for several years in Hot Springs, the nearest town of any size. I've also explored the area near and around the campground where the tragedy occurred, so the whole thing hits a bit too close to home.
My focus of thought has centered around those poor children who lost their lives in the flash flood and the various Christian explanations that I know will arise. (I feel sympathy for all the families who lost a loved one, regardless of the age of the victim.)
One of the frequent comments made when children die young is that God is bringing them home and that he has a special purpose for them. Somehow this soothes certain people. However, such a sentiment makes no sense to me whatsoever. How can a supposedly perfect being have purposes? How can a supposedly all powerful creator have needs?
But the one point that keeps churning through my mind -- the point I raised in Only the Good Die Young -- concerns why a loving and merciful supreme being would "save" a poor excuse of a human being and "take" someone whose life has barely begun. This seems completely ass backwards to me!
The faithful will tell us that, while we mere mortals may not understand it, God has a reason and purpose for everything he does. If we follow this line of reasoning, then it would appear to me that he can be one ornery SOB!
Think about this for a moment. Some of those "saved" from death in ANY tragedy will continue to live out there years making other people's lives miserable. They will spread negative energy far and wide. They will cause innumerable amounts of emotional and, possibly, physical damage. Their hurtful thoughts and actions may be confined to their immediate family and community OR, if the person exercises a modicum of societal power, they may inflict injury on a wide scale.
So, owing to the belief that "God has his reasons," why would he go out of his way to "save" such people and sacrifice young children instead? This is a particularly salient question when the all-knowing God already knows that some of these individuals will never repent of their ways.
I realize that such questions may bother those of you of the Christian persuasion, but, if we look at this rationally, it simply doesn't add up. No matter how we try to bend, twist or shape it, it doesn't make a lick of sense.
It's only when god (or the devil) is removed from the equation that it DOES make sense. Things happen. People die. End of story.
Good God and Devil Evil.
ReplyDeleteOne naturally assumes the other, so by believing in heaven Christians make hell. By believing in Good/God they make and need and have to also justify Devil/Evil.
Nice post RT. The BBC have an interesting web article on similar lines following the disaster in Haiti. It's at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8467755.stm if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteW