Posted on 01/05/2005 7:23:03 AM PST by .cnI redruM
PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland - Throughout the United Kingdom, following the Christmas tsunami that killed at least 150,000 people and changed the lives of their surviving relatives forever, some are asking how a "loving" God, if He exists, could allow such a catastrophe to happen. Another question is, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
The questions are mostly rhetorical, since by asking them, the questioners don't actually expect, or even desire, an answer. They are asked in an accusatory way, as if the questions themselves indict, try and convict as fools those who believe in God.
One counterquestion should be: Why do good things happen to bad people? The Scriptures say, "Only God is good." All humanity is diagnosed as "sinful" and "not righteous." Our desires are "only evil all the time." Look it up.
What about a "good God" allowing bad things? Death is the destination of all living organisms. Some die sooner than others. Shouldn't a "good God" provide a way to escape the grave? He has, but that requires faith, which critics and skeptics lack.
Here's another question for those who ask the other questions: If catastrophe proves there is no God, does charity prove He exists? Individuals in Britain have contributed millions of pounds to the tsunami survivors, more than their government. Most of the world's charities helping in the effort are Christian and American.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation, yet Muslim nations, including the fabulously wealthy Saudi regime, have given chump change compared to those countries with majority Christian populations. Don't expect Christians, or Americans, to gain points with those who believe America is the "Great Satan."
Human tragedy is bad enough, but listening to some theologians trying to explain it is doubly irritating. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, wrote a Jan. 2 column for The Sunday Telegraph about the tsunami disaster. The front-page headline about the column proclaimed, "Archbishop of Canterbury admits: This makes me doubt the existence of God."
The headline writer misrepresented the archbishop's view, but so convoluted was Dr. Williams' statement about the disaster (as noted by an editorial the next day) it is understandable how the writer of the headline reached his conclusion. Theologians should offer hope and truth. The pagans serve up enough doubt.
Rather than attempt to bring mankind up to God's level, many skeptics try to bring God down to man's level, remaking Him in a human image and thus encouraging the false view that God is someone who is supposed to make us happy and prosperous. If we are unhappy and not rich (or not rich enough), we will deny He exists. Prosperity and good health provide their own motives for unbelief, as C.S. Lewis and numerous other thinkers have eloquently written.
When Dr. Williams says prayer provides no "magical solutions" and most of the stock Christian answers to human suffering do not "go very far in helping us, one week on, with the intolerable grief and devastation in front of us," where would he suggest we turn, if not to God?
As with most liberal clerics who question God, more than trust Him, Dr. Williams offers nothing from Scripture for comfort and explanation. It was the same when Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in that Paris car crash. Clergymen were interviewed, but none offered more than empty platitudes. What good are the clergy if this is the best they can do? Why are they drawing salaries paid by parishioners who might properly expect, even demand, more?
Let me, a nontheologian, offer some help to the skeptics. In Job, Chapter 1, Job suffers a catastrophe when God allows Satan to take away his children and worldly goods to test his faith. Job makes two statements that ought to be remembered and repeated in times like these.
The first is, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised." Job also says in response to his skeptical and nagging wife, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?"
If you prefer a secular source, consider Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. Seeking to understand the Civil War catastrophe, Lincoln concluded, "The Almighty has His own purposes."
Those are answers (and questions) that resonate far better than the pap coming from the skeptics and certain theologians who have their degrees, but seem to know less about God and His nature than what causes an undersea earthquake.
If G-d doesn't exist to justify our existances, we'd better get to work. I think that if most people really understood the Sartrean construct "To be is to do", they would reject it out of self-intrest.
Of these agnostic skeptics only Mersault, The Judge-Penitent really understood what a truly deficient bag of crap the non-spiritual human being was. He described himslef and his cohabitants of Earth as salcious monkeys.
I'll conclude this rant by saying that attrocious things such as tsunamis, terror attacks and all-out wars will happen to us all. They will happen whether we are morally equipped to deal with them or not. We all end up powerless at these times and least partially beholden to some big brother.
In Christ, at least, the elder sibling is benevolent and genuinely decent person.
> really understood what a truly deficient bag of crap the non-spiritual human being was
How nice. Way to buck that "bigotted Christian" stereotype.
I'm glad you liked it. Have a blessed day.
God has given man "free will" to do as he pleases.
Along with have "free will" comes the burden of not living in a Utopian paradise.
So there is no point of having "free will" if everyone on earth lives in paradise.
Whatever G-d brings, G-d will see you through.
> So there is no point of having "free will" if everyone on earth lives in paradise.
Sure there is. Everybodies idea of "paradise" will be different. My own vision of "paradise" would include change and labor and decisions. Paradise and free will are not mutually exclusive.
The real question is not why did 150,000 people die. The real question is why does God let the rest of us continue to live.
At the Garden of Eden debacle...man chose rebellion and sin over obediance to God...
Man chose Satan and as a result was reborn into death
which is the 'wages of sin'...
Evil things like good things fall upon all of mankind....as the direct result of rebellion against God right from the get go...
The just and the unjust prosper the just and the unjust suffer....
Disease...catastrophe...war....old age claim us all...it is appointed once for man to die and then the judgement.
All men..ever born...are worthy of death...
Jesus told us that whoever shows kindness even in giving one of His a cool cup of water in His name.. to drink is blessed by God...and Jesus considers it the same as giving Him (Jesus) a cool drink of water...
The real question is...why has God who can make matter out of nothing...simply not had us all just dissappear and start over again...making creatures that love him...willingly obey and do it ...cheerfully....
The answer is He loves us so much that He gave his only son...to die in our place (the wages of sin is death)
His perfect Son...the willing sacrifice for our sins and deserved death..
We are required to recognize our need for a savior based upon our wretchedness...to call man evil and sinfull and beyond redemption or worth is consistent with the bible and the teachings of Christ..
Any faith that glorifies man as being worthy of anything other than death...is a lie...
The real miracle is ...that He would save any of us...
When there is every 'reason' to destroy us all...simply do to our natures and the alliance we formed with God's enemies...
imo
> All men..ever born...are worthy of death...
What's the psychiatric term for this sort of death-wish?
God doesn't want us to suffer. Yes, there always has been, through history, natural disasters: volcanoes, earthquakes, dust storms and storms, famine, heat waves, ice age. These are the result of God’s natural laws, put into effect for all eternity.
Although mankind is powerless against the ravages of nature, God has given humans brains and the gift of problem-solving, the inquisitiveness to try to improve our station and at the same time, protect ourselves against natural disaster.
In the right environment, when we are free to exercise our God-given intellect…..in a political system such as ours in the USA, where advanced thinking and problem solving are encouraged and rewarded, the result is a blessed society which, although still very flawed, is the best there is on this Planet.
I believe there is only one God. And that God is not in the least concerned with what we call Him. We are all his children. He is our Father. Regardless of what circumstance, which region of the planet we are born, we are His. Custom and hereditary dictates what we believe, and most peoples have the hint of a God-consciousness within.
When contemplating the damage caused by the Christmas Tsunami, I don’t see this as God striking down a particular region, rather that these people were not afforded the freedom to set up up warnings, preventive measures, and escape from natural disaster. It seems to me that due to their political system of government, they were forced to be more concerned with their mere existence, than forward thinking and planing. Aceh, for example, has been entrenched in civil war, at some level, for years.
I don’t believe the finger of God reaches down as punishment but I do believe that God, being all powerful, can and will USE all things, even terrible acts of Nature, to enlighten his children. Perhaps this IS a window of opportunity for the world to compare political systems. And if they choose, perhaps they they will attempt to give democracy a chance to work for them and for their well being in the future.
God bless the USA.
I've been looking for my "Life's Unconditional Guarantee of Happiness". Could I borrow a copy of yours?
Really, that some people think life is supposed to be a bowl of cherries. They haven't thought such a perspective through.
How can we know what pleasure is, if we don't experience pain?
How can we truly know what is good unless we experience evil? (not necessarily practice evil...but that's another story)
Do we really understand good health until we experience sickness?
This philosophy of opposites isn't unique to Chritianity, as many of the world's other religions teach it as well. I wonder why...
What is with the G-D? Are you afraid to use His name for fear of offending people who are more comfortable with
A-lah? Or J-hovah?
For people who ask how "GOD could let bad things happen", I have a question- what has mankind done for GOD lately?
What's the psychiatric term for living your entire life in simple self-amusement while waiting for the worms?
I've brought this up on many threads on this topic so I might as well say it here. Anybody who finds themelf asking a question similar to this, "If there is a loving God, why all the suffering?" needs to read this book:
The Problem of Pain
by C. S. Lewis
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. (Matthew 25:45) The Holy Bible
In any given day 156,000 people die worldwide. Just because humans decide it's "news" when 156.000 happen to die at the same time it shouldn't cause any great theological handwringing. If you read the Archbishop's entire editorial, it's really pretty thoughtful.
The problem is people imagine God to be someone just like they are, with the exact same perspective. The truth of the matter is we all "walk that lonesome valley" whether we die in a tsunami, from cancer, or have a heart attack.
Another great book on this topic, though nowhere near as elegant or even theologically solid as anything written by Lewis is "You Gotta Keep Dancin'" by Tim Hansel. I highly recommend it, especially for new Christians or seekers. God never guarantees us happiness in this life, but through Christ he does promise joy in the bleakest circumstances!
Thanks for the recommendation!
I think another part of it was that the sinless beings that He created, the 2/3 of the angels that did not join Lucifer's rebellion, would then have obeyed Him out of fear, AND
interestingly enough, to show that the Law and its requirements (death, in this case)
was even more important than the life of His Son - even Himself (since it is true that "I and the Father are One").
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