Posted on 12/29/2004 12:15:01 PM PST by bubman
(Filed: 29/12/2004)
It is likely to go down as one of the greatest natural disasters in history: a catastrophe that breaks records for global spread of death and destruction. The survivors return and give their airport interviews, still stunned and tearful, having witnessed something that will change their understanding of life and its preciousness forever.
Our paltry human endeavours at evil are dwarfed when the earth itself erupts: what terrorist organisation or would-be world dominator could orchestrate such totally unexpected devastation on an international scale?
There can be no negotiation with this force, and no protection from it. It is a manifestation of what once impelled people to believe in the wrath of God. Now it will presumably become part of the arsenal for the other side.
The army of unbelievers (which is apparently growing apace in Britain) will say, as sceptics have for centuries, that events of this kind make a mockery of the idea of a benevolent deity. How could a loving God permit such pointless and gratuitous ruin? Surely any rational account of the world as it is, with all its futile suffering and unjust affliction, cannot include a creator with good intentions?
Natural disasters make the best case for unbelief because they are not even susceptible to the theological explanation of human evil - that without the capacity to make immoral choices, men are not truly free: the ability to do good would be meaningless if we did not also have the ability to do evil.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Is she sure SPECTRE didn't cause this earthquake/Tsunami? I watched A View to a Kill last night.
The purposelessnes and vacuousness of an irrelgious life, not surprisingly, often can lead to this type of mentality, and resultant behavior. Thankfully, many irreligious people, unconsciously, still hang on to some basic religious concept of morality and purpose, even though it is not logically consistent with their worldview.
God does not have to ability to do evil. If the good that God does is meaningless, then all of creation: time, matter and space is meaningless. I would have to characterize the above statement as nihilism disguised as a profundity.
Evil is not the opposite of good, it is any lack of good. Evil is found in intentions not in actions which is why humans sin all of the time even when the are doing "good deeds". And even a flood that covers the whole face of the earth is absolutely good, when God does it.
Some good will come out of this. We may never even hear about it though. 9/11 was a horrible act, but some good came out of it.
Actually a consistently logical person _can_ be moral while declining to belive in something that has no empirical proof of existing.
Where will we find a 'consistently logical' person...and who will judge perfectly whether or not this 'found one' is consistently logical..against what perfect ground shall we judge him.. let alone whether or not 'a proof' is empirical?
Who cares if we have a perfectly straight line if it is going in the wrong direction?
Can a person believe in God and still not be religious?
"against what perfect ground shall we judge him"
Reality.
Reality is the law of the jungle.
Do you live in a jungle?
Boy is this post old. As far as your question goes, the answer is yes, we all do.
I live in a small city, many other people live in urban areas as well.
I take it you're posting from somewhere in the Amazon? Central Africa? SE Asia?
As far as your question goes, the answer is yes, we all do.
Baloney.
Salami.
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