With love and respect to the victims of the recent flooding, earthquake, the tsumami, or the humans that are destroyed on mass by cyclones or any other natural disasters, and inspired (if that’s the right word) me to think about them, let’s talk about these natural disasters. As in, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, etc., etc. When the initial time spent telling the horror stories is over, we enter the phase where we more rationally(?) look for who to blame. Not unsurprisingly ‘god’ has his head on the chopping block on this one.
It’s interesting watching religious leaders and their various takes on it. On the one extreme you have them saying that it makes them question their own belief in a god, and on the other extreme you have those who are quite happy that it was all a punishment for being evil and nasty human beings breaking some of the god’s rules. Quite what the babies and toddlers who are crushed or swept to a most horrifying death were being punished for having done I don’t quite get, but then I exist outside of the need to look to a god to help brush stuff I don’t understand under the carpet.
Believers will of course say that I am blind because I cannot see the god that is so clearly all around us (he’s bouncing up and down on a pogo stick right in front of you as we speak, and he’s about to spray you with spray string, not that you’d notice) yet there are some obvious theological explanations for the cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis that they will simply not consider (because they just don’t want to):
1. God is an utter bastard. He did it all right, because he’s horrible.
2. God is impotent (maybe that whole omnipotence thing was a typo). He didn’t do it, but neither was he able to stop it. Sure, he designed the universe, but he did a bloody awful bodge job of it and has since washed his hands of the whole project.
3. God couldn’t give a fuck about any of us, especially anyone in Burma, or near the Indian Ocean (and Mexico, Krakatoa, Pompeii, Mount St. Helens, etc…). He didn’t cause the disasters, but he couldn’t be arsed to stop them. Or even to telephone ahead with a three hour warning. Bastard, eh?
4. God doesn’t exist. Earthquakes are merely a seismological thing, cyclones are part of a naturally occuring weather system and the reason nobody/nothing stopped it is that there is nobody/nothing clever enough/in place to properly predict it, let alone prevent it.
I only hope the whole continuing series of tragedies will make the god-botherers turn from blind unquestioning faith and look at the reality. Will they? Nargh.
England's England 