The opposition to what I wrote yesterday is pretty strident, and also pretty predictable.
Essentially it amounts to:
1. You don’t understand God’s ways, so just shut up and stop trying.
Of course, this is the go-to response to any questioning of religion. You’re automatically presumed to be some rabble rousing atheist or agnostic if you dare give any more thought to religion than the bible says you’re allowed to (ie: none). I’ve received this one quite a bit, and oddly enough the article itself says over and over again how I do believe in God, just not the way man interprets Him or what He does. No room for dissent, I guess.
2. This has been discussed in the past, you’re not original.
I made no claims to the originality of my idea; it was just a thought I’d been batting around in my head for awhile. Like most of my better thoughts, I shared them here. It’s not my fault it got picked up so many places and run with.
3. The earthquake isn’t a failing of God, it’s a failing of man to make better buildings.
This is quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve heard. We’re meant to believe that God did cause the earthquake, but that he did so to expose shoddy building practices!? I’m not kidding. This appeared on John C. Dvorak’s blog after my piece was posted there.
Reality, lately, is better than the craziest thing our imagination can conjure up.
4. God and Satan are at war.
Yeah, okay. We’re in the middle of a cosmic battle with the most powerful being in the known universe; the Alpha and the Omega, the origin of it all, and he’s battling it out with a demon of the underworld (that he himself created) and they’re all equally powerful which is why bad things can happen. Suuuuuuuuure.
5. God has to allow evil so that we can see the good in the world.
Ummmmm… Why? Why does God have to allow crushing devastation of a poor nation? Or the death of someone who devoted their life to Him? Or the murder of someone preaching in a savage country in His name? That doesn’t enforce my belief in Him, but sure lends a lot of credence to the people who argue that He’s not a fair or loving being.
6. I know God intervenes because there are things in my life I wouldn’t have without Him.
Of course, this is completely subjective and unprovable and completely discounts your own God-given abilities and strengths and instead applies them to an outside force.
7. I know God interevenes because I prayed and my relative from Haiti is now safe.
Do I need to point out the obvious that this is nowhere near a proof that God intervenes, namely because if you want to argue that He does intervene, you’d probably have a stronger case if you weren’t pointing out that the most powerful being in the universe “intervened” by allowing you to survive in a pile of rubble from an earthquake. It probably would’ve been a stronger case for intervention if said earthquake never happened.
I’ll never say God doesn’t exist, or that you shouldn’t pray if that makes you feel better. If you believe God’s intervention in Haiti is that people who had everything destroyed survived, then fine. Go for it. Just don’t attack me for pointing out the obvious logical hoops that thinking requires you to jump through.
You can have your faith. Enjoy it. Worship. Pray. Hope. Do whatever you want.
Just understand that you can’t just toss out all kinds of tortured logic and half-assed “you just don’t get it” or “it’s faith” defenses and have people go, “Oh, ok!” It doesn’t work that way, and if those are your best defenses / explanations, then maybe you need to rethink what you believe in.