Not Acts of God

The by now very old (and if he's not tired by now, I'm tired of him) televangelist Pat Robertson said that the cracks in the Washingon Monument that appeared after the recent earthquake centered near Washington were an "act of God."

Glenn Beck says that Hurricane Irene is a "blessing."

I'm not going to try to get inside these guys' heads or figure out their chain of logic (!?!).

I see a dilemma in the thinking of people who are always seeing God's hand in this or that. First, if you believe that God can and does interfere in the workings of the physical or natural world, then the god you believe in is certainly not a benevolent god. These natural phenomena have caused enormous human suffering, particularly over time (certainly they've been going on for all of the history of the human species).

The god who is always "punishing" mankind, for this or that or whatever, sounds like the Old Testament Jehovah, a vengeful god who once (the story of Noah) wiped out nearly all of mankind, who is an angry and wrathful god--as He himself tells us.

Ironically, the people who believe the things above are professed Christians; and I understand that in the Christian version of things, God in the person of Christ is supposed to be loving, forgiving, tolerant (never mind that we've got so many of these so-called Christian believers who spend enormous energy--and money--spreading hatred of gay people).

(To be accurate, there's always been that strain in Christianity--at least in American Christianity, going back to the earliest days. A notable American example of a hellfire, fire-and-brimstone preacher is the eighteenth-century figure of Jonathan Edwards.)

Maybe some Christian would care to explain their religion to me a little better. I see only paradoxes and inconsistencies.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Richard Stein