-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Natural disasters confront believers with the problem of evil: how could an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God allow evil or suffering to occur? Some believers claim that God has a purpose that humans are unaware of. As a demonstration of their faith, it is common to hear the faithful thank God for their survival. There is never any mention of blame for those who didn’t survive.
During an interview with a backdrop of devastation, CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer wasn’t getting that common response from tornado survivor Rebecca Vitsmun. Moments before the tornado tore through it, Vitsmun escaped her house with her 19-month-old son. A perfect moment to express the usual platitude. When it wasn’t forthcoming, Blizer decided to force the issue:
You’ve gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?
Vitsmun hesitates awkwardly, smiles, and says: “I-I’m actually an atheist.” Thanking God would have minimized Vitsmun’s courage when she saved herself and her son.
Increasing funding for the National Weather Service, NOAA, and FEMA will save more lives than any amount of prayers.
H/T: Jerry Coyne, Mark Joseph Stern.
dammit, i told thor to send oklahoma some tomatoes
oden
Enduring.
Define God. Is it your imagination?
Increased funding for the National Weather Service, NOAA, and FEMA. Do you think that would have stopped hurricane Katrina? It won’t stop the next one either.
Slightly Modified 1corinthians,13,
4 God is Charity who suffereth long, and is kind. God is charity who envieth not. God is charity who vaunteth not himself not being puffed up not behaving himself unseemly, not seeking his own meaning seeking to love everyone. God is not easily provoked thinking no evil not rejoicing in iniquity. God rejoices in the truth bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. God in us will be like that. The woman you see is like that.
John 1, May 25, 2013 at 11:55 am
I wonder how many extra dimensions it takes to cart-wheel and back-flip your mind around obvious logical fallacies.
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Based on the mathematics of string theory, you could do it, because there are an infinite number of universes.
A logical fallacy in one is not a logical fallacy in another.
Thus, with enough chalk on the blackboard, you could filter out logical fallacies and contradictions to your heart’s content … or have as many logical fallacies as you need.
The human mind can do just about anything, but reality tends to lag behind a bit.
The cheerful spirit of God is in that woman shining amidst deviation. God is in that person calling herself an atheist.
David,
It is amazing that in 2013, a new commentator can ask a ridiculous question like this one. Even an atheist can survive a tornado!??? Holy crap.
OS,
I also like the Netflix streaming plan and I watch a lot of old movies and WWII movies.
I wonder how many extra dimensions it takes to cart-wheel and back-flip your mind around obvious logical fallacies.
“Natural disasters confront believers with the problem of evil: how could an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God allow evil or suffering to occur?”
Athiests would say “there is no good God to allow or not allow suffering of the type Nal depicts in the tornado coverage. There is only natural selection based evolution.”
What would they say if Nal’s narrative read like this:
I doubt that athiests, like believers, would offer only one explanation for the phenomena involved in the Moore, OK disaster.
I hope that her comment will not leave her open to a desire by Christans to “save” her. I try to keep my atheist views to myself for that reason. She respects others biblical beliefs as do I. If you live in the Bible Belt you have come to atheism after a lot of thought…please respect that in return. I applaud her honesty because it would have been simpler to nod yes and let the town idiot go on with his narrative.
“Natural disasters confront believers with the problem of evil: how could an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God allow evil or suffering to occur?”
Scientists who study the Global Climate System might say “that begs the question”, “was this tornado a systemic event within a damaged system?”
A system damaged by human civilization?
If the answer is “yes, humans damaged the global climate system” so they created evil, it is not a natural disaster.
Climate change deniers would say humans can’t damage the Earth’s global climate system, so this is evil created by nature.
What Mike Spindell said. Since the passing of my wife, my twenty-something daughter and I live alone. She likes movies and old reruns on her own schedule, so she got a subscription to Netflix for just a few dollars a month. I looked at my own TV watching schedule and realized I watched between three and four hours a week. Most of that was documentaries or racing and almost never on the news. As I told the clerk at the cable office, I can read a news story on the internet a whole lot faster than Brian Williams or Wolf Blitzer can read it to me. So, I had the cable TV disconnected. I don’t miss it at all and save over a hundred dollars a month.
Another reason I hate CNN is when I click their news web site, they want you to watch videos of their news stories instead of text. I have a frigging university education–I don’t need somebody with coiffed hair read it to me. TV is not radio.
There is another upside to turning off the cable TV. The cable company’s Premium Package internet download speed is supposed to max out at 30Mbps. Now that the TV signal is not sucking up bandwidth, my download speed jumped to 50.54Mbps. My computer practically leaves skid marks on my desk.
“Natural disasters confront believers with the problem of evil: how could an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God allow evil or suffering to occur?”
Islam does not describe it like those I mentioned describe it:
(Islam’s view on the Devil). So, some Christian denominations might have less problem answering “the problem of evil” than some Muslims might.
“Increasing funding for the National Weather Service, NOAA, and FEMA will save more lives than any amount of prayers.” (Nal)
Sanity!
In a prior discussion, I pointed out just how dumb Blitzer is. If you watch him for awhile, it’s apparent. And, Robin NAILED Blitzer’s “reporting” style. However, if you want a good laugh, watch the tape of Blitzer on Jeopardy. I am not an intellectual elite, as is constantly pointed out to me. But, I watch Jeopardy and consistently do pretty well, as does my lovely bride. Blitzer was a deer in the headlights. Now, being a fan of the show, in spite of the pompous ass Alex Trebeck, I have seen many smart contestants underachieve because of stage fright. That was not Blitzer’s problem.
Lottakatz and I had a friendly exchange about atheists and believers yesterday. We agreed we tire of the extremes of both, because although we are atheist and believer, respectively, we don’t wear it on our sleeves. And, like most issues, we are the mainstream. The problem is very few mainstream people get airtime, just the extremists do. This is an intelligent woman, in a disaster area, who handled a buffoon w/ grace and dignity. And, as the Pope decreed yesterday, she can go to heaven. Something I have known all my life.
“This interview encapsulates everything I loathe about Wolf Blitzer and CNN.”
Amen to your whole comment Robin. I too loathe Wolf Blitzer and CNN. I won’t watch them for anything after having come to this conclusion years ago as I would watch them and feel my blood boil. After 9/11 it was commentators and pundits that kept repeating “This Changes Everything!” which gave license to all the death, destruction and violations of our Constitution that occurred afterwards. The question he asked was an absurdity for any reporter.
“Natural disasters confront believers with the problem of evil: how could an all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good God allow evil or suffering to occur?”
In the age of 3-D printers one has to use all the D’s to get the proper perspective, and have more than a flat surface after the printing is done.
Reductionism to a simple level is unavailing when it violates Einstein’s principle “make things as simple as possible, but no simpler than that.”
That said, as Nal pointed out, there is that dogma or doctrine in some of the 450 or so protestant and other Christian professing denominations.
However, others have more of a 3-D doctrinal position.
Some think that at one time things were such that “God allowing evil or suffering” did not exist.
Then one of the three main arch-angels self-morphed into an evil being instead of a good being, deceiving or corrupting a third of the lesser angels in the process:
The narrative is that the god of this period of the Earth’s history is evil and that is why evil takes place here.
The larger and longer discussion entails a back and forth about why the good god, even though the good god does not favor evil, is not stopping the bad god from doing such things.
This interview encapsulates everything I loathe about Wolf Blitzer and CNN.
He tried to impose his own narrative — the one where every story is dictated by his preconceived notions — onto the compelling survival story of this young mother and her child. When she neglected to give thanks to a Christian god (like the good little evangelical he assumed her to be), he insisted on jumping in and steering the narrative back to his script.
He’s a lazy, bad reporter.
Out in Bible Belt, I suppose this woman will ostracized by all her neighbors from now on. Maybe some of them will even blame the storm on her, as retribution from on high….. Good going, Wolf !
Yes…. The all knowing… Knows all…. Now exactly what the all knowing is,is beyond my comprehension….. But, you know a good thing when you see it…. Agree with Nal…. About the additional fundings….. And what about NASA funding…..
Happy for Rebecca Vitsmun, but I bet she’s glad of what the Pope said about atheists on Wednesday nonetheless.