-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.
Ummm that’s funny (i.e. weird)…
People tend to blame God for tornadoes and hurricanes. It’s almost like they never read Job 1:19 “And, look! there came a great wind from the region of the wilderness, and it went striking the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon the young people and they died. And I got to escape, only I by myself, to tell you.”
Guess who Moses was telling us who did this? It wasn’t God! Jesus and Apostle Paul said that the god of this age or system of things or ruler of this world is responsible for human “unusual” human suffering. And they weren’t talking about Jesus nor his Father YHWH. (2 Corinthians 4:4 and John 12:31).
Maybe if one reads through the Book of Job just maybe they will see the quasi-legal battle between these two beings. What’s the salient issue? Sovereignty to rule humans as a deity. The divine prosecuting attorney must allow the arrogant and misanthropic defendant to prove his case for all time. Human suffering or is it something else which there is a win-win prospect for the loyal ones that endure the trial? The defendant offers nothing but death and destruction. The plaintiff offers conversely something else all together, but in the future…
Fundamentalist breed atheists as they don’t know the right answers so the default reaction of atheists is to deny God’s existence based on their “fruit of the poisonous tree” tainted evidence.
Stop blaming God for man’s and God’s chief enemy’s doings. Why is Rebecca (a biblical name BTW) an atheists? Any one know?
God surely has better things to do than to micro-manage atmospheric circulation patterns in the center of the US, and to worry about the minutia of individual human lives.
You see God from a devils perspective which is outside of them and incorrect at the same time. God in us is Christ in us doing for others according to how God has blessed us. Don’t religions teach anyone the truth?
Artie,
Question…. Is Jesus is Good and the Devil is Bad…. Then query me this…. How come the devil is not good as he/she does what they intend… Which is good….
Had Jesus war Satan would have had him. When Jesus in body died no matter how he died would have been in the devils jail not ministering to the lost souls in the devils jail.You are a liar. Jesus cast out the people in his house because they were doing an abominable act of giving an unfair balance. He drove them out KJV. That is not whipping them out. People were saying Hosanna in the highest to Jesus when he cast out the abominable money changers. It is a satanic lie said over and over that Jesus whipped anyone.
Had Jesus war Satan would have had him. When Jesus in body died no matter how he died would have been in the devils jail not ministering to the lost souls in the devils jail.You are a liar. Jesus cast out the people in his house because they were doing an abominable act of giving an unfair balance. He drove them out KJV. That is not wiping them out. People were saying Hosanna in the highest to Jesus when he cast out the abominable money changers. It is a satanic lie said over and over that Jesus whipped anyone.
artiewhitefox 1, May 26, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Jesus avoided war.
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Maybe you should read this.
http://biblehub.com/matthew/21-12.htm
artiewhitefox 1, May 26, 2013 at 3:31 pm
Have God in you that has the character traits of Jesus be changed to endure that light that no one created.
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What character traits? How can the character traits exist if the character traits haven’t been created?
Jesus is the creator. The traits of the natural man are the opposite to that of Jesus. Jesus dried tears and opened the eyes of the blind in more ways than one. Having people see loving forgiving truth is one of them. Jesus avoided war. Jesus is meek not using power that was in him for himself helping others whenever he could. Jesus in the flesh was a walking and talking showing the character traits. Are you paying attention? He stopped stones from being thrown at him by using words only.
God as described in the KJV is light. Light no man has seen. Because man has sin in him cannot see Gods light from his face and live. King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.) James 1:17;
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Hebrews 12 >>
King James Bible 28Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29For our God is a consuming fire.
God is only a consuming fire to the things that are not immortal. Have God in you that has the character traits of Jesus be changed to endure that light that no one created.
artiewhitefox 1, May 26, 2013 at 2:44 pm
God is life. God is all things that are good. Those aginst the name see the devil accusing, Hence accusatons are heard. What else would be heard?
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Silence.
Define God. You’re speaking in platitudes.
What you see is what God gave. Sin speaks against him. God that is not seen made what is seen. We that are seen use what God made that is not seen. God was represented in Jesus bodly. Know Jesus in his forgiving non combative naturer know God.
Dredd 1, May 26, 2013 at 8:01 am
Matt Johnson 1, May 25, 2013 at 8:03 pm
Define God. Is it your imagination?
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Good question.
Part of the answer requires an understanding that religious thinking and scientific thinking are welded by insecurities on some substantial pillars of human understanding.
Thus, the same inquiry goes for “Define Science. Is it your imagination?”
The answer in both cases is all too often “yes”, as will be shown:
(THINK ABOUT NATURE, Edge, quoting Lee Smolin). Lee Smolin is a founding and senior faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. He is also Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Waterloo and has just been appointed to an adjunct position in the Department of Philosophy of the University of Toronto. He is the author of more than 140 scientific papers and has made major contributions to the quantum theory of gravity, being a co-inventor of loop quantum gravity and deformed special relativity (Lee Smolin).
So, in our scientific and religious imagination there is this “something that is not changeable, acting from outside the system to cause things to happen” which in religion is defined as God, and in science is defined as the immutable laws of the universe.
Ernst Mayer calls human intelligence a “lethal mutation” which is what we use to determine the way things are.
Wars are a lethal manifestation of that with religion providing a “God on our side” and science providing the weaponry sufficient to destroy each and every one of us about 50 times over.
The celebrating of “my god is better than your god” and “my science is better than your science” is quite premature at this stage of human evolution.
God is life. God is all things that are good. Those aginst the name see the devil accusing, Hence accusatons are heard. What else would be heard?
Followers of Pat Robertson are probably convinced the Lord was punishing the people of Oklahoma for not shooting enough abortion doctors.
Matt Johnson 1, May 25, 2013 at 8:03 pm
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
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Indeed.
Speaking of logical fallacies, they really get around in the attempt to comprehend human damage to the climate system.
The global climate system.
System.
In any system its parts perform a systemic function.
Weather is a systemic function of the global climate system.
Any single weather event anywhere on the globe is a systemic part of the global climate system.
One must stop damaging the system it one wants the systemic parts to function in an undamaged manner.
Yet, conventional thinking about even the climate evinces logical fallacies:
(False Climate Change Meme Infects The President).
Blitzer tried to impose his own view by putting words in Ms. Vitsmun’s mouth. Wrong thing to do!!!
I quit watching ABC’s GMA because Robin Roberts and ABC News Diane Sawyer have a nasty habit of doing that same thing. I realize Roberts and likely Sawyer are believers of some sort and Roberts has been lately battling a couple of different medical problems, but it is WRONG of either one to impose their beliefs onto someone else and get them to parrot their words. Other “hosts” and “anchors” have done much the same, so it’s not only idiots Blitzer, Sawyer, and Roberts who have been so rude…, but it’s annoying to watch.
Ergo, no more network television for me. I have also never had cable because I adamantly and categorically refuse to pay to receive ads I can get for free. I get “news” on the internet where I’m fast tiring of more ads than “news” (usually infotainment “news” – like who’s winning which idiotic “reality” TV show is really and truly “news”).
If ever these cable companies really want people like me to join the ranks of paying members, then 1) the shows must reach me completely ad-free, and 2) I get to choose which networks I want to receive. I adamantly refuse to pay for idiotic sports channels I’d never watch and I don’t want to get “bundled” networks that get money whether or not I watch them.
Pete9999,
It’s a pity that the one -eyed God has a speech impediment.
Electronics can never be God, but I know what you mean. Had godly people be on it God would be seen, but money controls what is seen and what is not seen. Every once in a while a ray of light is seen.