So Which Is It?
It was on my way to work this morning that the sequence of events you will shortly read about first planted the seeds for the following essay. I was cruising down the freeway at speeds in excess of legal recommendations following a semi and listening to the radio. On the radio was a news story about alleged Jesus' alleged brother's alleged coffin that I was half-listening to. Hanging on the semi trailer in front of me was a mudflap that was, though in no immediate danger of coming loose, about half-way torn through (the rubber portion only). A bunch of neurons fired in my brain, and for some reason I thought back to something that happened in Milwaukee within the last couple of years.
A family driving down the freeway in a minivan hit a mudflap bracket that had fallen off of a semi. This road debris pierced the gas tank, and the van exploded. If I remember correctly, the father and possibly the mother survived. I believe all of the four or five kids died. Tragic, but as more neurons continued to fire, here's what got me to thinking. The father was either a priest or a minister or just deeply religious (I'm not sure which). Of course, whenever he got on the evening news he belabored how this was a test from God, God is trying his faith, blah, blah, blah.
Here's my question. Why is it when something bad happens to a "believer," a "follower," or a "faithful one," it's God trying their will or testing their faith; but when it happens to a non-believer, these same people say it's God punishing the victim? This can happen even if they know nothing about the person (religion, etc.). When something bad happens to an atheist, it's the hand of the Devil; when something bad happens to a Christian, it's a test from God. Well, which is it?
This is a classic scenario for those stricken with disease. I have found it not uncommon for those speaking about their disease to mention their God. "Oh, God is testing me. This is His will. He hath given me nothing that, with His strength, I cannot handle. God be praised. Amen." Bullshit! As soon as it's AIDS, it's the angry hand of God smiting "the gays and the blacks and the drug users." But as soon as it's a white, suburban, middle class, upstanding, church-going Christian accountant who got the disease through a blood transfusion, we're suddenly back to a test. How the hell does this make sense? I'll tell you how. It doesn't!
Then we have Pat Robertson running his mouth about the September 11 tragedies (and while you're at it you might as well throw in his buddy Jerry Falwell, the fat sadomasochistic religious perversion fuckwit that he is, just for good measure). "God is punishing the United States for its evil, hedonistic, and decadent ways? You heathens!" Fuck you! Isn't that the terrorists' view? You mean to tell me there were no Christian victims? Or was God just testing them? Hell of a test. For the religious sector of the country, God was trying their will; for the rest of us (the ones who caused the tragedy, quite obviously), this was the work of the Devil. Were the jets guided by the hand of the Devil? Would your everloving and caring God kill his own to try to prove a point? Certainly! Throughout history this has been done--all the way back to Jesus. And now the terrorists are doing the same thing (read my essay "I Don't Want to Be Right" for more on this). But this makes absolutely no sense to me. Why kill your own followers? What kind of god does this (even Ozzy knows better--'If I wrote music for people who shot themselves, I wouldn't have very many fans')? Are these victims martyrs? Were all these people "bad" Christians in need of punishment? Could they have been saved if only they had thrown a few more cents into the offering tray the last Sunday before their deaths? What about the atheists in the buildings? I'm sure some of the survivors were atheists (and the attacks probably helped reinforce their views, as they did mine). Most certainly there were Islamic believers in the building who got killed so the terrorists, following the "same" religion, could try to prove their point. Therefore, God is just like the terrorists--no better and probably worse. Why not "save" his own people? WHERE IS YOUR GOD? As a side note, I find it interesting that in the war(s) following the attacks, all nations involved invoked the name and protection of "God," presumably the same "God." Hmm. Curious. Just something to think about...
And you know, as long as I'm on the topic, I'm going to sidetrack a bit to four other religion issues that bother me. First up? Christian athletes. George Carlin was right. If you're going to thank Jesus for a win, you have to blame him for a loss. And while you're at it, why don't you ask him about your four illegitimate kids or the slump-busting whore you spent last night with. Next? Serial killers. Take the following situation. A guy murders a bunch of people and buries them in his backyard. When he gets caught, he claims God told him to do it. The reaction? "Oh, he's crazy." Now take the same situation except this time when the guy is caught, he claims what he did was part of some kind of Satanic ritual. The reaction? "Yep, it's Satan." Could we have a little consistency please? Either he's nuts or he's not. We can't give him a pass because he invokes the name of one "deity" or another. There's nothing worse than a divinely inspired lunatic. Third? Miracles. A train crashes with 100 people on board; all but one die. The response? "Oh, it's just a wonderful miracle that my little son Johnny survived." Bullshit! It ain't a miracle to the 99 other families. And somewhat related are medical "miracles." The human female is not intended to have eight children at a time. "Oh, we just pray that they all survive and that God will lead us through. We've tried so hard, and now He's blessed us with eight kids." Hey, toots, God didn't have a thing to do with it; your prayers didn't have a thing to do with it; the ruinous and meddlesome hand of man did. It's not natural for humans to have litters of kids, and without man's interference, they wouldn't. Left to prayer, you'd still be childless. Left to science, you're a freak. Wake up from your delusions of piety and open your eyes to what's really going on here! Thank you.
You know what? Now I've gone and gotten myself all worked up. I'm going to add one more scenario to the medical miracle idea, and this somewhat goes back to a few paragraphs ago. Cures. In building on this thought, I submit the following. A person is diagnosed with a terminal illness (let's say cancer). Modern medicine is basically failing in its attempts to help the person. Suddenly the patient becomes well, and science is at a loss to explain how this happened. The person claims it was his/her faith, prayer, or whatever. All right, an inexplicable event does not a miracle make. Spontaneous remission does not mean "God" reached down and smote the cancer cells. Science does not know everything, nor does it claim to know everything. This is one of the hallmarks of science. It is open to continuous testing, re-testing, debate, and discovery. Mankind (at least, the uneducated members) at one time thought the world was flat. Well, we're pretty sure now that it's round. Pretty sure, anyway... We're also getting a fairly decent idea of what causes illness. Bacteria, viruses, prions, etc. have replaced the humor theories. Not only were these theories not funny (HA! Sorry, I couldn't resist!), they weren't right, so there was a paradigm shift, and they were replaced. If a doctor now were ever to tell someone that they are ill because they have too much phlegm, that someone should perhaps consider consulting another physician. Just a suggestion, though, of course... Whew! I think I'm done.
So finally I come to the end. When something bad happens, it's either God testing someone's faith, or it's a jolly good smiting. Which it is, of course, depends upon to whom the bad thing is happening. If the person is a "fine, upstanding, good, pure citizen" (read, money-giving Christian), it's the former. If the person is a "moral degenerate," it's the latter. The unenlightened, Dark Ages, medieval thinking on this is astounding. The next time something bad happens to you, ask yourself, is this the hand of God, or is this the work of the Devil?
Originally written:
November 16, 2002
Put online:
November 24, 2002
Discussion:
N/A
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