TSUNAMI PSEUDO-BELIEF SYSTEMS
It is rather sad to see religious people experiencing
a moment of confusion, over a large-scale tragedy
like the tsunami.
One might be inclined to be silent, were it not for the great
penchant that so many people have, to use their religion
not merely for a crutch, but as a justification for their
petty hatreds and sadistic instincts.
Also, there is the annoying favoritism and flattery
toward religion that permeates our culture. There is the
pretentiousness displayed by the religious Emperor with
No Clothes, always imagining such profundity in itself.
Religion wraps itself in a sense of entitlement to
respectability, when it does not really merit that,
any more than tea-leaf reading, crystal-ball gazing,
or astrology. The human race does not uplift itself
by enshrining falsehoods.
It is also annoying, how the press described the
relief efforts, focusing almost exclusively on religious
organizations that did so. Every other sentence
was peppered with "Christian.. Christian... Christian".
The biased fawning over religion is a kind of
propaganda, making it look like religion is wonderful
and wise. The press gave no attention to any
secularly-minded individuals who gave just as much
as the average, religious American.
The front page of the Boston Globe said, in regard to
the tsunami, "People turn to Faith for Answers".
That isn't really true. People turn to faith for *comfort*.
For answers, they need to turn away from their faith.
One should not assume that comfort and answers are
to be found in the same place. You must pick which
you want the most. Most of the human race has made its
decision clear, down through history- it wants comfort,
no matter how false. Is this really the best thing? Somehow,
it seems to make a pitiful situation seem even more pitiful,
when you can see it for what it is.
Whose belief system is really more sound? It seems commonplace
for religious mindsets to stumble apologetically when trying to
explain how something like a tsunami fits into their worldview.
To a more secular mind, there is no mystery, no confusion- just
the sight of something perfectly predictable and familiar.
"Nature made the tsunami, not God. God does not control
Nature, but God is still there." This was one, basic line of
argument. It is really rather hand-waving and unconvincing,
yet the authors of such ideas seem to pat themselves on the
back as if they have done a good deed and said something
profound.
Sometimes, you can see that they are not really philosophizing,
at all. What they are doing is actually a ritual, even if not
a formalized one, similar to friends telling you, at a funeral,
that your loved ones are in a better place. Maintenance of a religious
outlook depends much on such handwashing rituals,
repetition, peer support, etc, because such outlooks are
not very sustainable on the basis of rationality.
Are religious people not aware that many, many similar
natural disasters have occurred all down through history?
With what kind of blinders must they be living, to not have
already figured such things into their belief system?
It is one of key attributes of religious belief- simply shut
things out, most of the time, if they are too upsetting and
challenging. Don't put your attention on it, then you don't
have to deal with it. Only for minute, when something
like a front-page news report hits, do you have to deal
with it. Then, you can collapse back into comfortable
amnesia.
Is it credible to try to separate God and "Nature"?
Did not God create all of Nature? Very few religions
are postulating a well-meaning but weak, helpless god.
It is from religion that we get the characterization of
"God" as the "Almighty."
Almighty- that is quite a boast. Does not "mighty"
imply great power? Does not "all" imply "able
to do anything?"
Sometimes, religious people backtrack a bit, when
under pressure, like a retreating army, then later
will develop amnesia about their own retreats.
Did not God part the Red Sea, so that Moses could
lead his people to the Israel? If God can part the
Red Sea, then could God not prevent a tsunami from
wiping out hundreds of thousands?
You could try to claim that earthly disasters do not
matter, that God makes everything right in Heaven.
If things are so fine in Heaven, why then all the
random torture on earth- are there not too many tears
of innocents? This has been going on for millions
of years? What is the point of tormenting innocent people
for a 100 years - a mere eyeblink in the Grand Scheme-
only to give them everlasting paradise? What great
learning experience is there, in watching loved ones
washed away for no reason?
Sometimes, religious philosophers will turn around
and pooh-pooh the stories about parting of the Red
Sea, as if no sophisticated religious persons are
believing these fables, at all. Never mind the large
number of religious folks who take it all very, very
seriously. When it becomes an inconvenience, it
is momentarily discarded, so that you are trying to
hit a shifting target in your debates.
If God did not part the Red Sea, then might it also
be a fable, about the precious "Ten Commandments"?
Try telling that to most of America.
It is heavily implied by a tsunami that the Ten Commandments
are the word of man, not from above, because the heavens
above have no morality, whatsoever. Tsunamis occur
randomly, and the pain that they inflict is random.
"God does not micromanage". This was another writer's
attempt to answer.
Micromanage? MICROMANAGE !!??
One hundred and fifty thousands deaths, 40 times the
scale of the Sept 11 tragedy, at the snap of the
fingers, and someone can seriously refer to this
as "micromanaging."? Is it not a tenet of most religions
that *every* life is precious? Is it not true that no
human can take a life, because only God has that
right, because each and every life is so important
of a thing?
Yet, God will snuff hundreds of thousands or millions
of lives, for no reason at all, in his wise exercise of that
privilege? How can this be?
If you slaughtered a thousand babies to make Vienna
sausages, you would still have more morality than
the heavens above. At least, you would have a reason
for what you did- a pathological reason, a hideous reason,
but at least a reason. You were out of Vienna sausages,
and wanted some, and had none, and had no pork, so
needed a meat substitute.
For this madness, only a thousand babies. "God" would
kill hundreds of thousands or millions of babies for no
reason whatsoever. Crying mothers, no matter.
That is why the heavens above could send us no
commandments, at all, much less ten of them.
The universe was random in its creation, has been random
every minute of its existence, and will be random in its
ultimate destiny. Life is a product of anthropic principle,
not of intelligent design. We are the random results
in an infinite sea of possibilities, but most of those
possibilities are harsh ones rather than happy ones.
What intelligence exists is our own- flawed, frail,
and limited.
The sun has often been worshiped, and volcanoes have
been worshiped. We now know what the sun really is,
and what a volcano really is. They have no intelligence.
They neither protect nor punish us. The same is true of
every mountaintop to which you might go to seek
answers, true of every cloud and star above in the sky.
We are on our own, to make our own rules, living
in battle with an inhospitable jungle around us.
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