Truth is the only god worth serving, even if it destroys dogma - J.B. Hannay
(Delusion: a false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact)
Recently I heard William Young speak at a Sunday service at the Corvallis Foursquare, Life Spring Church. William Young is the author of a highly popular book in Christian circles called The Shack . I had read the book an was taken aback not only by Mr. Young’s playing with Biblical theology, but by his shallow, in my opinion, treatment of human suffering.
In contrast to Mr Young’s book, I just finished reading a book by Bart D. Ehrman (God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer our most Important Question - Why we suffer). This book is a serious study, by a highly qualified theologian, on the Biblical God’s failure to alleviate human suffering, and in fact is the creator and sustainer of such suffering. In my opinion, this makes the God as presented in the Bible as being nothing short of masochistic. Some will probably say that is blasphemy, but let’s look at the facts.
God, by definition in Christian theology is Omnipotent (all powerful), Omnipresent (everywhere, in both time and space), Omniscient (all knowing). That said, as creator and sustainer of the entire universe, He (she, it) is ultimately responsible for how his creation functions. So how does it function, on a human level? What follows is a compilation of facts gleaned from governmental and non governmental organizations around the world:
1. The US Department of Justice reports for the year 2007 that over 800,000 children are reported missing. Of those, 58,200 are children abducted by a non-family member. That is one child every 40 seconds or 2100 per day.
2. The United Nations reports that 15 million children starve to death every year in the world. That is a child starves to death every 3.6 seconds, 1,028 per hour or approximately 25,000 per day. 800 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition world wide, and it is growing.
3. The World Health Organization estimates between 300-500 million new cases of malaria per year, of that 1 million will die.
4. The American Cancer Society estimates for the year 2002 were that 555,500 Americans would die of cancer. That is 1,500 deaths per day.
5. It is estimated that 1.2 million people will die world wide due to auto accidents. There is no estimated how many will suffer injury and permanent damage.
6. It is estimated that in an average year 195,000 people in the US will die in a hospital due to medical error.
7. According The International Labor Organization, 1.2 million children are in forced servitude, making $15 billion annually for those that hold them captive.
The ICWO (Indian Community Welfare Organization) says that there are between 700,000 and 4 million people trafficked annually worldwide. Child trafficking is the third largest source of illegal profit, behind arms and drugs.
8. 25% of the approximately 2.3 million sex workers in India are minors, most are sent to Middle East nations.
9. The United nations estimates that there are at least 300,000 children serving as soldiers worldwide. Burma has the greatest number, some 70,000 child soldiers. The Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch reports that children are fighting in 33 different conflicts. The typical child soldier is from 15 to 18 years of age, with some as young as 10. The percentage of female child soldier in El Salvador, Ethiopia and Uganda is almost one-third.
10. Anti-Slavery International estimates that over 27 million people around the world are slaves and at least 200 million people exist in some form of bondage. Today over 8 million children worldwide are slaves , of these, 1.8 million are forced into prostitution or pornography.
11. The Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in November 2002 estimated that there were 13 million refugees worldwide. The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 9 million of them are children.
12. From Jan 2006 to Feb 2008 there have been documented 52,421 violent deaths to civilians in Iraq. For the entire Iraq war civilian deaths from violence is between 82,987 and 90,521. The authors of a study titled: The Human Cost of the War In Iraq, says that their research carries a 95% "confidence index" and that the range of violence related deaths is between 426,369 and 793,663. We went to war in Iraq over less than 3,000 people dying in 911.
The above list of suffering and deaths could go on and on. I haven’t even covered mental and emotional suffering and many other kinds. We have at least 4,000 years of written civilization and 100's of thousands of years prior to that where people suffered and died. And yet we are told, god is love.
Often the pat answer is; "Who are we to question god’s ways." Better yet, I really like the one; "When we get to heaven it will all be made clear to us." Or "Don’t worry when Jesus comes He will wipe away every tear." Or how about this; "God gave us free will, he doesn’t want robots." If free will is associated with the choice to make mistakes which create suffering and death, and in heaven there is no suffering and death, then there must not be any free will in heaven. "I robots" for ever dancing around the throne of an insecure god that continually needs praise from his creation in order to be happy. Doesn’t make a whole lot of rational sense.
God is portrayed in the Bible as, all powerful, all knowing, loving, compassionate, etc, etc. Surely he knew what would happen when he created the earth. Knowing this why couldn’t this god just skip the experiment on planet earth and go directly to the heaven experiment? Why cause billions of people, to say nothing of all the other plants and animals, to suffer. Sure sounds masochistic to me.
Some will say; " boy are you angry with god." That is the farthest from the truth. I don’t get mad at Santa Clause when I don’t get what I want. For me, it is the same type of delusion. What, if anything I get angry about, is the delusions people create to justify not doing anything, and the life styles they have perpetuated for themselves that add to the pain and suffering of fellow human beings in the process. Like the now famous quote from Dick Cheney; "So." Hey, I got mine, to hell with everyone else.
I know that I too have created pain and suffering in myself and others lives. And it’s not that I see myself above others, because I don’t. Maybe it’s because of my awareness of suffering and pain around me and what little I can do to alleviate it, that is so frustrating. We give lip service to being compassionate, caring, loving people. Are we really? When we see the genocide, the squalor, the pain and suffering on the evening news, or documentary films, what is our reaction? Do we turn on our tap water knowing full well that the majority of the people in the world can’t even find clean water to drink, let alone a tap to turn on? Do the statistics compiled above just overwhelm us to the point of there being just statistics? Or do they touch our hearts, knowing that they aren’t just numbers, but real people? People like us with hopes, dreams, families and children. People who can feel pain and suffer just like us. Or are they just the "other?" The anonymous ones.
These questions are valid to ask, whether or not one believes in a god. From my perspective, those that believe in a loving god that created all this have a much more difficult time reconciling all the above than those of us who don’t believe. Maybe, this is why religions create such elaborate myths and dogmas in trying to explain their particular belief systems. Again, from my perspective, none of them stand up to critical analysis. They are unable to follow the maxim; "search for the truth; follow it; do your utmost to find it; let it be your guide wherever it may lead." Instead they all proclaim "we have the truth." If all religions claim to have the truth, then it would appear that none have the truth. They are often contradictory and therefore can not all be reconciled within one belief system.
The atheist, on the other hand, is not encumbered with a belief system that has to be justified with sacred texts, rituals, ornate cathedrals (mosques, temples, etc), mumbo jumbo magic incantations and special robes for the initiated and last but not least, tithes (sacrifices) to appease the god or gods. The atheist has learned, or is learning, to accept things the way they are, and to change that which he or she can change. That is, that which is within their sphere of influence. This places the responsibility on the individual to do the best they can with what they have. It means action now, not pie in the sky "when we all get to heaven." It means, to use the old saying, living simply so that other might simply live.
No comments:
Post a Comment