On 28/04/2006, at 12:39 AM, Nick Arnett wrote:
I'm no fan of the "God is in control of everything" way of
thinking. When a
child dies, "God must have needed another angel" is a fairly
horrible idea.
On that we agree.
"It was his time to go" is a phrase I would never use regarding
Wes' death
in Iraq. No, I don't think it was time for him to go. Somebody else
decided to kill him.
I don't know the exact circumstances, but he was in a place where the
probability of death or serious injury was far far higher than for
most of us, and the odds went the wrong way, tragically for him and
those who knew him.
I think the story of Jesus makes it clear that the God
of the Bible is grieved by this sort of thing.
...and I can't conceive of a merciful all-powerful god who could
allow this. Sorry, but the story of Jesus just makes it clear that a
man who wanted humanity to be better was killed for saying so and
annoying the elite of the day. It says nothing about "God grieving".
The God of the Bible slaughtered the innocent children of those who
oppressed his chosen people. Not the people doing the oppressing, but
their firstborn. If the bible is true, that's not a merciful god. (I
suspect, if the Israelites were ever enslaved by the Egyptians at
all, that this might refer to a nasty guerrilla action, but it's
probably far too long ago to have much reality left in the story).
Anyway, i think it's pretty clear that this world is too random to be
being controlled by God. We're on our own in this life. If you choose
to believe in the next life and believe that your faith is a route to
it, fair enough. But there's precious little order in this one.
Charlie
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