"The wrath of God is the only way I can describe it. I'm used to seeing roofs off houses, houses blown over. These houses were down to their foundations, stripped clean." -- Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, after surveying tornado damage there. (depicted left are what remain of dorms at union university in jackson, tn)i respect people's faith, but why must we look to god as the chief or immediate if not only way to explain and/or describe natural disasters? isn't it a little self-centered to think that the complex systems of nature, however governed (directly, indirectly or not at all) by a higher power, have a direct causal relationship with human beings, that is, that storms are a form of punishment for our misbehavior? is our christian god really that mean and vengeful? did union university do something bad to deserve the destruction wreaked upon it, or are they sort of taking one for the team here?
4 comments:
so true. the other way this manifests is the insistence of athletes on saying that they won because of god or jesus, etc, as if god, if there is one, has nothing better to do than to determine the winner of a football game. can't remember the comedian, but I saw a routine once... the loser of a game being interviewed after a game, and saying "we would have won if jesus hadn't made us suck."
as for the tornadoes, I laughed out loud when I saw George Bush speaking about this. he actually said something like "the federal government will be there to help these people, but more importantly, we all need to pray for them." he actually said that, something like that. yeah those prayers are a lot more important than actually doing something. middle ages indeed. now, and for a long time to come.
I agree with all this, but this is a 'first year in Nashville' observation. By the third year it doesn't even register that someone else has attributed a natural phenomenon to divine intervention.
Hi Tmorange,
I stumbled across your blog looking up a number for a print shop in Jackson, TN. Anyways, I read this post and thought I would pass along an answer to your question as proposed by Klay Aspinwall. You can read it here if you would like.
j razz
www.jrazzcreations.com
If God were to stand back and do nothing, we would all go to hell in our own misdirected ways. It requires things bigger than us to shake up our world beyond our control or abilities for us to understand we are small specs in comparison to who God is. He does not need us to live but we certainly require Him for our existance however short or long we have on this Earth. He offers eternity. Repent and follow Him.
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