TAKING IT FOR GRANTED

19. May 2008 by Frank.

Once you believe the bible is the inerrant word of God you assume everything it says is true whether or not you experience it that way. If the bible says those without god have no hope then undoubtedly such people have no hope. Doesn’t matter if they say they do, the bible says they don’t, so they don’t. No question, no debate. If the bible says so then that’s the way it is. Period.

The bible tells you that apart from god you can do nothing, that only things done in his name have any value. Since there are billions of people on earth who don’t believe in the god of the bible, that must mean that vast amounts of human effort around the world have no value whatsoever. No wonder so many fundamentalists can’t wait for the rapture and the tribulation to cleanse their planet from all the ungodly human activity. That’s probably what all the devastation in China and Myanmar are all about, those godless heathens deserve what they’re getting.

That’s already been proclaimed by some of the more radical fringe elements of Christianity. Just like it was for 9/11, just like it was for the tsunami. Just like it is every time there’s a disaster.

Someone told me the other day about an explosion that destroyed a lot of property and lives. If this person’s daily routine had not been interrupted, he would have been at the scene when it happened and would have died with them. But godly inspired coincidence kept him far enough away to save him. I’m glad it did but why wasn’t there any godly help holding the people who got killed away from the site? Were they godless? Were they terrible wicked sinners? Did they have no hope? Did their families have no hope? Did god want them to die?

My mother was a true believer. She trusted in god. She believed in faith, healing, love, forgiveness, heaven, and hell. She was trying to live her life pleasing to god. She came down very suddenly with severe pancreatitis. She suffered horribly for three weeks while several doctors admitted one by one that they couldn’t do anything to help her except give her massive doses of painkillers. Over $40,000 worth in three freaking weeks! All her religious friends were storming the gates of heaven praying for her everyday. But they eventually gave up hope when it was obvious even to them that she was about to die. They began reassuring one another with platitudes about how god was calling her home and how she would soon be in a better place and wouldn’t be suffering anymore. Frankly, that made me want to puke.

I would like to know why the god of hope would torture one of his own children to death with the equivalent of 3^rd degree burns of her internal organs? Why would he want such agony from a 74 year old woman? If he wanted to call her home why could he just take her peacefully while she slept? Does he get off on suffering? I always hear how much Jesus suffered on the cross. That was only a few hours with the full knowledge that he wasn’t going to even stay dead. How does that compare to three weeks of 3^rd degree internal burning?

How does that compare with being trapped for 5 days beneath the rubble after a severe earthquake? How does that compare with sickness and disease after the power is gone and sewage is backing up, and there isn’t any uncontaminated food, and your freaking government won’t let anyone help you because essentially they would be better off without you and thousands of others like you?

The world is a cruel, harsh, completely unfair place.

But the bible says it was created by Jesus for Jesus (John 1). God created this mess. He created all the forces that cause earthquakes, tsunamis, disease, sickness, death. He made the whole system. But then blamed us for destroying it with sin. But he created that, too. He created hell. He takes credit for creating Satan. But somehow all these terrible things that happen to us aren’t really his fault.

The problem of evil.

Let’s just take that for granted shall we?

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