Using God as a fire extinguisher

USING GOD AS A FIRE EXTINGUISHER - for emergency use only

Christianity is not an insurance policy against death and misfortune.  In fact, it’s the exact opposite, for the sun rises on the righteous and the unrighteous; the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  When Les, Christ-like, God fearing, what you see is what you get, the genuine article, Les Hardwick loses his beloved wife so prematurely, it does destroy my faith in a loving and just God.  It also shook his faith, from what he told me.  God cannot possibly be a God of love, justice and who is able to protect His own.  Les should have been the very last person whom the Lord should have allowed to lose his wife in 2000.

Therefore, as I see it, we have 
           the problem of Christians suffering.  Indicating a God who does not care, even about His own people.

           the problem of the Bible - favouritism for one tribe, only, for one set of peoples, only.  God promised that their ancestors would bless the rest of humanity but the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, the children of Abraham, have most certainly not been a blessing to everyone else.  In fact, they have been at each others throats and the Christians have, for centuries, been somewhat domineering around the world - to put it mildly.  This, contrary to what their founder flatly rejected in one of the three temptations in the wilderness of Judea.
          the problem of human ecocide - very short-lived human species when compared with very long-lived dinosaurs.
          the problem of human intolerance of each other and their inability to live in peace one with the other.
the problem of the vast majority of the best Christians - the Bible believing, born again ones - being quite content with having employment in the arms industry, the armed forces and voting for the war parties. Coercion, force and aggression is acceptable for the most virtuous, sanctified and holy of people.
the problem of abortion and voluntary euthanasia being more evil than killing the born in time of war.
          the problem of human stupidity - especially over foreign, military, transport, economic and energy policy - not much left after than list. But, actually, we humans are homo sapiens - "wise man" - so we can't be that stupid!
          the problem of the infinite, immensities of space, of nothingness yet the existence of earth created by the human construct of ‘God’.
          the problem of how God came about, if He was not thought up by humans.

          the problem of religion being pre-scientific.  It was, quite naturally, an outcome of humans needing to keep in with Nature - the sun, wind and rain, for their very survival and comfort.  Not surprisingly, it developed and grew as humans grew in size and in dominance of all other livings things on earth.  Now, an over dominance that is likely to be our own undoing.

Is it universal human nature to be warlike and to kill their own for the sake of domination?

The 1st World War, that the Western ‘Christian’ nations were responsible for, was the bloodiest war the world has ever seen.  It was slaughter on an industrial scale and started over Belgian neutrality. 1m British lives. alone, were wiped out.

Is it the white man’s nature to fight, to dominate and to kill any old human, especially black foreigners in other lands?  Or, would the black man be just as bad if given half the chance?  If the American Indians had discovered the vast resources that the white supplanters/settlers discovered would they have turned out exactly like the Americans - the world’s Emperor nation?  Or, is there something innate in the black man’s tribal ancestry, in his DNA, that makes him less keen to conquer nature, to dominate people, to kill and to be top dog?

The wise words from Chief Seattle indicate that certainly, originally, their view of their place on the earth was totally different from that of the 'Christian' white man. They saw their existence as part of the web of life; the Christian nations saw their place on the earth as, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever." (Westminster Confessional). The biblical perspective is certainly not part of Nature but a cut above Nature. The American Indians, the Maoris and the Aborigines all saw themselves belonging to the earth. The white man, with his arrival on every continent, brought the Bible and the belief that the earth belonged to them and they could do exactly what they liked, as often as they liked with never any repercussions from the earth's life support systems. After all, we are a cut above the rest of Creation; we are made a little lower than the angels; and, certainly we are not the human animal.

In addition, the Muslims or the Arabs have had decades of vast oil wealth but have not turned out like the rampaging, destructive, warlike white man of the Christian West.  Our lot killed millions of humans between 1914 and 2014 and very nearly brought about nuclear holocaust eg the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The other lot did not.  The closest were the evil Communists whose killings we like to exaggerate to make us feel better and to justify our killing of them in SE Asia.  And all this war on the godless Communists from 1945 to 1975 after they had, perhaps, ensured the defeat of Hitler with Stalin’s rearguard action, to begin with as the Communists fought to protect their homeland from the Nazis! No public and frequent acknowledgement that they, the Communists had been decisive in winning the war, in defeating Hitler. Only condemnation for not being democratic and for being so jealous to keep the eastern European nations under their sway as a buffer from the western European nations frequent wars and expansionism.

A true hero of our times - NOT the soldiers who do our killing

Deviantinc

31 August 2011 9:47am

Thank you Mr Chomsky - you are a hero of our times; speaking softly words with a razor edge. You are a voice of reason and sense and a beacon to those of us fed up with endless war.

I am not 'Deviantinc' (just deviant!) but I agree with his/her sentiments, above. Dad

Me (TW) writing: We are responsible for the atrocities and human rights abuses of our own governments whom we vote for and, not for the Arab, Russian and Chinese misbehaviour.  It is always right to look to ourselves and our own wrongs and to stop or much reduce the finger pointing at everyone else but ourselves. "Judgement begins in the House of the Lord" - and should end there, in my opinion, to leave all the finger wagging at the judgement seat of Christ. We should stop taking the law into our own hands around the world, and only do war when the UN authorises it.