Tragedy: A reason to praise God?

As readers of my blog will know, I frequent a few creationist pages on Facebook. One I visit a lot of late is called Atheism, Satanism and Humanism vs Biblical Christianity where the admin range from asinine scripture quoting wastes of a multi-cellular organism such as the creator, Kim Balogh, to the vile little Nyles Seru.

We have met Nyles before, he is the obnoxious admin who chose to invade my personal wall on Facebook and refused to leave until I was forced to change my privacy settings. He recently said that another member needed her wall invading. This is clearly not a nice man and this update will show just how much he is not a nice man.

On the 11th March, 2011, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale caused a devastating tsunami that has cost the lives of many thousands of people and, as I write this, there are still many, many lives unaccounted for. I was curious how Christians, especially of the fundamental variety, can reconcile such an event with their god, so I asked them.

The question was straightforward, “Did your god cause the Japan earthquake, yes or no?”

What I found was that none of them were prepared to answer without attempting to obfuscate and avoid giving their opinion. Most disgusting of those choosing to take this route was, unsurprisingly, Nyles Seru.

Instead of answering a simple question, Nyles replied with “What do you think?” Not being prepared to play his little game, I said “No, Nyles, I am asking you”, to which he responded, “And Im asking you too....”

At no point did Nyles attempt to give an answer, even after repeated requests he do so. He then said the following;

“Hahahha......steve is always easily provoked!.....hahahaha....you're a real circus,keeping me entertained!...I believe you now, you surely from lineage of apes...”

This is in a thread asking his opinion on whether his god murdered thousands. He is mocking me rather than answer, unbelievably crass and ignorant but nothing unexpected from this repulsive little man.

Why does he do this? It’s quite simply because he is a coward. He is a coward who lacks the courage of his convictions, otherwise he would be proud to answer, be it yes or no, but he won’t because he knows either answer condemns his god.

You see, when something such as the Japanese earthquake and tsunami happens we can pose this little dilemma to those who believe in god;

• If your god caused the earthquake then he is not loving, benevolent or merciful, he is a monster capable of indiscriminately murdering thousands of innocent people.

• if your god didn’t cause the earthquake but could have stopped it then he is still not loving, benevolent or merciful. For one to stand back and allow such devastation when one has the ability to stop it would be unforgivable.

• If your god neither caused nor could stop the disaster then he is not all powerful.

This last option raises a further complication; if god could not stop a localised disaster such the Japan earthquake then he is clearly not capable of causing a worldwide disaster such as the biblical flood. This is a problem as we are left with only the first two options if we are to continue positing that god exists.

So, either god is not the merciful, loving and benevolent deity the Christians insist their Bible tells us he is or he is at best a complacent, uninterested god who doesn’t care about the lives of thousands of innocent people.

Alternatively we can accept that he doesn’t exist and what happened on the 11^th March was a tragic but unavoidable natural disaster which requires everybody to put aside their differences to help.

What is sickening to see are the numerous posts on Facebook by Christians gloating at how they believe their god did cause this disaster, as punishment for Pearl Harbor amongst other things. This is utterly disgusting and anybody who would post such an appalling comment should be ashamed, as they should be for worshiping a god they believe capable of such actions. These people are nauseating in the extreme but, at the end of the day, they at least have the guts to speak their mind, however poisonous it may be. I would rather they do that in reply to my question and damn themselves than behave as Nyles Seru does; attempt to avoid answering because, for all his religiosity is listed as ‘fanatic’, is nothing but a contemptible coward.

If anybody reading this is agnostic and has thought of turning to religion, think on the implications of worshiping a god that is capable of mass murder and of following a religion that can breed such ignorance, arrogance and hatred as this latest disaster has shown it capable.

As further insult, Nyles Seru chose to claim that no atheist/humanist charities exist or are helping Japan. This is obviously complete rubbish and I provided him several sites listing such charities as proof, which he dismissed out of hand and with his customary mocking attitude. With every post he further exemplifies everything I find objectionable about religion when taken to such ridiculous extremes.

I shall close this blog by providing one of those links, where you will find information on humanist charities currently aiding in Japan. Please, if you are able to do so, consider donating to these wonderful causes. Thank you.

http://humanistcharities.org/