Theodicy

[thedarkages]

The idea of God communicating with us by way of large natural disasters, although Biblically attested, gives to God all the coherence of a stroke victim.

(Then again, Northridge wasn't that far from the San Fernando Valley.)

(On the other hand, still a lack of accuracy.)

Comments

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Good point...

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

This belief that victims of terrible events are being "punished" by God because they're worse sinners than others was addressed directly by Jesus in the gospel of Luke (Chapter 13). Basically, he tells his followers that everyone is equally sinful in the eyes of God, and therefore the same fate could befall any of them. Not particularly comforting, but you'd think that'd at least breed a little "there but for the grace of God go I" humility in Christian fundamentalists, wouldn't you? Not that they've ever let the actual words of Jesus get in the way of their vindictive and judgemental dogma.

As for the radical Islamic mullahs who've been gleefully inducting Katrina into the ranks of their jihadis, they might want to ask themselves why so many devout Muslims were drowned in the tsunami and why the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, but that'd require some honest self-appraisal that fundamentalists of any stripe are obviously incapable of (otherwise they wouldn't be fundamentalists).