God: Giving an unhappy impression of Himself
by Scribbles, 17 May 2008
The Archbishop of Canterbury appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme today to talk about the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Transcript here.
Leaving aside his actual views on the conflict, which I am sure you will find of interest never-the-less, the bit that I wanted to comment on here was the exchange between the Archbishop and the interviewer Carolyn Quinn about the incongruity of war and religious belief:
CQ: … if you’ve seen the front page of the Times today, it shows Israeli soldiers taking a break from their bombardment in order to pray. How do you feel when you see a picture like that, almost showing the incongruity of war and a religious belief?
ABC: It’s sadly an incongruity which is part of a history we share. Christians do this, Muslims do this, Jews do this … it’s that unhappy impression that God is somehow content with the killing of innocents.
So God’s content with the killing of innocents is an unhappy impression? That’s as well be, but it’s a pretty damn accurate one all the same.
Perhaps the Archbishop isn’t aware, but recently 29,000 plus people have been killed in an earthquake in China and 10,000 plus Burmese have been killed in a cyclone.
The Archbishop’s God seems pretty happy to have sat back and let those events happen.
Why would this be, I wonder, if God doesn’t feel content at the killing of innocents? Maybe His powers don’t give Him any control over the actual planet itself and therefore stopping natural disasters is beyond His remit. Or maybe He doesn’t consider the people of China and Burma to be ‘innocent’ enough for Him to bother preventing their suffering such mass-scale death, destruction and displacement?
Or perhaps it’s just that He’s a bit busy right now and has other more pressing things to attend to. After all, He only works six days a week and He presides over the whole world and everyone and everything in it - that’s a lot of work for one lone celestial being.
Or maybe He just doesn’t give a shit.
Fortunately, however, for those of us who have no God, and who recognise that we only have each other, there’s the Red Cross.
Saturday 17 May 2008 at 17:09
Ah it’s the good old Problem of Evil. But no less knotty for it. I think it’s insurmountable.
Either God does not exist, or we, as free beings with morality and the capacity for reason, should spit in his tired old immoral face.
Great post.
Saturday 17 May 2008 at 17:38
Thomas Hardy pointed out some years back that ‘it has been obvious for centuries that the Supreme Mover of Movers, the Prime Force of Forces must be either limited in power, unknowing or cruel.’
Saturday 17 May 2008 at 19:03
The Archbishop of Canterbury appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme today to talk about the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
This transcript is from 21 July 2006.
Saturday 17 May 2008 at 21:11
Appropos nothing, a google of ‘Hitchens T-shirt’ yields this:
http://www.atheistnetwork.com/viewtopic.php?p=446984&sid=befe6b5a259af9f88a5ac3a95c06b114
http://www.cafepress.com/naturallyselect.236606790
Sunday 18 May 2008 at 15:35
These questions are as old as time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy
Sunday 18 May 2008 at 17:04
Fuckeroo. Thank you Mustafa. That happened because I had intended to write about something I’d heard on R4 about ABC that morning, had started the post, gone to look for something to link to, found that article and decided to make a point about that instead, but then didn’t change the post to reflect that. Wrote post in fuzz of anger.
I’ll take it down if the ABC declares that in light of recent natural disasters that God doesn’t actually seem to have a problem with killing innocents OR if God should come flying down to save the people of Burma/China (or anywhere were people could do with a bit of supernatural intervention right now)
Sunday 18 May 2008 at 17:18
Woody Allen quote:
“If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.”
http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Woody_Allen
Wednesday 21 May 2008 at 17:59
The point you fail to connect with of course, at least as would be argued by those followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam (amongst others) is that you fail to see how the deaths of people as in the recent disasters you cite, is to be seen not as an end, but as a transfer to something else.
The total rejection of such a notion would lead any truly confident atheist merely to look on in bemusement.
That you go to such lengths in your declarations of the atheist viewpoint, suggests to me that you are unhappy in your beliefs.
Thursday 22 May 2008 at 12:21
That you go to such lengths in your declarations of the atheist viewpoint, suggests to me that you are unhappy in your beliefs.
The endless declarations of the Pope, the Archbish of Cant and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor must mean that they are really unhappy with their beliefs then!
Friday 23 May 2008 at 20:23
Absolutely!
And Atheism isn’t a belief anyway, Alf Tupper, it’s more of a conclusion to be arrived at.