Is God An Idiot?
From The Huffington Post
By James Love
A week ago, Joe Scarborough asked, "is Bush an idiot?" With the world reeling toward ever increasing intolerance, hate and violence, led by persons who express knowledge of "God's will," we might ask, "Is God an idiot?"
George Bush, the person running the US foreign policy like an idiot, claims that God is directing his actions.
Tony Blair, who never seemed like an idiot before, has thrown his career and reputation away, reportedly because of his deep religious faith. Why is God telling Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair to invade and occupy Iraq? Why is God telling Mr. Bush to sanction torture, or degrading the use of diplomacy?Terrorism, as is defined these days, is much about people carrying out "Gods will." Osama Bin Laden claims to speak on behalf of God when he urges attacks on civilians.
Mahmood Ahmadinezhad, the devout Shia who is president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, appears to be pushing for new nuclear arsenals, and raising the prospects for war in the middle east.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the "deeply religious" leader of Hezbollah, is now a hero among many Muslims for provoking a shooting war with Israel. "If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help," he said.
Israel's aggressive bombing of Lebanon, including countless civilian casualties, is yet another chapter of recent warfare that is based upon religious differences.
Iraq is falling apart, as warfare between Suni and Shia populations are killing thousands per month.
If these conflicts are motivated and directed by persons who pray and listen to God, what does it say about God these days? Or about anyone who claims that God is helping or urging them to wage war or kill?
How is it, that in 2006, we see political leaders of all types claiming that brutality, murder and warfare are "God's will"?
Why are we so defenseless in challenging such ridiculous claims? How have we let religion become a tool to justify the least productive, most foolish, and least moral courses of action?
Do we need a "smarter" God? A "smarter" public? Leaders who can discuss the consequences of hatred, intolerance, violence and warfare in a world that is searching for moral outcomes?
god is an idiot
religion
bush
5 Comments:
We need a common secular "god". Is that crazy? We need an Esperanto for Morality. A common world wide subset of moral rules which are common to all religions and which adhere and appeal to the inate morality of humans described by (et.al.) Steven Pinker in "The Blank Slate". That's how I see this smarter god which we need. Someday it may happend.
I wonder though if religion is the impetus for violence or just the justification.
momsquared, I wish I could remember who said this, and I'm merely paraphrasing . . .
"Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things, but it takes religion to make good people do bad things."
Unfortunately, being herd animals, we humans will mostly go along with the crowd, even if we're not exactly happy with what the crowd's doing.
Progress is begun by individuals, in every sense of the word. People who are not afraid to question. Not afraid to not fit in. Religion discourages individuality, critical thinking, questioning. Religion teaches one to be a sheep, to blindly follow the "leader."
Ah, everyone here knows all this. It's just nice to have an outlet.
This is a bunch of garbage. Do you realize that our country was founded by Christians who had faith that God would take care of them..."in God we trust". But now when you look at our world there is hardly any evidence of God anywhere, and then you people are trying to figure out why our country is being punished. I think you should just leave all of the figuring out to God, and do what He will's for you to do.
Personally, I think people should believe what they find to be the most convincing. Personally, I do believe in a God but I have two friends who are atheists. I can see where some of you are coming from but some of you are ignorant.
Christianity and intelligence are not incompatible. Neither is Islam and Science or the Jewish religion and morality. It was a Jewish man, Jesus who said "Turn the other cheek". The word Algebra comes from Arabic because the Muslims were flourishing in the arts and science during the European medieval period. It was Christian monks who kept records and translations of the ancient Greek science manuscripts. The first schools and universities in Europe were founded by Christians. Harvard and Yale were also founded by Christians. Christians, Muslims, and Jews aren't perfect. We mess up sometimes. I'm always willing to apologize and try and do better.
By the way, I was raised in a Southern Baptist home and grew up in Southern Baptist churches. I never was taught to blindly follow the pastor. I was always told to look at the Bible myself and double check to see if what the preacher was teaching was Biblical.
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