My fellow blogger Cenk Uygur wants to know where was God when Cho went on that rampage. Yes, that's right. It was Cho's rampage. So I don't thnk God gets the blame. Uygur wants to implicate God indirectly. Surely God could have stopped it, right? Then why didn't he?
This is a deep question about God's hiddenness in the world. Why doesn't God make himself manifest, especially when there is tragedy to be averted? Here's one possible reason. Imagine if there was divine intervention to prevent Cho from doing what he did. Leave aside the issue of what happens to human free will. Just focus on the consequences. Cho would have been--let us say by miraculous intrusion--disarmed, the shootings would have been prevented, and life would go on.
In short, life would proceed as if God had not intervened in the first place. So God in this view becomes a kind of cosmic errand boy, who is supposed to do our chores and clean up our messes and we then wish him a very good day and return to our everyday lives. But perhaps God's purpose in the world (I am only thinking aloud here) is to draw his creatures to him. And you have to admit that tragedies like this one at Virginia Tech help to do that!
Once again, it's absurd to blame God for what happened. Blame guns, blame Virginia Tech's security system, most of all blame Cho. But not Allah or Brahma or Jesus. Even so, it's not unreasonable to suppose that there's a providential purpose behind history, and if human horrors show us our dependence on God's love and restorative powers, that's not such a bad thing, is it?
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 3)
16. Again, everyone wants to put the blame on GOD. Tell your troubles to GOD as, he is up all night to hear your problems. Who else will do that?? Shame on that remark. Anna
anna at 10:27AM on Apr 20th 2007
17. Hillary's taking a little from the left for not doing enough to push gun control on http://www.solidpolitics.com
Bill at 10:32AM on Apr 20th 2007
18. God is not hiding...Remember he is not allowed in schools anymore.What a shame....God is with us all the time if we believe. All you need is faith the size of a mustard seed.Believe because alot of those young adults were saved that lost their lives and they do have a much better place to live now even though it is still very sad. God watches over his children. Remember John 3:16
Lisa at 10:58AM on Apr 20th 2007
19. So God allows a massacre in order to "draw us closer to him"? Any deity would do that isn't kind and loving -- he's a sadistic serial killer.
What comfort!
cheerfuliconoclast@gmail.com at 11:32AM on Apr 20th 2007
20. This writer has a very valid point. God's greatest gift to mankind is free-will. What we chose to do with the Divine energy is one of choice. The Law of Attraction or as in the Bible, what seeds we sow we shall also reap clearly indicates that whatsoever we focus on becomes our reality. And what of our society that has a preoccupation of violence, materialism, obsession with the physical body, cruelty...look at the majority of our TV shows and movies, look are the harsh cruelty to one another in these reality shows, look at who we obsess over; Paris Hilton. Are we surprised that we are raising children who are selfish, cruel and overtly negative? If we understood more the principles of the Universe and how they interact with our choices, we would spend less time blaming God and focus more on making this world the way, deep in our hearts we want it to be. In essence if society focused more on love, compassion and kindness this would reflect the nature of our beings....
As a man thinketh, so is he.... The man in this case is society. We need to grow up and take responsibility of where we are heading as a species.
Nerakami at 12:34PM on Apr 20th 2007
21. Tell me yourself, I challenge your answer. Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature -- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance -- and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth." - Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers K)
I think it is an honest question. Would you build the edifice of heaven on the tears and suffering of just one little girl?
Rob at 12:57PM on Apr 20th 2007
22. Dear Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers K),
And while we sacrifice and torture this tiny infant we are filled with sadness, guilt, fear, remorse alas, our destiny can never be: "making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last" because we will carry the negativity of that one act not only as a part of our memory and experience but its energy will become an integral part of our
very existence. Can we find happiness and peace while living with
guilt, regret & shame for the pain we have caused? Whatever seeds we
sow, we shall reap therefore, every thought, every act becomes
a part of the very fibre of our beings.... We have come to create
life not destroy it.... the future of our happiness and peace comes
when we understand that the essential core of our being is
love....
Nerakami at 1:20PM on Apr 20th 2007
23. D'Souza
Your argument is reviled by so many thoughtful individuals because it asks us to accept the unimaginable. It is contrary to human nature to accept that the most horrific forms of suffering are necessary for our happiness. However, your argument asks us to impose upon God just such a plan and understanding.
Interestingly, I wonder why this discussion does not occur more often with respect to religion.
Rob at 1:22PM on Apr 20th 2007
24. Nerakami
Your comments are interesting but you didn't answer the question.
- Rob
Rob at 1:52PM on Apr 20th 2007
25. Yes I did... if our essential energy is love... then such an act can and will never lead us to the ultimate happiness and peace we seek because going against our inherent nature will bring us internal and external discord. The question is at odds with itself. If you want it in black and white then the answer is; absolutely not, because torture of another being is torturing myself. Afterall, we are inseparable from the whole, a part of the energy force that is life...
Nerakami at 3:24PM on Apr 20th 2007
26. Mr. D'souza,
I feel compelled to express a feeling that at a time like this your comments are terribly crass and indelicate. There are doubtless many people suffering as a result of this tragedy who do not believe in God, or who simply do not believe in a providential purpose in human affairs. Likewise many of these people draw comfort from such views, call these views religious, spiritual, mystical or philosophical. All people cope with tragedy in different ways. It is truly thoughtless to use this event as an opportunity to make an attempt to criticize the validity of any one person's beliefs as they pertain specifically to human tragedy. If you have help to offer than offer what you believe is a positive message of condolence. Compassion, respect and sympathy are in order at times like this, not attempts to dismantle or disprove anyone's personal beliefs. Out of the same respect for those who do believe and find comfort in a divine providence in human affairs I will not even attempt to criticize the logic of your remarks on this view. Instead I will simply offer a gesture of hope and compassion. We, the survivors, must help each other grieve, remember, love, and forgive.
tod at 4:53PM on Apr 20th 2007
27. Your right. It is riduculous to blame god. It was a a persons choice. BUT with this agruement you should also believe that is was PEOPLE who provide us with good things as well. Not god. So thanking god, when it was in fact a persons doing, is just as ridiculous as blaming him for bad things. Examples like child birth, not gods doing. PEOPLE make babies, not god. And if you are saying that it IS god who makes the babies and should be thanked, then you must agree he should be blamed for the countless miscarrages and babies born with brians outside of their head and other mutations. God also didn't establish the lottery. So when people "thank god" that they got the winning ticket, shouldn't the people who DIDN'T win blame god? Also, Virginia Tech is located in a religious area. I'm SURE paretns and students prayed for a good safe college year. Did god ignore these prayers for some higher purpose? Like "bringing us together" (which is a disgusting and terrible arguemnt)? People LOVE a good tragedy, almost as much as the media. It allows them to feel like they are helping by lighting candles and praying (talking to themselves). For these reasons, and many others, I have no belief in any higher power, and while I respect your opinion, I find you highly delusional.
Mike at 5:24PM on Apr 21st 2007
28. Good job, Dinesh. The Bible seems to confirm your comments. It says, "Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely" [Rev. 22:17]. That's man's free will. And it also says, "You [God] reign over all" That's God's sovereignty. They're both true. Though mysterious to finite human beings, they both are presented as truth in the Scriptures.
Bill Fiess at 6:30PM on Apr 21st 2007
29. An Atheist Perspective.
While you were writing on your blog, we were calling friends. We were calling
family. We were crying, worndering how something like this can happen. We
were mourning, and consoling, and being humans. Humans who feel, and care for
each other. While we were doing this, just like the Christians, Bhudists,
Jews, Muslims and others at Virginia Tech, what were you doing? What compasion
were you feeling? You have taken a horrible tragedy, and tried to exploit the
death of my friends, my family, my Hokies, so that you can tear down others.
We recognize that a time like this is not a time to tear down others, but to
come together and hold up those who died tragicaly, to remember them, and to
try to live our lifes in to honor them.
Ut Prosim. That I may serve.
Michael Sperry
Virginia Tech 2005
Mike Sperry at 7:37PM on Apr 21st 2007
30. Wow, by following this logic, God must REALLY love Iraq, because He is letting 100 people a day die there.
So wouldn't it then follow that Iraqis are really a group of "chosen people" who will be closer to God than Americans? And by extension, they have God on their side in their fight to rid their country of us?
Cynicor at 9:39PM on Apr 21st 2007