Exodus 3:14 "God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” I am what I am and cannot be other. The devastating forest fires that are sweeping the earth obviously raise ecological and environmental issues. For some, they also raise spiritual ones relating to the existence and nature of any supreme being that would allow such a thing. These are old questions that arise in the mind of man in the face of any humanitarian or natural disaster. The questions are never really resolved. Individuals have to make their own minds up. To opt for a form of faith in the divine, the mystical and transcendent or opt for the purely rationalistic and mechanical. Whatever path we choose, influenced by socialisation, education and experience, no one can can surely avoid or resist the wonder and awe of the natural universe, of which we are a tiny but sentient and unique element. Even in the absence of a controlling mind or all-pervading spirit, the harmony, variety and sheer mesmerising beauty of the natural world cannot be gainsaid. Or indeed that universal laws appear to apply both to the physical and organic worlds. No one really knows why this should be so. What is beyond our comprehension forces us towards the meta-physical. Closely related is the the parallel moral universe. The Judeo/Christian position over two millenia at least was that man was made in the image of God. The modern view over two hundred or so is that God was made in the image of man. Either way, every action or event is subjected to a moral test. It is strange and incomprehensible how those who deny the possibility of a metaphysical power, nevertheless apply a moral argument to support their position. Clearly if there is no God, he cannot be blamed for natural or any other catastrophe. On the other hand nor for believers is the issue an easy one to reconcile with a loving and just God. Either way it is a philosophical problem with no easy answers. Sometimes only the Biblical Job supplies a rational, or irrational response: "The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding. Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." Forest fires have raged in California, Brazil, Indonesia, Burma and latterly Eastern Australia, although this is just a 'tip of the iceberg' as the following web site only too clearly illustrates. From this one might fairly claim that no region of the earth is exempt, indeed that the whole globe is ablaze. What the environmental consequences of this conflagration - to air quality, death of animals and plants beside property and human life - are impossible to quantify.
(See: https://fires.globalforestwatch.org/report/index.html#aoitype=ALL&reporttype=globalcountryreport&dates=fYear-2019!fMonth-12!fDay-29!tYear-2020!tMonth-1!tDay-5 ) We should ask is this the normal course of events or is it a new feature of the earth's long history? Is it doing irreparable damage to local and global ecosystems? What are the causes and insofar as they are human, what can be done to prevent them? Who should be blamed: man, nature or God? In this connection there follows (for what it is worth) a brief Facebook conversation between friends, in which some of the above issues were discussed. If you have got this far, I hope you will find it stimulating and in the process, help you to clarify your own philosophical position to a very troubling phenomenon.
Ignoring plenty of things around the rest of the world for a minute, what’s happening in Australia right now is absolutely tragic. So much loss, fear and pain in an otherwise happy land of plenty and I’m being asked right, left and centre to pray for them...my first response is to ask 'To whom exactly, a God who could stop it, if so why the fuck hasn’t he already, why did he/she allow it to happen in the first place'...?
It would take a special type of cruel bastard to wake up one day and think ‘Right let’s burn some fucking koalas this week’ Wake up people, there is no God, even if I’m wrong he’s a right miserable motherfucker.
Forget praying, do something that will actually help and donate instead.
Lindsay FieldingWell said haha if there were a god why would he let this happen in the first place 🙄praying don’t solve shit 😂
Emma ConstableTotally agree! Even worse.... ‘he’ lets all the fires happen, then ‘apparently’ will make them stop once we’ve all ‘prayed’!!! That’s sick too! Beg me people..... beg me!!!!! 🙄
Rowan OndapondPerhaps Elon Musk and his gang of robbing bar stewards are gods.. as you can donate to the cause through paypal ...but they have not dropped the paypal fee.. 😞😞
Tim Veateror just nature in all its earthly wiles?
Dom LoweIt’s not so much the cause I’m searching for Tim, more who I should be praying to to stop the suffering, surely that being doesn’t need me begging to stop the suffering..?
Tim VeaterDom Lowe It follows that if you do not believe in one, it would be pointless praying to him, her or it! In its absence, a letter to the Australian Governor General or Prime Minister, would appear to be more or less effective, as the case maybe. I couldn't avoid noting the irony that whilst parts of the continent were ravaged by fire, the whole of Sydney Harbour was lit by fireworks; or that the Government refused to pay the volunteer fire-fighters; or that only belatedly it decided to allocate the armed forces and its resources to the battle. You are also probably aware that humans have been playing with the weather systems for at least fifty years, that may or may not have contributed to the current climate crisis, with or without seeking divine approval. Kind regards, Tim. https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/search?q=weather
Dom LoweI’ll believe tomorrow Tim if I’m given a reason to, I’d believe in unicorns and pixies down the bottom of the garden if there were just a shred of evidence. But unfortunately there is as much proof of them as there is any God hence my questions, perhaps time to dismiss the scare-mongering sexist, racist, homophobic, genocidal stories of 2,000-year-old goat herders and apply a dash of modern logic and common sense..?
Tim VeaterDom Lowe I get your point Dom but I have to say it's hardly novel or revolutionary. It's few years since Voltaire, Thomas Paine or even our good friend JL. All humans have to come to a view regarding their philosophical, religious and scientific beliefs and how they fit together. Clearly knowledge and the world view based on it has evolved dramatically as science and technology have developed. Some take the view, as do you obviously, that this has displaced any need for spiritual belief, whether Christian or other. There is no doubt in my mind, that religious belief is no guarantee of ethical behaviour, or indeed that it is not possible to be a good human being without it. Nevertheless it seems, despite all rational and political attempts to dispel belief in some higher power, it has proved resistant to change. Indeed in some ways it is a more influential factor in world events today than ever before. No doubt superstition is a factor but on a deeper level, humans realise, or at least suspect there is a mysterious aspect to the universe and their own lives, that only a spiritual dimension can adequately explain.
Louise Eleanor Crawford🙌🙌 YES! It's so horrible Dom. 15 million acres gone and 500 MILLION animals have perished. Absolutely fucking devastating. $30 million dollars have been donated so far which is amazing. We have one major fire here (deliberately lit) and it's 2hrs drive from here and it's causing a lot of smoke. I can't even imagine what it must be like on the mainland. My heart goes out to them.
Tim O'DonnellThe correct answer is "OK, I've done it. Did it work?"
Dom LoweThe fires continue to rage and millions of God's creatures still suffer Tim. No I haven't prayed and I would refuse to beg anyone that demanded me to. People have been fed shit for thousands of years by those who live in luxury, question everything
Tim O'DonnellI was, of course, being sarkey - that answer should shut them up. Millions have prayed and the fires are still burning. What next? Every time my Italian mother-in-law tells me she will say I prayer to the Madonna for me, I tell her I would prefer it if she sent me 50 euros.
Suzie Butler RobertsI once read that the agnostic/atheist’s prayer should just be thought of as simple reflection instead - usually involving three key thoughts; “help”, “thanks” and “wow”. Frankly it isn’t about us and whether we choose to pray/donate or reflect, the important thing is we at least spare a thought for the “land of plenty” that is currently burning..
https://gumshoenews.com/2020/01/07/raging-fires/#comment-82692
ReplyDelete