Once in a generation, there comes an event so horrifying, so mind-bendingly stomach-churning, that you hope it never reveals its ugly head on this earth again.
In the early and mid 20th century, we saw two world wars which thankfully are past us now and almost out of living memory. In the fifties, sixties and early seventies we had the haunting images of those vicious fights over Korea and Vietnam. In the early 21st century we watched in disgust as some monstrous fundamentalists used planes as their weapons to bring down two towers in New York. These five events were brought about by ideology. Although not all religious, ideology has been responsible for the five most unnecessary losses of life in one hundred years. World War 1 was responsible for between 15 and 25 million deaths, World War 2 for up to 70 million. Korea for about 3 million and Vietnam for up to 5 million. This is excluding the Russian Civil War (up to 8.5 million) from 1917 to 1924 and the Second Congolese War of 1998 to 2003 (5 million est).
Ideology, whether over ethnic superiority, political belief or religion, has been responsible for the deaths of over 120 million people in 100 years. The human being is the most destructive, most murderous animal alive. Fighting for ideology is futile in this world though, and always has been, although nobody has noticed it. There is another murderous force, so mighty, it can wipe us out in the space of seconds. It discriminates against no-one and never picks a target. We call it nature. Some call it God.
The search for God is useless because there can be no God. You cannot blame a war on a god, but if there were God, a natural disaster cannot be anyone else's fault but His. And what exactly have the Haitians done to deserve such a battering of these proportions? Haiti was a fairly peace-loving nation of individuals with a strong sense of community, recently tormented by hurricanes, floods and disease. Not to mention an angry run of dictators.
So after all that, why do they deserve such an earthquake which, if it had happened four hundred or more years ago would have been called divine retribution? What would an author of the Bible have made of it? What would God be divinely intervening in down there in Haiti? Why not London's banking zone or Seattle's Microsoft HQ? Surely they deserve it more...?
If there is a God, then "He" sure has some strange ideas about who should get payback. I mean, if God were around, wouldn't He have had a hit-list which would include:
Bankers
Landmine manufacturers
People traffickers
Oil profiteers
Extremists and fundamentalists
Greasy western and northern democratic leaders
Nasty eastern and southern despots?
And wouldn't He try to protect the harmless:
Pacific islanders from sinking
Caribbean islanders from being blasted by hurricanes
Equatorial dwellers from famine
Peasants from starvation
Victims from criminals
People affected by earthquakes?
So if anyone should ever wish to try to convert me to a monotheistic religion, especially one with an ideology that God will protect us, then they are wasting their time with me, because I cannot stomach such dangerous, unrealistic nonsense.
This week, if He ever existed in the first place, God finally died in the hearts of many decent, law-abiding people, in the minds of many charity donors and aid workers. For those poor inhabitants of Haiti, He obviously never wanted to be acknowledged in the first place, let alone worshiped. He has certainly never really been there for us, so why should people still continue this futile belief in Him?
Would the last one to leave the Church please put the lights out?
