Blind faith serves no good
I AM amazed at man’s unwavering faith in God. He can be callous, vengeful, cruel, merciless, indifferent and deaf to our pleas for help. But we still prostrate ourselves at his feet. Like battered wife syndrome, we keep going back to God.
The fire that razed the Jesus Dome made headlines around the country. It seemed that hell itself had engulfed it. Though they won’t speak their minds, many must be wondering why God did not save this holy shrine, and even be questioning their faith (They raced to the rescue, but too late to save the dome, Sunday Tribune, June 12).
If the Creator is what the world has come to believe – kind, loving, merciful, omnipresent and omnipotent – why did he allow his place of worship to burn to ashes?
What excuse are the faithful going to find – that it was God’s will and He was testing man’s resolve?
Pastor John Torrens says the dome was “more than a building, it was our home”. Though the inferno was heart- breaking, “he had not once blamed God – it was just the building that was destroyed”. Even in adversity he remains stoical and his faith unshaken.
Though I sound callous and some would wish I had been thrown into the inferno, I have questions for the pastor and the very religious.
Two years ago, 85 South Africans who had travelled all the way to Nigeria to worship, died when a church building collapsed. So often Muslims who undertake the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and Hindu devotees who flock to temples in India, pay a heavy price for their religious beliefs when they are crushed to death in stampedes. Why did the Almighty not protect his worshippers from danger in these holy shrines?
When there’s a lone survivor in a multiple car crash, we say he’s been saved by the grace of God.
When a survivor is pulled out of the rubble where thousands have perished in an earthquake, we call it a miracle and thank the Lord for showing mercy.
Six children drowned in Zimbabwe while they were being baptised. God did not lift a finger to save these helpless children. But the faithful will say God has taken them into His arms.
It’s incredible how we console and deceive ourselves when someone meets an untimely death – he’s gone to Heaven to be with God. You even hear he is celebrating his birthday in Heaven.
If that’s not delusional, then I must be damned.
Over the centuries humanity has been ravaged by countless wars, diseases and natural disasters. Where was God? Does He watch from Heaven with bemused indifference or does He gloat over all the attention He gets from man?
All this merely reinforces my belief that God doesn’t give a damn about humanity’s suffering. More and more I am convinced that God is nothing more than a creation of man and exists only in his mind – a figment of his imagination. T MARKANDAN
Silverglen