A patient remarked to me today, "I don't buy all this global warming crap; it's all just a scare tactic." As a Christian, she said, "Besides, God is in control -- the glaciers have melted before, and they will melt again." This patient is otherwise very nice, friendly, conscientous, but typical of a lot of Christians I know. I've always wondered why Christians are so hostile to the idea that humans could be contributing to the problem (a worldview that aligns itself nicely with corporations with no interest whatsoever in conservation or any limits on pollution, etc). I understand that the Bible says we have dominion over everything (apparently, since I've never read the Bible), but does this really mean we should trash the joint? Since the Messiah might take his sweet ass time returning, shouldn't we try to leave a few trees standing for our unsuspecting posterity to enjoy? Sure, it might cut into the profits of a few lumber companies, but the lumber companies aren't going to heaven anyway since they won't be able to fit through the eye of a needle. So given that most reasonable people think we should leave the Earth at least as habitable as we found it, why is it that so many Christians vociferously deny environmental degradation? I think my patient allowed a glimpse into their mentality -- If God is in control, it is much easier, much cheaper, and conveniently much more business friendly to just kick back and do nothing.
If God is in control, he really sucks or is totally malicious and unfair. It is not at all comforting to know the guy in control allowed my dad to suffer 20 years with muscular dystrophy, or children to go hungry, or my patients having to leave retirement to go work at WalMart because they can no longer make ends meet. I wouldn't trust God with a damn thing. If we just let him "be in control," then why study cures for diseases (after all, if these diseases exist, isn't it because God made them? Or if he is punishing us, then he really sucks for punishing practically everybody on earth)? Why fight for civil rights or world peace? God will take care of us all, right? That's why Marx called Christianity, "The opiate of the people." Lucky for my patient there were so many people before her unwilling just to yield the helm to this indifferent god. Without strikes and unions, physicians, chemists, peace activists, her grandkids would probably be consigned to indentured servitude working 100 hours per week with no overtime, sick pay, or health care. Good thing so many of us didn't leave it to God. thanks for nothing, God.....thanks for sitting on your ass for century after century.
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"God is in control" plays nicely into modern society's lack of personal responsibility. It truly is convenient to think that someone else is in control of our fate. It lessens the responsibility we feel to take care of ourselves and others. God is in control, so why bother trying?
If there is a God, assuming that she is a wise God, she isn't going to save us from the mess we caused for ourselves. She's going to let us live or die with the consequences of our actions. To think anything else would be to admit that God is stupid.
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