Does God like to punish?

September 5, 2008 at 1:51 pm (belief, world affairs)
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Anyone who’s read the Bible knows that punishing people took up a goodly portion of God’s time.  And it didn’t much matter if you actually did anything wrong or not, or if you were under a certain age.  Guilt by association was just as much a crime as the “crime” itself–just ask the Canaanites or the pre-Flood inhabitants.

And if you think the punishments have stopped because we live in some period of grace, think again.  With every calamity–natural or not–some “man of God” dutifully proclaims it divine retribution for one human “sin” or another–gay pride parades, gambling, abortion, dancing–you name it.  Some even believe calamities are a herald of the imminent end times–the fact that the same things have been occurring for millions of years doesn’t seem to phase these people, however.

The funny thing about these prognosticators of doom is that they also believe in a god who sends the unrepentant (read: those who don’t belong to their particular sect, in their particular religion) to eternal suffering in the fiery pits of hell.  Their god, apparently not simply content with punishing us forever and ever after death, also feels it necessary to mete out punishment during our lifetimes.  And if we poor SOBs should die as a result, then tough shit.  Out of the fire, and into the frying pan!

So, you can see, God really likes to punish. And, I gotta hand it to him, in a number of really inventive ways.  A virus which progressively destroys your immune system, leaving you to die a slow and miserable death?  Who da thunk it?!

But what about the the innocent casualties?  You know, those who’re did everything right, muttered the correct magical words, dutifully contributed to the collection plate every Sunday in the red brick church.  Is God punishing them too when they get run over by a hurricane or tidal wave?

Oh, no!  They are merely being “called home.”  At the worst, they should recall that this is a fallen world, righteously susceptible to God’s carpet-bomb justice.  ‘Cause, you know, sparing the good and innocent is too much to ask of the Omnipotent Creator of the Known Universe.  If I was one of those Rapturians–people who believe they’ll be magically beamed into the sky before the real shit hits the fan–I would feel a little worried about this divine tendency to simply blow everyone away.

The really curious thing is the response of these men of God and their fellow believers.  They sometimes actually help the victims. WTF? I can think of no more sinful act than working against God’s justice.  They may think that poor, hungry child in Somalia deserves food, but they should remember, that kid has got sin-tainted blood and is almost certainly headed for hell.  Best to send ’em a Bible instead (only the KJV1611 version will do).

You can’t help but get the impression God is chomping at the bit to annihilate His creation as soon as possible, and is blowing off a little steam in the meantime.  With divine love like this…

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The Potemkin Olympics

August 12, 2008 at 10:28 pm (world affairs)
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In 1787, as the story goes, the minister in charge of the successful Russian campaign to conquer Crimea, Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin, erected fake villages to impress the visiting Empress Catherine II with the new conquests.  Thus a new expression entered the lexicon: Potemkin village.  It means to give a false veneer of progress or success in order to mask an undesirable reality.

Anyone who has followed China’s preparation for the 2008 Olympic games will immediately appreciate the parallels.  The Olympics are tremendously important to the country, in the eyes of its leadership. They are a chance to show the world how far it has advanced toward modernity.

To be sure, China has indeed made huge strides, but as story after story has amply documented, the underlying reality apparently is not quite up to the standard China’s leaders hope to convey.  And so, no effort has been spared in order to correct the “deficiency”.

The latest example to come to light is the performance of the little girl who sang “Ode to the Motherland” during the Opening Ceremony.  It turns out her voice was considered not suitable, in the minds of China’s supremely image-conscious leaders, and so another was subsituted in its place.  Only her face was fit, so she was required to lip-sync the performance.  It was “in the national interest,” rationalized a member of the Chinese ruling circle.

Small potatoes, you may think, but this is merely the latest string in a long pattern.  Just a few days ago, we learned that parts of the Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated.  China’s Potemkin efforts have not been restricted to simple enhancement.  Entire sections of Beijing have been walled-off as too unseemly for foreign eyes.  Information on the Internet considered unfriendly to the country has been blocked by the Great Firewall, even to visitors.  Even some Olympic athletes had their visas revoked for fear they would speak critically of the hosts.

And so it goes.  Our view of China during these Olympics has been carefully managed by its censors and propagandists.  The real China?  Who knows.  But a country which needs to manipulate its image more carefully than a Hollywood star is not a modern one.

I’m skipping these Potemkin Olympics.

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