iwillserveu
Posts: 1633
Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline
|
OK, this might start flames. Please hold off on the flames for a minute.
If handed a 3x5 card and told to complete the following two sentences
1) The soul is _____________.
2) Faith is ______________.
I would write one word. "Irrelevant".
<<Waits for the flames to die down>>
An atheist, say Schwitzer, and a religious person, say the Ayatolla Komenni (sp?), will have different definitions that affect nothing in their being. How they view the soul, there own and others, is irrelevant.
Same arguement for faith. (And, yes, atheism is as dangerous as a faith as any -- Ask Stalin and Mao.)
What does this have to do with the topic? Try to have a religion without faith and not based on telling people about their soul. If A = irrelevant and B = irrelevant then AxB = irrelevent squared.
Now that the caveat is out of the way. (What follows is irrelevant.)
There are 4 possibiliteies that I see for evil, other than it is human caused by acts of freewill. ("Children die of the black plague because people choose to live in unsanitary conditions and not kill the rats." Tough to argue against because the free will of a farmer in the Amazon may or may not affect my pancreas.)
1) God is not omnipotent. (Dualism, evil diety is strong enough for evil.)
2) God is not omnibenevolent (i.e. doesn't care)
3) God is not omniscient (he doesn't know about it)
4) Youll never understand HIS ways, mortal! (Job's answer)
As for the existence of a God that actually cares, the only "proof" I found is for humanity in general. I'll cut and paste my "proof" of God (or gads, or Goddess, or Q.)
I’m not very religious, but there is something. Don’t get me wrong. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Wicca, etc. cannot be proven. (They cannot be disproven either.) What I can “prove” is a very impersonal GOD (or Q ) that only shows his hand when he has too. (Before anyone says how no sparrow falls without him knowing it, let me reply that did a lot of good for the sparrow.)
My first quibble with myself is the word “proof”. If a guy throws twelve sevens in a row is not proof the dice are loaded, however that would be my guess. Since I won’t get to examine the dice until I’m dead, I’ll just take all the rolls of sevens as “proof.”
Next I need a clear conflict with good guys and bad guys. Although winners write history, they usually try to minimize luck and we can all agree an Axis win in WWII would have been bad.
Don’t get me wrong. The Allies are far from perfect. Compare them however with their opponents, however.
United States vs. Imperial Japan (Bash the US all you want, but if you do not think the US are the good guys in that one, who would you rather be taken prisoner by?)
Great Britain vs. Italy of Mussolini (Churchill in a cake walk over El Duce.)
Soviet Union vs. Nazi Germany (OK, this one is close. After multiple sudden death overtimes [penalty kicks for you soccer fans] Stalin is a good guy when compared to Hitler. It is probably the only time Stalin is a good guy.)
Now we have to assume about the Deity. So I won’t upset too many people let’s call him, “Q.” I apologize to the Wiccans, but John DeLancie is a man, last I checked.
Let’s assume that time travel is, for whatever reason, not a good option. That unfortunately fits the fact that Hitler wasn’t killed in a freak bus accident in 1922. Let’s assume that “Q” generally stays out of everything and only interferes when he has to and he held out hope we’d straighten it out ourselves. The Fall of France cured him of that notion.
That’s when the dice act funny.
First we have Dunkirk. If the English army does not escape The Nazis have a much easier time if they invade England. As Ike pointed out when the US entered the war and there was a cry to get the Japanese first, we needed England at least as a base and we had to help it while it was still there.
The little ships that brought the army out of Dunkirk allowed it to “still be there”. The Luftwaffa could have sunk many ships in the channel. Why they didn’t is irrelevant. That they held their fire was the first “7” the allies rolled.
Second, is the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. England was not off the hook after Dunkirk. An invasion, however, yielding air supremacy is too stupid. The bad news for England was the Battle of Britain was going badly. I forget where, but I remember reading they’d only last a few more weeks if the Nazis kept going after their air bases. Then “Q” gets involved again. I forget the city; I forget why the Nazi Bombers were so far off target. They bomb a civilian target, say Lancaster or some city. That angers Churchill and the Brits bomb Berlin. That angers Hitler and the Blitz starts.
A just and loving God does not bomb civilians. This isn’t God, however, it is “Q”. The moving to “the Blitz” is another roll of “7” that allows England to “still be there”.
Number three is in Greece. Italy invaded Greece. Mussolini was having a hard time of it. Hitler helped him out. To do so he postponed his invasion of the Soviet Union. I forget the actual dates but I think he was planning on May but had wait until August. Three more non-winter months would have helped the Nazis.
Number four is the Japanese not invading the Soviet Union. Troops from Manchuria would have had easy access and if Stalin didn’t have the option of moving his industries over the Urals to safety he’d have lost.
Number 5 comes on Dec. 8, 1941. The Enterprise came back to Pearl Harbor. Bald-faced luck (rolling a 7) saved the only three carriers the US had in the Pacific at the start of the war. To hold off the Japanese advance, Admiral Nimitz would need them unsunk.
Number 6 comes on Dec.9, 1941. The US is pussyfooting around. It declared war only with the Japanese. Hitler and Mussolini prevent the US from possibly making a serious mistake BY DECLARING WAR ON THE US. This despite having the same excuse the Japanese used for not attacking the Soviet Union. In a weird stroke of luck they are actually honorable and keep their agreement with the Japanese.
Number 7 comes at Midway. Until then the US might have to face the Japanese first despite what good sense says. I forget if it was the Hornet or Yorktown that the Japanese thought they had damaged so much at the battle of Coral Sea it was out of commission. Instead it limped to Midway. The Japanese still blundered into a trap, but the Americans screwed up so bad the extra carrier was needed.
Number 8 is also at Midway. (This list is American centric; I make no apologies for being an American.) The Americans were “lucky” to discover the Japanese fleet without giving away the trap.
Number 9 is also at Midway. (Be patient, Brits, without Midway the Axis wins. Until then all the battles in the Pacific feature heroic last stands by American forces. If not for Midway the US would have to face the Japanese and Britain faces the Nazis alone.) Americans don’t attack in waves on purpose. That is a bit of psychology lost on people who might think some lives worth more than others. The plan was for a massed assault. However, the timing got screwed up, badly. The massive assault by three carriers’ planes on five carriers (and their planes) might not have worked as well as the attack in waves that resulted. The attack in waves even allowed the Japanese carriers to be caught trying to rearm their bombers and have explosives on deck. The accidental attack in waves needed a third carrier’s planes. Lucky break number 9 allowed the US to completely stop the Japanese at the cost of the carrier that limped to Midway and focus its attention on Europe.
Number 10 is the invasion of Italy. Any numskull can tell you that after Sicily you go to Italy. How anyone could believe you would split your forces and invade southern France and Greece is beyond me. That is what the Allies allegedly sold the Nazis because Italy was obvious, too obvious.
Number 11 is the weather over the English Channel on D-Day. The Germans were so sure the weather was too bad for an amphibious landing that their commander was away. I forget if it was his wife’s birthday party or a meeting of goosesteppers anonymous. If it rained then Hitler gets another year to develop a “super weapon” like jet aircraft or missiles that can hit New York.
Number 12 was the Nazi failure at the Battle of the Bulge. Whether you attribute it to stubborn resistance by the besieged Americans at Bastogne, Patton turning the third army left without preparation or planning, Montgomery taking command of American units in the north, Patton’s weather prayer, or Nazi failure to capture adequate supplies in Bastogne. The result is the same. A battle that could’ve been lost was won through the allies’ lucky breaks.
Make no mistake about number 12. The Nazi’s were on the defensive, but could “come back”. After the Battle of the Bulge it was all over except Hitler’s admission he lost.
The picture that emerges is fuzzy. It is an impersonal “Q” that does not care about individuals. (Or if it does care, is not as obvious in acting.)
The “Q” also sees the ends justifying the means on occasion. I know that won’t sit well with some, but the dead of Lancaster and Berlin will testify to it.
You want a slightly smaller scale? (Slightly smaller:)) The battle of Tarawa. The Americans made several really disastrous mistakes that are so obvious an idiot would not make them.
1)They used old intelligence that the Island was undefended. The Japanese had updated the defenses mostly on the north side.
2)They staged an amphibious assault without waterproof radios. The Japanese could not decipher messages carried by runners whereas radios codes at that time would be broken in hours
3)They had the command radio on a battleship which when it fired broke the command radio. This kept the group that were planned to land on the north side from dying on the defenses when the marines on the south beach need reserves.
On an even smaller scale if a soldier was praying it stopped no bullets that we know of. (It might have, but we can't prove or disprove it.)
Not a religion? Can't blame or praise anything? Leaves the moral onus on you too much? Hmmm.
OK flames can start now.
_____________________________
When the Lady smiles i can't resist her call. As a matter of fact, i don't resist at all. Well that depends if it is a smile or a grimmace.
|
Religion - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread