Is God a Republican, Hate Us, or Simply Not Exist?

In the wake of the Haiti tragedy, watching before our eyes as we sit comfortably in our living rooms televised coverage of rotting bodies and orphaned children, one naturally wonders if God exists. This is not an article convincing one that God does exists, but rather, if He did, why would he allow so many hundreds of thousands of innocent lives die? Does He care? Does He hate women and children? Is He pissed off at the Haitians because of some Satanic pact they made centuries ago? (as Pat Robertson so eloquently proclaimed). Why does He allow this to happen? Why did so many people in Chile die from their horrible earthquake? There are so many world disasters happening lately. Have we angered God somehow?

This has been a nagging question on my mind since the wrath in Haiti and Chile. It doesn't seem, as a Christian, that I have any answers. Perhaps Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists have the answer. Do share with us, because I am all ears!

A Greek philosopher, Epicurus, once lamented whether God was even able to prevent tragedies, or whether He was just not willing.

Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, was quoted last month as saying, 'I have nothing to say that makes sense of this horror - all I know is that the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is that he is with us.'

The Bible is not clear about why God allows bad things happen, especially to good people.

Returning to Mr. Robertson's offensive charge, why did God allow slavery to occur in the first place? Why didn't he free the Haitians so long ago from the French? For that matter, why did slavery ever occur in America? What a ludicrous outfit that was! Why does God institute punishment to many generations long after stupid social injustices, like slavery, occurred?

Horrible things happen to people whether they are guilty of wrongdoing or not. So, why didn't God make such imperfect specie like humans who kill their own kind? No other animal is guilty of that. Some argue that if God did make us perfect and blameless, we would lack freewill.

Maybe God is too big and all mighty. Perhaps He has no regard to insignificant specks like us! It seems contradicting that if He loved us so much, he allowed such grave suffering all over the world. Perhaps, one may argue, God didn't give a darn about the animals that are already extinct, like the dinosaurs. He made them, but now they are wiped off the face of the earth.

If there was intervention on God's part, where is the evidence? Are the 400,000 or so Haitian orphans His idea of intervention and mercy? Maybe those children will have a better life now that they are dispersed across the world into the arms of adoptive parents who won't sell them into slavery and expect them to perform sexual acts for pay. I don't know.

With that in mind, perhaps we deserve our agonizing deaths because we were so full of sin throughout our lifetime. Catastrophic disasters could be blamed on humans. We build mighty countries on earthquake fault lines, we neglectfully ignore impoverished countries that lack the resources to build sturdy buildings, and we selfishly go about our daily routines complacent about other people's plight. Too many times the news portrays crimes that were carried out in broad daylight or in crowded arenas. Did anyone report the savage human act of destruction? No! Then we too deserve whatever the criminal faces before the judicial system and his Maker!

Think about the rudimentary caveman who builds his home of sticks because technology hadn't existed yet to build a Trump Tower yet. Is it his fault that his house is ravaged by a mountain lion that devours his family in the middle of the night?

Most Christians, to the angst of atheists alike, contend that God allows suffering to occur for 'soul-making.' God created a universe in which disasters occur, they think, because goodness only develops in response to people's suffering. So, in a world of no suffering, no tsunamis, no earthquakes, no abortion, no AIDS, no rape, murder, and crime (I call it the Wal-greens world-if you have seen the commercial, you'll know what I mean), people wouldn't have the opportunity to develop morals, ethics, and be good people. In a "Wal-greens World", if someone steals or rapes, God replaces the money and the guilty party is removed from existence. No one develops bravery, because nothing scary and injurious occurs. I wouldn't be provoked to going into a violent gang member's home and make sure he is not breaking the law because that situation wouldn't exist. His carefully camouflaged gun in his Allsup's Big Slurp disposable cup on his living- room table wouldn't theoretically exist either.

Could moral goodness exist in a world without suffering? How much of this suffering crap do we really need to develop this so-called 'soul-making'? Why aren't the rapes and murders enough without all those earthquakes and diabolic floods? I'm all for voting that the deaths of innocent lives at the hands of suicide bombers are enough suffering! What do you think?

This leads to another dilemma. Does God inflict horrible deaths on innocent earthquake victims so that the rest of us can be morally benefited? That is certainly unfair!

I am guessing the suffering is a circle or cycle of life and one must die in order for another to live, kind of like the Buddhists' point of view. Then, does that make all of us humans evil from the start because we continue to be reborn and are never new? Are we just continuing the cycle of further human growth each time we are born? They measure pain as a friend, and death as not an end but rather a new beginning.

Atheists in particular argue that the Bible and Koran is merely rubbish. If the world comes to an end and all that is left is a porno magazine, and aliens descend upon the remnants of the earth, is that porno magazine the truth spoken by the Almighty God? Just because it's in print doesn't make it true! Take some All Voice contributors- they write that all Republicans, conservatives, and right-wing advocates are 'tea-baggers', 'birthers', and question Obama's heritage. Surely a Republican doesn't want health-care reform! Then, they lambaste those very groups of people as not having America's best interest in mind, and that Obama is ill-received because of his color. Get off your "pitty-pot", as my grandmother would say. Not all Democrats or Republicans are equal and believe the exact same way! So, obviously print isn't always accurate.

It's my belief that God-or whoever you believe in-speaks to us through tragedy. He grips our attention like a parent trying to get a hyper autistic child to read his homework (been there, done that!). Your deity of choice is trying to remind you to help others. Without question no one, with the exception of the Clintons and the damned Red Cross-who an All Voice patriot claims profits off of disaster-would even give a rip about Haiti unless this catastrophe happened! We would still be in our selfish bubbles wondering what some idiot wore to the Golden Globes, why our Blackberry doesn't get better reception that the Jones, and what nincompoop Middle Eastern this week boarded an airplane without checking his luggage properly. Oh the insanity of being in the throws of a Western civilization!

We don't necessarily know why God allows natural disasters to occur; sometimes Satan seems to have a hand in them. But the time to prepare for life's crises is now, not when they strike.