Curtis Dahlgren
"Why does God allow such things to happen?" (a best-of)
By Curtis Dahlgren
"If there is no God, what makes the next Kleenex pop out?" — anonymous
"If God allows such things to happen, He must be cruel." — anonymous
"non sequitur, n; (Latin) it does not follow" — Webster
LAST WEEK, ON THE FIRST OF MARCH, I WROTE: "More to come next week, but if you can't pray for your enemy — or your country — pray for yourself." Well, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami ought to remind us once again that we have bigger threats than theoretical "climate changes" in the sky!
Seventy-one percent of the earth is covered by ice and water, and the majority of humans live within a certain number of miles of the oceans and seas. The majority of the land mass of the earth is uninhabited deserts, jungles, or other "wilderness." So — before another quake hits in a different place, let's get our enviro-mental wolf-crying under control. If you think my Toyota 4X4 is destroying the planet, I think you exaggerate! [Al Gore said the oceans were going to rise and then he bought a mansion on the Pacific, eh?]
I recently mentioned that we may be living in the time described by the Bible as "the time of the Great Hatred" (Hosea 9:7).
" . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places . . . And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." — Matthew 24
Well, in consideration of Japan's great tragedy, I want to repost the article I posted on New Year's day in 2005 — shortly after the Indonesian quake and great tsunmi of December 2004. A friend of mine said that it was one of my best columns. Here are at least a few excerpts.
— www.RenewAmerica.com/columns/Dahlgren/050101 —
Atheists, agnostics, and doubting Thomases do not "feed" on the WORD (instead they focus on talking points, catchphrases, and non sequiturs). In recent years, almost any pithy or overused phrase might end up being referred to as a non sequitur, but I'm talking about the original meaning: in logic: a conclusion or inference which does not follow from the premises. Darwinism is such an "inference"! It was even based upon deliberately-chosen faulty premises, which is even worse. Start with a fallacious premise and you will end up with fallacious conclusions, given enough time!
Atheists always ask, "If there's a God, why does He allow such things to happen?" Turning the question into its unstated premise, it is essentially: "If there were a God, he/it wouldn't allow such things to happen" (another faulty premise leading to many faulty non sequiturs).
At times such as this one, we need to get "back to the basics" with a child-like Faith. Someone sent me a cartoon this week showing a little boy in prayer, and he says to God, "Things are going pretty well here in school and everything. Is there anything You need?"
Believe it or not, the Word says that there are some things God needs!
A) "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land [as Moses did], that I should not destroy it." — Ezekiel 22
B) Another thing God needs is people who are "ready to give an answer to every man who asks you a reason for the hope that it in you" — as Peter said — or "give an answer to an honest question."
Darwin's faulty premise that growth in scientific knowledge would lead naturally away from God and into a study of statistical chance, and so on, has not proven to be a credible premise in actual practice. The more we know, the less we really know, if you know what I mean, and about 2/3 of Americans refuse to accept Darwinism or macro-evolution (adaptations may produce changes, but they say nothing about origins).
On December 10, 2004 the AP said, dateline New York, "A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than five decades has changed his mind. He now believes in God — more or less — based on scientific evidence and says so on a video released yesterday. Antony Flew, 81, has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said from England." — Seattle Times, 12/10/04
"UNCOMMON DISSENT: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing" is a recently published book by William A. Dembski (see www.TownHall.com for a review). Scientific studies analyzed by the National Institute for Healthcare Research have shown that religious activity increases one's life expectancy (and the more public the religious activity — active worship and church volunteer work, etc. — the longer the life).
I'm sorry, and so is God, that so many lives were cut short in Southeast Asia this week. Sometimes a better question is half the answer to questions such as "How could God allow that to happen?" TIMING IS EVERYTHING and here's a question for you!
How about a "time-out" from the terrorism in Iraq, "Palestine," and various places around the globe? How about hitting the pause button on extraneous "protests"?
C) If God has "needs," sometimes they are as simple as a sip of water, or clothes for the naked, or a donkey on which to ride into Jerusalem (Luke 19:31). And let's remember, He didn't use that donkey to carry explosives into Jerusalem to blow up Roman soldiers! [As PETA might remind us, at least some of the bomb-carriers in "Palestine" have been asses.]
The bottom line, however, is — and get this — God is a "man" of His WORD, and if earthquakes never happened, it would be a violation of His own WORD!
God will always tell the TRUTH whether it means 100,000 people die, or 100 million people could be saved as a result!
I don't know if the person who wrote "If there is no God, what makes the next Kleenex pop out?" was being flippant or was trying to make a point. Sometimes the one produces the other, and in this case, it points out the fact that Kleenex pops out by an "intelligent design." Toast is supposed to pop up from a toaster by DESIGN. So it is with the Human Race and its chances for reproduction and survival. The Bible is the manufacturer's User Manual. Use it!
I recently had to pitch out a toaster because it no longer popped the bread up and so burned it to a crisp. Is that what modern Pop Culture and "society" is like? Perhaps the Indian Ocean tsunami was just a shot across the bow — a warning that (if heeded) could save hundreds of millions more lives than it cost!(?)
WE SHALL SEE.
P.S. I have an old college classmate who lives in southern Japan, and I heard from him this morning on the Internet. WELL — "More to come next week, but if you can't pray for your enemy — or your country — pray for yourself."
© Curtis Dahlgren
March 13, 2011
"If there is no God, what makes the next Kleenex pop out?" — anonymous
"If God allows such things to happen, He must be cruel." — anonymous
"non sequitur, n; (Latin) it does not follow" — Webster
LAST WEEK, ON THE FIRST OF MARCH, I WROTE: "More to come next week, but if you can't pray for your enemy — or your country — pray for yourself." Well, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami ought to remind us once again that we have bigger threats than theoretical "climate changes" in the sky!
Seventy-one percent of the earth is covered by ice and water, and the majority of humans live within a certain number of miles of the oceans and seas. The majority of the land mass of the earth is uninhabited deserts, jungles, or other "wilderness." So — before another quake hits in a different place, let's get our enviro-mental wolf-crying under control. If you think my Toyota 4X4 is destroying the planet, I think you exaggerate! [Al Gore said the oceans were going to rise and then he bought a mansion on the Pacific, eh?]
I recently mentioned that we may be living in the time described by the Bible as "the time of the Great Hatred" (Hosea 9:7).
" . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places . . . And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." — Matthew 24
Well, in consideration of Japan's great tragedy, I want to repost the article I posted on New Year's day in 2005 — shortly after the Indonesian quake and great tsunmi of December 2004. A friend of mine said that it was one of my best columns. Here are at least a few excerpts.
— www.RenewAmerica.com/columns/Dahlgren/050101 —
Atheists, agnostics, and doubting Thomases do not "feed" on the WORD (instead they focus on talking points, catchphrases, and non sequiturs). In recent years, almost any pithy or overused phrase might end up being referred to as a non sequitur, but I'm talking about the original meaning: in logic: a conclusion or inference which does not follow from the premises. Darwinism is such an "inference"! It was even based upon deliberately-chosen faulty premises, which is even worse. Start with a fallacious premise and you will end up with fallacious conclusions, given enough time!
Atheists always ask, "If there's a God, why does He allow such things to happen?" Turning the question into its unstated premise, it is essentially: "If there were a God, he/it wouldn't allow such things to happen" (another faulty premise leading to many faulty non sequiturs).
At times such as this one, we need to get "back to the basics" with a child-like Faith. Someone sent me a cartoon this week showing a little boy in prayer, and he says to God, "Things are going pretty well here in school and everything. Is there anything You need?"
Believe it or not, the Word says that there are some things God needs!
A) "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land [as Moses did], that I should not destroy it." — Ezekiel 22
B) Another thing God needs is people who are "ready to give an answer to every man who asks you a reason for the hope that it in you" — as Peter said — or "give an answer to an honest question."
Darwin's faulty premise that growth in scientific knowledge would lead naturally away from God and into a study of statistical chance, and so on, has not proven to be a credible premise in actual practice. The more we know, the less we really know, if you know what I mean, and about 2/3 of Americans refuse to accept Darwinism or macro-evolution (adaptations may produce changes, but they say nothing about origins).
On December 10, 2004 the AP said, dateline New York, "A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than five decades has changed his mind. He now believes in God — more or less — based on scientific evidence and says so on a video released yesterday. Antony Flew, 81, has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said from England." — Seattle Times, 12/10/04
"UNCOMMON DISSENT: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing" is a recently published book by William A. Dembski (see www.TownHall.com for a review). Scientific studies analyzed by the National Institute for Healthcare Research have shown that religious activity increases one's life expectancy (and the more public the religious activity — active worship and church volunteer work, etc. — the longer the life).
I'm sorry, and so is God, that so many lives were cut short in Southeast Asia this week. Sometimes a better question is half the answer to questions such as "How could God allow that to happen?" TIMING IS EVERYTHING and here's a question for you!
How about a "time-out" from the terrorism in Iraq, "Palestine," and various places around the globe? How about hitting the pause button on extraneous "protests"?
C) If God has "needs," sometimes they are as simple as a sip of water, or clothes for the naked, or a donkey on which to ride into Jerusalem (Luke 19:31). And let's remember, He didn't use that donkey to carry explosives into Jerusalem to blow up Roman soldiers! [As PETA might remind us, at least some of the bomb-carriers in "Palestine" have been asses.]
The bottom line, however, is — and get this — God is a "man" of His WORD, and if earthquakes never happened, it would be a violation of His own WORD!
God will always tell the TRUTH whether it means 100,000 people die, or 100 million people could be saved as a result!
I don't know if the person who wrote "If there is no God, what makes the next Kleenex pop out?" was being flippant or was trying to make a point. Sometimes the one produces the other, and in this case, it points out the fact that Kleenex pops out by an "intelligent design." Toast is supposed to pop up from a toaster by DESIGN. So it is with the Human Race and its chances for reproduction and survival. The Bible is the manufacturer's User Manual. Use it!
I recently had to pitch out a toaster because it no longer popped the bread up and so burned it to a crisp. Is that what modern Pop Culture and "society" is like? Perhaps the Indian Ocean tsunami was just a shot across the bow — a warning that (if heeded) could save hundreds of millions more lives than it cost!(?)
WE SHALL SEE.
P.S. I have an old college classmate who lives in southern Japan, and I heard from him this morning on the Internet. WELL — "More to come next week, but if you can't pray for your enemy — or your country — pray for yourself."
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
