SAM HARRIS
on
HURRICANE KATRINA
and
PRAYER
“It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared...belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Do you have the courage to admit the obvious? These people died talking to an imaginary friend.”
(Letter to a Christian Nation, p. 53)
4 comments:
I guess you heard that Katrina was God's punishment for the sins of the city--things like strip clubs and Mardi Gras, I suppose.
Oh, yes, I heard that. I bet most of those elderly men and women who died in their attics never were in a strip club nor had anything to do with Mardi Gras. Why didn't God just kill all the people who owned or worked in strip clubs? If God were selective, just killed evil people, I might consider believing he existed. I love how, when anything goes wrong, a natural disaster or a man-made one (9/11) Pat Robertson and his ilk blame everything on sin, abortion, homosexuality, blah, blah, blah. Some guy wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal blaming the financial crisis on atheists. Gee, I'm an atheist, but I wasn't invited to the greed party that caused this economic mess. I think if there were a real all-loving God, he would take the ability to speak away from those crazy people.
"Why didn't God just kill all the people who owned or worked in strip clubs? If God were selective..."
Well, of course, God would have preferred to have ONLY killed the bad people, but that would require a targeted bombing sophistication that exceeded his technical abilities. Jesus, do I have to tell you everything?!
Snowbrush,
Thanks! I needed a good laugh!
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