Wednesday, February 06, 2008

If A Tornado Gets You, It's Nothing Personal

I briefly considered the question as to why God would whack a Southern Baptist college with a tornado. Pat Robertson would probably attribute it to Southern Baptists' failure to persecute gays enough. Every bad thing is because of the gays as far as he is concerned.

Then I remembered that God doesn't whip up tornados on an ad hoc basis. Rather, the tornados were destined to happen from the beginning of time when all the conditions for the universe were established. Sure, God has a wonderful plan for your life, but that plan might involve your getting killed by a tornado or murdered by a tyrant or afflicted with disease. It might not seem so wonderful from where you sit, but you have to trust that it's wonderful on a cosmic scale from God's perspective. No matter how raw you think your deal is, be grateful that you got to exist at all.

In an infinity of universes, you never existed. It is God's grace that you existed in this one and that you got to be sentient (if you are).

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