Does God Intervene In Human Affairs?
God - assuming a real God of course and that's pretty doubtful - may or may not intervene in human affairs, but His middlemen (and almost without exception all these middlemen were in fact men) certainly do. These middlemen are the collective powers-that-be behind God's trilogy of major monotheistic religions and boy do they have an awful lot to answer for.
These religions under the leadership of God's middlemen have been throughout recorded history the biggest contributor to the suppression of women; the biggest contributor to population issues (be fruitful and multiply); the biggest contributor to environmental issues (humans having total dominion over all of the Earth); the biggest contributor to wars and rumors of wars; the biggest contributor to imposing moral standards on everyone that falls within their sphere of influence and by inflicting severe, cruel and unusual punishments (i.e. - torture) for infractions up through and including capital punishment; the biggest contributor to child abuse (especially sexual abuse) and neglect; and the especially the biggest contributor to dictating all things that happen behind closed doors in the bedroom.
And all those middlemen end up leading the great unwashed up the garden path by promising salvation and a happy-ever-after eternal life (with or without halos, wings and harps) - promises they can't actually meet. As a result, many of the great unwashed don't make the fullest and most productive uses of the time in the one life they do actually have on the grounds that they feel there is not much point to this short, nasty and brutish life if there's a better and eternal one to follow.
Finally, as one of numerous examples, the treatment dished out to the Aztecs and the Incas by the invading and conquering Christian Conquistadores will forever remain a dark and very bloody stain on Christianity. In short, religion and intolerance go cheek-by-jowl.
So God may not have intervened directly to bring these things about, but His middlemen sure accomplished His will.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.My avatar, like many of his fellow Founding Fathers, believed in a supreme being who created the universe and its natural laws, and then moved on to other matters, never to be seen or heard. In this view of a deity, there is no interference, no miracles, no prophets, no holy books, no prayers, no churches, no faith! If justice is to be rendered, society improved, diseases conquered and life and property protected, all is the work of human beings, and human beings alone. That is what my avatar subscribed to, and I could live with that.
p-nullifidian
Level 8
Oct 10, 2018
0
What a bleak picture you paint!
I see nothing but beauty all around me.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
Oct 9, 2018
0
@johnprytz I think that “Bible Belt” moniker is greatly exaggerated.
If you click on the above link you'll see a rating of various religious practices and values in the South. Under each table is a tab to click on and see how the various regions compare in religious practices. If you look you'll see that while the South is indeed more religious, the differences among the regions are not very great. There are certainly not enough differences to warrant labeling the South as the "bible belt". The South is a huge and diverse region, the most populous region, with every conceivable religion and religious opinion.
IMO it is not religion that’s the problem. It’s a bunch of sleazy, egotistical, power-hungry politicians who stir up controversy in their efforts to gain votes. My fundamentalist neighbors have little influence on my life. So far as “evangelicals”, Hillary Clinton is a Methodist, and that’s evangelical. The religious angle is greatly overstated IMO.
Well, I have to backtrack because in my state the sale of sex toys is illegal but the law is ignored. Wouldn’t it be the ticket to be wrapped up in the bedroom and have the police beat down your door, storm in with automatic rifles, etc., seize the evidence, and cart you off to jail? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at such a silly law and the silly politicians who maintain such a law.
But I really don’t expect any sort of religious takeover. My concern at the moment is that a huge hurricane is moving into our area, and will be here in hours. Power will no doubt be down, possibly for weeks. Cheers!
@johnprytz it seems to me that rural, farming regions tend to be conservative. They don’t change as fast because of a sparser population and less cultural stimulation. Religion is only a part of that conservatism and is not the cause IMO. When folks vote for conservatives it’s not just because of religion. I imagine if you polled the members of one of those evil “evangelical” churches you’d find a variety of political opinions. The news media have gone slap crazy with their divisive, exaggerated propaganda. Remember that Obama was opposed to gay marriage in his first campaign. Also he was very hard on illegal immigrants and he fought against Islamic extremists. Everything gets overhyped and blown out of proportion.
That hurricane has passed and we had no damage and the power didn’t go off. It was said to be a category four, the biggest hurricane ever recorded to hit the panhandle, caused by global warming, blah, blah, blah.
Yes, but he's mostly concerned with award shows, where the beautiful people praise Him.
(Please tell me I don't need to explain that I was being sarcastic!)
chalupacabre
Level 8
Oct 9, 2018
0
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