Passenger from recent plane mishap in Texas. . . "God is in control".
Control. This notion of control is central to every religion I can think of in one way or another.
In the Christian Motif it is like there in Texas, the notion God saved them, provided the pilots prescence and so forth, were it a Tsunami which wiped out all of Galvaston the rationale would be either for sins or for some unknown reason.
But even chaos is controlled, it has reason, it has purpose, it has meaning, even if the believer does not know what that is nor ever shall, they nonetheless take an emotional comfort in the idea that "Things are under control"
It is not hard to see the emotive benefit of such a way of thinking to someone who just went through some catastrophe. It leads them to ponder why perhaps, but they also expect an answer of some sort, some plausible reason they cannot fathom.
To me this bespeaks a mindset of fear, an unwillingness to accept adult responsibilities, an inability to face the reality that the future holds unknowns.
Because to a believer all unknowns are known to God, and so nothing to worry about.
When I hear "God is in control" from a survivor I think, "he blew up the plae and terrorized all those passengers?"
But they are thinking "he saved us"
Cherry Picked thinking, so they can believe that the universe is "all under control", when all evidence suggests otherwise.
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I always say that fundamentalism is about being right (righteous) rather than about being good.
Being right requires high levels of perceived control and certainty, as well as craving constant validation.
If you seriously believe, contrary to literally 100% of available evidence and personal experience, that god blesses the righteous and confounds the wicked, then you constantly need to explain away anything that "confounds" you, lest you be classified as the Hated Other, the guilty, the unrighteous, the punished, the cursed, the damned.
You will deal with this existential threat quite ruthlessly, even claiming god is in control despite an exploding engine and a fellow passenger sucked partly out a window and flayed alive in a 600 mph slipstream. I don't know what that woman's opinion of god's control would have been had she survived, but god only needs to be in control for the other passengers, and it's all relative. Had she survived and had a functioning brain after what happened to her, she might have said she was miraculously saved from certain death, and her new purpose is to inspire others, or whatever.
There is no point in arguing with this crowd as they have a circular reasoning process for everything you can throw at them. The best you can do is help the occasional person who can't take the cognitive dissonance anymore, to be supportive when they want to get out of the funhouse hall of mirrors that is evangelical Christianity.
mordant
Level 8
Apr 19, 2018
1
Certain types of people need to believe there is order in this apparent chaos. It helps them through the day. The nefarious bit comes when still other people use this need to believe in order against them in an effort to exert their own control.
Shawno1972
Level 7
Apr 19, 2018
1
Control seems to be central to the fundamentalist mind set. People being absolutely astounded and infuriated that others live without consulting THEM on how to do so. I hate that.
OpposingOpposum
Level 9
Apr 19, 2018
3
We are the ones in control, and contributing to creating our own realities:
“I regard consciousness as fundamental and matter as derivative from consciousness." – Max Planck, theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics
birdingnut
Level 8
Apr 19, 2018
0
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