{"id":92516,"date":"2017-09-03T16:13:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T20:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/?p=92516"},"modified":"2017-09-05T20:56:04","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T00:56:04","slug":"does-god-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/does-god-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"seeking<\/a>Hurricane Harvey has dominated news coverage the last few days (as I write), subsuming and flooding it just as it did Houston, reminding me of the scene in the second Christopher Reeve Superman movie when Kryptonian villain General Zod escapes the Phantom Zone and finds himself standing upon the surface of a lake. For a moment he seems to think he has emerged onto a planet covered entirely by water. He thinks it is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Planet Houston\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (he says it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who-stun\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) because of a radio transmission he has overheard (or something). Now \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Planet Houston\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is indeed submerged beneath a watery surface, tragically, and its citizens are fleeing the flood like Kal-el from Krypton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s destruction. The amazing spectacle of volunteer rescue efforts lends the heavy doom cloud something of a silver lining: we needed a reminder that there is great good in the American people because the news is filled with the self-hatred of many whose patriotism has drowned in a deluge of survivor guilt.<\/p>\n

\"General<\/a><\/p>\n

The other day I saw a Facebook post by an atheist pal of mine, observing that God appeared to be conspicuously absent from the rescue efforts. Can Christians possibly maintain their pretense that a loving God is in control of events? The Houston survivors owed their deliverance to their own and others’ heroic efforts, not to divine intervention. Of course, you can always say that God did intervene\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthrough the actions of human beings. But that is weaseling. It is to demote God to a superfluous and redundant fifth-wheel pseudo-cause.<\/p>\n

My friend concluded his comment with something like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Does God care?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I could not resist adding my own quip: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God does care. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that the results are the same as if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I hope readers caught on. My point is by no means a new one. Are you familiar with Antony Flew\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Parable of the Gardener? Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how it goes.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, “Some gardener must tend this plot.” The other disagrees, “There is no gardener.” So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen. “But perhaps he is an invisible gardener.” So they set up a barbed-wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol it with bloodhounds. (For they remember how H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man could be both smelt and touched though he could not be seen.) But no shrieks ever suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry. Yet still the Believer is not convinced. “But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d At last, the Sceptic despairs, “But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?” (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Theology and Falsification,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 1950)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the same way, how does a God whose \u00e2\u20ac\u0153caring,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d whose compassionate supervision of his creatures, is compatible with letting them drown like rats, differ from a God who is utterly indifferent to their plight? The point is not so much that the assertion of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s caring is false. No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worse than that: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meaningless. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not even making an assertion anymore.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Look at it this way: suppose you and a friend are in Houston and Harvey is wreaking havoc outside. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both looking out the front window. You say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wow! Look at that storm!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\"hurricane<\/a><\/p>\n

Your friend replies, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Storm? What storm? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see any storm out there!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

You stare at your friend in stunned disbelief. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a storm out there! What the hell is the matter with you? The rain! The wind! The uprooted trees flying through the air! The mobile homes ricocheting like ping pong balls!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh sure, I see all that stuff. But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a storm going on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please tell me, my friend, how is that not a storm?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It just isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all. Just because there are high winds, flooding, property damage, and people floating face down, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a storm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look pal, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you even know what the word \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcstorm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 means!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It occurs to you to open your dictionary to prove your point, but you notice that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s floating away.<\/p>\n

Or put the shoe on the other foot. The sky is clear, the sun shining. Children are romping outside without a care in the world. Neighbors are barbecuing. Your pal says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wow! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some damn storm out there, huh?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

You do a double take. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Huh? What storm? What are you talking about?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Back and forth it goes, until your friend says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I guess it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just one of those storms that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get anybody wet and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t damage any property! You know the kind I mean.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Uh, no, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. If you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t specify something, anything, that would show your claim to be false, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying your assertion is compatible with any and every state of affairs. And if it means everything, then it means nothing!<\/p>\n

And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing when you say Hurricane Harvey doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t debunk the existence of Divine Providence. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not making any sense. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not even wrong! You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just speaking in tongues. It might make you feel better, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only because you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying!<\/p>\n

If you did, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wake up and realize there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no one to blame, that no one caused this, and that the only assistance you can hope for is that of your fellow human beings. If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any compassion in this world, on Planet Houston, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find it.<\/p>\n

So says Zarathustra.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Harvey has dominated news coverage the last few days (as I write), subsuming and flooding it just as it did Houston, reminding me of the scene in the second Christopher Reeve Superman movie when Kryptonian villain General Zod escapes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com\/zblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}