God Mania!

This afternoon on the radio I heard a man discussing a food aid center in Haiti that had been "ready" for the earthquake. Apparently they were located just outside PaP, far enough from the epicenter that their building was not damaged by the quake. Further, just last week they had completely restocked their food and medical supplies. The man said he didn't think the resupply was a coincident; "it was divine providence."

TAE immediately laughed. Yes, God directly stepped in and caused this aid center to resupply itself, but did nothing to prevent a massive earthquake that killed an estimated 50,000 people and climbing.

TAE believes that God plays a very indirect part in the lives of everyday humans. Although God's presence can be readily felt, especially when one takes stock at the amazing complexity of life on this planet in this universe and the absurdity and contradictory nature of the human species (especially compared to all other species on this planet). However, lately God doesn't seem the type to step in and flood the world. And God almost certainly does not, despite reports, talk directly to George W Bush.
TAE thinks God's influence, rather, is in the establishment of the soul and the Natural Laws of humanity that are inherent in all of us. TAE submits that God works every day on this planet in littler ways, not as a chess master moving pieces, but rather as the inexhaustible morality within each person that causes them to stop and hold the door open for the person behind them.

In terms of the Haitian quake, I highly doubt God directly acted to replenish the stocks of an aid organization a few days prior to a quake; as I said, why not just prevent the quake? Instead, God acts through all of us, and the $19 million in online relief funds raised so far come because despite our best efforts, we feel a connection and empathy towards the suffering of all other human beings, and most of us find that suffering hard to ignore. Further, a part of us is physically rewarded when we sacrifice a small part of our fiscal stability in order to ease a small part of the physical suffering of others. This tendency, the urge to throw a tiny, inconsequential iota of cash at others, isn't because God whisperes "text 'Haiti' to 90999" into our ears, it is because upon seeing the devastation, and hearing how helpless and weak the people of Haiti are, the part of us that is separate from animal, the part of us that is absurd and complex and is interconnected with the similar parts of all other humans, the part of us that is bestowed by the Almighty, that part feels genuine pain at the suffering of others, and wants to alleviate their suffering, in an attempt to alleviate its own suffering.

TAE loves the phrase "God was with us today" because of the hilarious notion that on other days God is not with us. One of the great failings of our mortality is the lack of understanding we (especially us Westerners) have of omnipresence.


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