Kurdi: "God willing, we want to stay in Canada". -The Globe and Mail, December 29, 2015.
Are you kidding? Mr. Kurdi really thinks that his landing in Canada was based on God's will? That means that God willed the capsizing of the small boat that resulted in the death of his sister-in-law and her two sons. Mr. Kurdi, take note: it was human kindness that brought you to Canada! God had nothing to do with it. Welcome to the west.
I
have been extremely fortunate. I've never had to suffer through the
tragedy of losing a loved one in a boating accident or tornado or plane explosion. I have a
hard time, however, imagining anything more offensive than hearing from a
survivor that 'God was watching over me’. Attributing one’s survival to God's selective protection
is tantamount to blaming the dead for their own deaths. So, does Kurdi think that God had plans for his brother's boat? Did God hand pick the victims of that boat?
Delusional ideation--that's the medical term--is what leads to believing in the will of God.
This all-seeing God must also have had
little interest in watching over the events that led to the boat sinking in the first place: the weather, boat capacity, etc.
How
about the victims in the Paris shootings? God must have decided it
was their time to die, right? Similarly,
God must have had it in for six million Jews in World War II, but was
fine with protecting the Nazi German murderers who lived out their
natural lives after the war, many protected by the United States. God Bless America, you know. Oh wait, different God.
Or the millions
murdered by Pol Pot and Stalin?—God must have been just fine with those
two charming fellows, both having the luxury of
living out their natural lives. God willing, indeed. How about the passengers of Pan American
flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland? They must have been really bad or
really good for God to have selected them for early admission to the
afterlife from a bomb made by Libyan terrorists. Meanwhile, the perpetrators still walk
today, no doubt because God ordained it. And so on.
If
there were something that should shatter the whole concept of faith, and
bring into serious question the entire notion of an overseeing,
all-protecting higher being, it would be any one of the atrocities
above, or any of thousands of similar disasters over the millennia where
innocent people were dashed against the rocks of misfortune or
eviscerated by the swords of their fellow man.
Sadly,
the concept of 'GOD WILLING' will not likely disappear any time
soon. No matter how uncivilized and barbaric, if beliefs are labeled as faith-based, the rest of society becomes reluctant to challenge or reject them. The time has come for that to change.
