“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” Is Fantasy Theobabble by David Madison

It’s the religious version of “Always look on the bright side of life”

Once god-is-good, god-is-great has been locked into religious human brains, it can be difficult to grasp the world as it actually is: that is, so much suffering and pain are overlooked or minimized. When the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 225,000 people, a Muslim cleric knew that his god was upholding moral standards: he claimed that European tourists wearing bikinis had prompted his deity to exact revenge. How does this square with the boast that “He’s got the whole world in his hands”? –which is meant to be an affirmation of god’s love. Well, it doesn’t, of course. In recent days we have seen horrendous devastation caused by the powerful earthquake that hit Thailand and Burma. The level of human suffering is staggering. The death toll will be in the thousands, and reconstruction will take years. Was god getting even for something here? No doubt clerics will try to put the best possible spin on this tragedy, to get their god off the hook.