An excellent question, to be sure. So, how can the Pope run about depicting this purported God with absolute certainty? After all, the Pope is supposed to be God's representative on Earth, which presupposes that this God exists in the first place.
It's actually a refreshing sign that the Pope would make such a query, as it lifts that burden off the chests of hundreds of millions worldwide who doubtlessly ask the same question on a regular basis in regard to umpteen other horrors. The world's horrors include the Church's own Inquisition, which tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of people. They also include the atrocious abuse of women and children worldwide, day after day, within numerous cultures under a variety of gods, including the biblical god in his various permutations, such as the Christian, Jewish and Muslim versions. Much of this horror occurs in the most "religious" and "God-fearing" nations on Earth.
So, where is God in all this appalling mess? Suddenly, this all-important question no longer is reserved for atheists and disbelievers who are subsequently subjected to the ridicule, personal attacks and inadequate responses by the faithful for daring to ask it.
Pope asks where God was in Auschwitz horror
By Philip Pullella and Natalia Reiter
OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) - Calling himself "a son of Germany," Pope Benedict prayed at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz on Sunday and asked why God was silent when 1.5 million victims, mostly Jews, died in this "valley of darkness."Ending a four-day pilgrimage to Poland, Benedict, 79, said humans could not fathom "this endless slaughter" but only seek reconciliation for those who suffered "in this place of horror."...
WHERE WAS GOD?Scattered rain fell over Auschwitz until the main ceremony, when the skies cleared and a rainbow appeared.
Benedict said it was almost impossible, particularly for a German Pope, to speak at "the place of the Shoah.""In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence which is a heartfelt cry to God -- Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"
"Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?"Benedict, one of the Church's leading theologians, said humans could not "peer into God's mysterious plan" to understand such evil, but only "cry out humbly yet insistently to God -- 'rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature!"...
2 comments:
Acharya,
If I may, I just want to follow-up on your excellent 'Da Vinci Code' post below. George Noory had a "round table" discussion on last night's show, which was actually pretty interesting. Only a few psychotic Christians called in at the end.
Sir Laurence Gardner had basically the attitude that you expressed--that it's all benign fun. Though he shocked me at one point by referring to two historical references to Jesus-Josephus + the Jewish Talmudic mention-- as being authentic!
But another guest, a Glenn Kimball, stated that a fragment of the gospel of Mark was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which would have dated Mark to at least 50 AD.
It didn't sound kosher. What's your take? If anyone would know it would be you. Thanks.
I am well aware of Gardner's and Kimball's take on Jesus. Obviously, I don't agree. It's too bad Noory is so unwilling to entertain my work, as he assuredly knows about it but assidously avoids it. The fact that Gardner would even feel compelled to bring up bogus and irrelevant "references" shows something. Because he has so much vested in it, he will cling to it for dear life. As concerns Kimball's assertion, baloney. That "fragment" has never been proved to have been from the canonical Gospel of Mark. It consists of a few words, only one of which is even fully legible. Once again, the purveyors of pabulum wave their hands and magically make the science go away.
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