“In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us afflictions to discipline us and make us better…All of them. None of them comes by accident; He alone sends them, and always out of love for us, and to make us better, my child.”
In 2014, 116 people died when a multistory guesthouse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos, Nigeriaʼs largest city. Most victims were visiting South African followers of the megachurchʼs influential founder T.B. Joshua. Then in 2016 a church in the Nigerian city of Uyo collapsed during services killing at least 23 people. “A building contractor was lifting the steel with cranes to get at dead and injured,” he said.
Over a hundred children were taken captive in a schoolhouse hostage situation in Russia (2004), which included several children of Baptist missionaries, who died in the final act of that hostage tragedy. Prior to the childrenʼs deaths an email was sent out worldwide by the Baptist World Alliance begging for prayers for the children.
“Peyton Townsend was killed just minutes before a vacation Bible school study. The kids were just burning off energy before the start of class. The churchʼs backyard doubles as a small cemetery, where about two dozen people are buried. The pastor says Peyton was standing on a headstone when a massive cross fell on top of her and crushed her. The pastor estimates the cross weighed more than 1,200 pounds.”
4-Year-Old Girl Killed by Part of Headstone, Deep Gap, N.C., Saturday, June 9, 2012
Sunday morning, August 30, 2015, a woman in the car with her two children tried to cross a busy street and drove in front of a moving truck she had not seen which caused her to swerve into the front window of a branch of Arthur State Bank in Greenville, SC after which the bank caught fire. One child ran inside the building that had begun to burn and the mother ran after that child, then the other child ran in after the mother [according to news reports]. The County Coroner said the two boys, ages 3 and 5, died from smoke inhalation. The mother and a passenger made it out alive. A relative said the family was on the way to church.
2 Dead After SUV Crashes into Bank in Fiery Wreck, Updated Sep 01, 2015
In May, 2008, Maria Sue, the 5-year-old adopted daughter of Grammy-winning Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed in the familyʼs driveway by a vehicle driven by Chapmanʼs teenaged son. (Previously Chapman had released a book about Maria Sue titled “Cinderella: The Love of Daddy and his Princess”)
Rich Mullins, whom some called the “John Lennon” of Christian Rock, was best known for his worship songs “Awesome God” and “Sometimes by Step,” both of which have been embraced as modern classics by many Christians. On September 19, 1997, Mullins and his friend Mitch McVicker were traveling to a benefit concert when his Jeep rolled over. They were not wearing seat belts and were both ejected from the vehicle. When a passing semi-trailer truck swerved to miss the overturned Jeep, Mullins, who was too injured to move out of the path of the oncoming truck, was hit and died instantly. McVicker was seriously injured but survived.
Another notable Christian rocker killed in a traveling accident is Keith Green. On July 28, 1982, at the age of 28, Keith and two of their young children, Josiah and Bethany, were in a small plane crash. Keith was one of Americaʼs best-selling Christian musicians and songwriters, recording 5 albums in his lifetime with over 1.5 million in distribution.
Five Southern Baptist aid workers were in Mosul, Iraq, to provide clean water to the city. While driving on the east side of the city the Baptistsʼ car came under attack. One couple was new to the mission field. The husband had just graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2002, and his wife was still officially a student there. Another couple were longtime missionary veterans, having worked most of the last 25 years in Honduras. They were scheduled to leave Iraq later this month to close their Honduran headquarters and permanently relocate to Iraq. Also killed in the attack was a single woman who converted to Christianity in 1997 and had recently quit her job . . . to work full-time in missions . . . In February, a taxi carrying several Independent Baptist church planters (not Southern Baptists) was attacked as it returned from Babylon to Baghdad. John Kelley, pastor of Curtis Corner Baptist Church in Wakefield, Rhode Island, was killed in the shooting. Three others were injured. [The article further explained that it was not the fact that they were missionaries that got them killed, but they had lost their way in the streets and simply driven into the wrong side of town and were gunned down simply for appearing to be Americans.] — reported in
Christianity Today
In Pucuro, Panama, three missionary men were taken away from their families in 1993. After eight long years of praying for the safe return of the men, their families recently learned that they had been killed by their captors five years previously.
The Christian (who later became a missionary) and about whom the Oscar winning movie, “Chariots of Fire” was made, died of a brain tumor while a missionary in China.
A few years prior to 2006 on the television news program, 20/20, the story was told of a South American missionaryʼs small airplane that was gunned down with the missionary inside by a military jet aircraft who mistook the tiny missionaryʼs plane as a drug-runnerʼs plane.
In the 1800s Francis Galton examined the insurance rates for ships. He reasoned that ships carrying missionaries and pilgrims should have lower rates since frequent praying by the occupants should decrease the number of accidents. He found that the rates were the same; ships carrying missionaries and pilgrims sank just as often as other ships.
Kyle Lake, 33, pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, died Sunday after being electrocuted while standing in the church baptismal during a morning service. Lake received a shock while adjusting a microphone before baptizing a woman… About 800 people were attending the service, which was more than usual due to Baylor Universityʼs homecoming weekend, reports the Associated Press. Lake was a rising leader in new church movements such as Emergent. Lake is survived by his wife and three children.
—CT Staff, “Pastor Electrocuted in Baptismal: Pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco Dies After Adjusting Microphone.” Christianity Today, posted 10/31/2005
Kris Guglielmucci, 39, was a man of God who loved his music and mentoring members of his young congregation. He was a respected Victory Church youth pastor and father of four. He was struck and killed by a bolt of lightning at Cornerstone College, Mt Barker. He had been running a two-day Summerfest Youth Camp for about 100 high school students when he was fatally struck down. My Christian Daily 2016-01-23
I looked up the survival rate for his disease. “According to the American Cancer Society, the overall 5-year relative survival rate for patients with non-Hodgkinʼs lymphoma is 63% and the 10-year relative survival rate is 51%.” But even with thousands praying for him, he lasted a month.
- John Tyrrell
Asa Alonzo Allen (1911-1970) was a prominent, flamboyant and controversial Pentecostal ‘healing evangelist’ of the 1940s-1960s. On June 14, 1970, listeners in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines were hearing a recorded message from A. A. Allen on his radio program saying: “This is Brother Allen in person. Numbers of friends of mine have been inquiring about reports they have heard concerning me that are not true. People as well as some preachers from pulpits are announcing that I am dead. Do I sound like a dead man? My friends, I am not even sick! Only a moment ago I made a reservation to fly into our current campaign. Iʼll see you there and make the devil a liar.” At that moment, at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco, police were removing A. A. Allenʼs body from a room strewn with pills and empty liquor bottles. The man who had once said that ‘the beer bottle and gin bucket’ should have been on his family coat of arms was dead at 59 from what was said to be a heart attack but was in reality liver failure brought about by acute alcoholism.
(p.88, The Faith Healers by The Amazing Randi)
Some 400 church towers were damaged by lightning and 120 bell ringers killed in a 30 year period (after which lightning rods were installed). In one church a bolt of lightning struck the tower and melted the bell, electrocuted the priest, deprived a parishioner of her sensibilities and destroyed a painting of the Savior. The Republic of Venice had stored in the vaults of the church of San Nazaro at Brescia, over two hundred thousand pounds of gunpowder. In 1767 it was struck by lightning, the powder in the vaults was exploded, one sixth of the entire city destroyed, and over three thousand lives were lost. In Austria the church of Rosenberg was struck so frequently and with such loss of life that the peasants feared to attend services. Three times the spire had to be rebuilt. Such was also the history of St. Brideʼs and St. Paulʼs in London, the cathedrals of Sienna and Strasburg and of other churches throughout Europe and America. The tower of St. Markʼs in Venice (prior to installing a lightning rod) had been struck again and again by lightning, sometimes with such disastrous effects that it had been almost destroyed.
Five children between 9 and 16 years old died and several others suffered burns when lightning struck a white-painted metal cross set on a hill in the town of Santa Maria del Rio, Mexico, early on Sunday. “The lightning went straight into them and killed them instantly,” local Red Cross chief Eduardo Suarez said. Several families had been participating in a midnight ceremony as part of a local religious festival that centers around the cross.
“Lightning kills 5 Mexican children in prayer,”
Youths between 9 and 16 die praying at metal cross in central Mexico Reuters, April 24, 2006
About 40 people had gathered in the Church of Central African Presbytery in Mzimba, South Africa, when lightning struck on Saturday afternoon, said Fletcher Ndhlovu, an elder of the church. “Strong lightning struck the church building, sending everybody into shock,” Ndhlovu told AFP. The victims were taken to the district hospital “where 11 people were pronounced dead on arrival,” said Mzimba hospital physician Barton Jere. “The persons arrived here when they were already dead but we admitted eight people and 10 others were treated as out patients,” Jere told AFP. “They were all in a state of shock.”
“Lightning Kills 11 In Church,” Dec. 18, 2005
A man died after lightning struck a metal cross he was holding during a funeral in a village near Ljubljana, the Slovenian news agency STA reported Thursday. It said the 62-year-old man died in hospital Wednesday evening, several hours after the incident in the village of Brezovica. Another person at the funeral was slightly injured.
— Reuters, “Man Dies After Lightning Strikes Metal Cross,” June 23, 2005
A 15-year old Boy Scout (the Boy Scouts of America do not tolerate people who are openly atheist, agnostic, or unwilling to say in the Scout Oath they they will serve God) was killed and three others were injured last night when a bolt of lightning hit the log shelter they were sleeping in. Last Thursday, a 13-year-old Scout was killed by lightning in California. Four Scout leaders were electrocuted in Virginia earlier that week. — “
Scout killed by lightning strike, Another Tragedy Hits Organization,” August 3, 2005
Worried about the safety of her family during a stormy Memorial Day trip to the beach, Clara Jean Brown, 65, stood in her kitchen and prayed for their safe return as a strong thunderstorm rumbled through Baldwin County, Alabama. She said “Amen” and… lightning suddenly exploded in her house, blowing through the linoleum and leaving a blackened area on the concrete. Brown wound up on the floor, dazed and disoriented by the blast but otherwise uninjured. Fire officials think the lightning likely struck across the street from the coupleʼs home and traveled into the house through a water line. The lightning continued into the coupleʼs backyard and ripped open a small trench.“
Woman Hit By Lightning While Praying,” (WSBTV.com), Associated Press, May 30, 2006
Century-old church destroyed by fire: Lightning bolt seen striking buildinga… Charter Oak had completed a new addition within the last year and had plans for further expansion. It is part of the Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America, an association of independent churches.
“Lightning Destroys Century-Old Church,” November 17, 2005
Hailu Kidane Marian was a young man working with others, selling their religious materials door-to-door (to raise money for their religious education) when he was struck by lightning. “I heard a boom, and I looked and the guy jumped back, and he just laid there, stiff,” said witness Maria Martinez. Paramedics say Marian was not breathing and his heart was not beating when they arrived, but they were able to revive him and rushed him to Jackson Memorial hospital, where lay comatose.
Members of his religious group waited outside the hospital throughout the night for word of his condition, praying for a miracle, and sending emails to others around the world to pray for his recovery. But Hailu died.
Instead of taking this as a mixed message from God, his fellow believers saw it as a sign that once again their religion, Seventh-Day Adventism, was the right one:
“I donʼt belive this story is mere coincidence, or God scolding him as some have speculated. He may in fact be sending a wake up call to those of us who remain.”
here“In considering the facts, hereʼs a guy visiting a country other than his own spreading the Gospel. In the very middle of him taking the Word to the streets, heʼs taken out with one deadly strike. As a missionary, what better testimony? What better strategy to leave this planet than with your last breath honoring and glorifying the One itʼs all about? Even in his death, his dedication to Christ in his life story lives on and has touched the hearts of many. Itʼs unfortunate… this sudden tragedy. But when I consider the widespread coverage of what was supposed to be just an ordinary missionaryʼs venture into America… I know God must have been the mastermind behind this exit strategy. He will be remembered for his passion.”
—Janice A. Becca, “Preferred Exit Strategy” on her blog, Adventist Youth
ENDNOTE This was the second incident in as many months of someone being struck down by lightning from a clear sky in South Florida. Last month David Canales, a gardener who worked in the Pinecrest area, was killed when lightning apparently struck him from a rainless sky. CBS Miami Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli said ‘dry lightning,’ which can strike even when the sky is clear, can be very dangerous because victims are not expecting it and donʼt prepare as they might with a storm threatening. Measurement of lightning strikes in the area Sunday showed only a few bolts compared to the last few days, making Marian especially unlucky to be struck by one of them.
Religious Book Seller Struck By Lightning, Jul 9, 2007
Rev. Oral Roberts claimed he had a dream in which God told him that his daughter-in-law, Patti, would be killed in a plane crash if she ever left his ministry. Patti did leave the ministry, distressed at the way her husband, Richard Roberts, was being turned into a clone of Oral, and the way they rationalized their expensive lifestyles. But the year Patti left his ministry, she did not die in a plane crash, while Rebecca, Oralʼs own daughter, did. See Patti Robertsʼ book,
Ashes to Gold
On November 2, 1982, Rev. Lester Roloff (who had appeared a year earlier on “60 Minutes” stating his defiance of the what he called “Texasʼs Godless juvenile home system”), along with a female staff member and a ladies singing trio, were killed when their plane crashed during a storm near Normangee, Texas, on their way to a preaching and singing service they were scheduled to conduct.
Or should we mourn the loss of Godʼs carefully designed banquet of diseases, disasters, starvation and disfigurement that God bestowed on humans for almost all of human history? Right up till the late 1800s about half of all children died before reaching the age of eight. And about half of all fertilized human egg cells (called zygotes) either pass out of the body naturally spontaneously without implanting or they perish in the fallopian tubes or uterus naturally. And even after the zygote stage a percentage of embryos and fetuses perish naturally spontaneously (also look up “vanishing twin syndrome” where one twin is absorbed by the other or by the uterine walls—something we hadnʼt noticed until ultra-sound was invented), and women used to perish in childbirth far more often in the past than now. So it looks like modern medicine and engineering is denying us a bounteous blessing of natural suffering that God bestowed on our ancestors for nearly a million years. Yet I bet there were Christians in the past who defended not only the pain and deadliness of childbirth, but even for small pox, malaria, and TB—all of which killed hundreds of millions in their heyday, and continue to kill many today. Though other Christians didnʼt defend such horrors but applauded them by preaching that everyone deserved such painful temporal earthly horrors, or worse—deserved horrific eternal pains—so as to try and induce repentance and increase church membership. Ingenious ad hoc, post hoc, reasoning in both cases. At best one is left with more questions than definitive answers.
Speaking of alleviating Godʼs well designed means of natural suffering, click on Maurice Hilleman and Norman Borlaug, and also, “Miracles” Performed by the Secular Saints of Johns Hopkins. And click here for much more on the problem of pain.
Every animal seems to be able to sense it is in danger, pain, and struggles to escape, even animals with the smallest brains and least number of neurons. While brainless animals like amoeba, can detect, pursue and trap prey by sticking out their pseudopods. Now compare the human brain which is not a single-celled organism like the amoeba but a multi-cellular organ with approximately 100 billion neurons with 100 trillion electro-chemical connections between them--no wonder we react to dangers, pains, and deathly imaginings. Even without immediate threats such imaginings (or memories of past dangers or pains) can cause humans to suffer panic attacks throughout their lives and/or strongly alter their behavior.
Duke University Medical Centerʼs Epidemiologic Catchment Area survey (Meador, Koenig, Hughes, Turnbull & George, 1992) examined the relationship between religious affiliation and major depression. The six-month prevalence of major depression among Pentecostals was 5.4 percent compared to 1.7 percent for the entire sample.
Suicide occurs among Christians at essentially the same rate as non-Christians… Suicide kills a disproportionate number of young people and the elderly, and it has become increasingly prevalent among returning veterans [many of whom are Christians]. More active duty soldiers now die from suicide than from combat. A 2012 Dept. of Veterans Affairs study found that 22 veterans on average kill themselves each day, totaling more than 8,000 a year. Al Hsu, “When Suicide Strikes in the Body of Christ,” Christianity Today [online, April 9, 2013] Hsu is the author of Grieving a Suicide: A Loved Oneʼs Search for Comfort, Answers and Hope (InterVarsity Press, 2002)
Jarrid Wilson, cofounder of Anthem of Hope a Christian mental health organization, committed suicide at the age of thirty (died September 9, 2019). He was a graduate of Liberty University and Hope International University, pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship--a megachurch in Riverside California, and author of several books, including, 30 Words: A Devotional for the Rest of Us; Jesus Swagger: Break Free from Poser Christianity; Wondrous Pursuit: Daily Encounters with an Almighty God; Love is Oxygen: How God Can Give You Life and Change Your World. On the day of his suicide Jarrid had officiated at another Christian's funeral and tweeted this:
"Officiating a funeral for a Jesus-loving woman who took her own life today. Your prayers are greatly appreciated for the family."
He died a day before World Suicide Prevention Day.
Daughter of Pastor Frank Page (who served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2006 to 2008) ended her life in 2009. The tragedy was kept quiet. For years, Page did not share the painful details of Melissaʼs death, fearing that some Christians might speak ill of her if they knew. Mental illness and suicide were taboo topics for many churches, seen as a kind of spiritual failure.
The son of the influential minister who wrote the mega-bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, committed suicide. “Matthew Warren, Son of Influential Minister, Dies at 27” by Ravi Somaiya, New York Times, April 6, 2013
(In comparison neither of the daughters of the apostate author of a book titled, The Reason Driven Life—which was written in response to The Purpose Driven Life—have committed suicide. Nor did the daughters of Americaʼs Great Agnostic, Robert G. Ingersoll. Though some lovely Christians did try and spread the rumor that Ingersollʼs son had committed suicide until it was pointed out by Ingersoll that he never had a son. On the other hand, it must be admitted there have been cases of depression and suicide in the Darwin family tree, admittedly a fairly large tree by this day and age.)
Baptists in the Carolinas are soul searching after a spate of suicides and suicide attempts by pastors. In addition to the September suicide of David Treadway, two others in North Carolina attempted suicide, and three in South Carolina succeeded, all in the last four years.
Pastors: Mental Illness and Suicide — Rev. Teddy Parker Jr., 42, pastor of Bibb Mount Zion Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia, discovered by his wife in the driveway of their home, dead from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. Ed Montgomery, 49, a pastor at Full Gospel Christian Assemblies International Church, Hazel Crest, Illinois, takes his own life in front of his son, after grieving the death of his wife who had died a year earlier from a brain aneurysm. Isaac Hunter, 36, founder and pastor of Summit Church in Orlando, Florida, admits to an affair that leads to his resignation, and while suffering from a troubled marriage he ends it all by killing himself… These events, which took place within the last five weeks, show we are all susceptible to mental illness - even the preacher… Iʼve personally been in that dark place myself. By Rev. Mark. H. Creech, Christian Post Columnist
Pastor Who Confessed: There Are Times ‘I Donʼt Feel Like God Is Hearing Me’ Kills Self as Congregation, Family Wait for Him on Sunday—“What I have always advised younger men in the ministry to do is to try to find someone who can be your pastor outside your congregation… You canʼt let anyone in your church be your pastor. You are their pastor,” he warned. The competitive nature of pastors hurts healthy camaraderie in the profession. “Every pastor needs a pastor to kind of lead and guide them. But itʼs hard for us to really find that relationship because often pastors are trying to compete with or cremate you… Thatʼs a sad truth about the ministry,” agreed Land, who is also executive editor of The Christian Post. “I love pastors. They are in good grace, but most of them are pretty competitive when it comes to other pastors.”
Why do Christians Kill Themselves? According to Christian apologist, C. Michael Patton…
…For the same reasons non-Christians kill themselves. Lifeʼs circumstances fare no better for believers than for others. The divorce rate is the same, cancer rate is the same, just as many Christians find themselves out of work as non-Christians, and tragedy is no less likely to enter our lives than others. In fact, one might make the case that Christians have much more temptation to do so… We believe that we are in a hostile world that is filled with evil and evil powers… I have often wondered if suicide was not more of a temptation for Christians (in one respect) due to the fact that we know we will be out of pain and with God. In short, the circumstances that cause one to be so distraught with life that they are willing to take their own life exist just as much (if not more so) with Christians as they do with non-Christians.
Suicidal Thoughts on Suicide by C. Michael Patton, Christian apologist
(Christian apologist, C. Michael Patton, who wrote the lines above had a sister named Angie who committed suicide. After that his father started drinking heavily, a seeming death wish that he never recovered from. His father died at 66, the official cause being pneumonia. The actual cause was the type of guilt that hopes for death and does not care about physical health and refuses to check into a hospital when pneumonia is about to take his life. Michaelʼs mother continued to suffer depression after her daughterʼs (Michaelʼs sisterʼs) suicide. She cried for two years as her blood pressure rose. Finally an aneurysm ruptured and left her paralyzed; a different person. Michael and his remaining sisters have experienced significant depression since their sisterʼs suicide. Michael writes about his bouts with suicidal depression on the same blog where he defends the Gospel.)
Another Christian apologist from my own city, Greenville, SC, Johnny Price, and who has been hard at it as a local apologist in print and other media for decades admitted in 2016 in a public Facebook post:
Since I re-entered the world of Facebook back in October 2015, Iʼve deliberately not posted anything personal. This is an exception. I am mentally ill. Iʼve suffered from various emotional disorders (mostly depression) since March, 1999. Currently it manifests itself in daily bouts of angst and uncertainty — sometimes severe, occasionally nearly immobilizing — when my feelings (!) of adequacy and worth take a beating.
Still another Christian writes…
Depression is a clinically-diagnosed mental illness. Itʼs also a relentless and evil sonofabitch. Itʼs not selfish to struggle with depression. Itʼs not a lack of understanding about God and his creation. Itʼs not something to be ashamed of. Call it what you want - Godʼs grace, luck, fate - but when I was sitting on the tile in my bathroom almost 5 years ago, I saw just a small sliver of light. Just enough to make me take a breath and look at the pills in my hand. It was enough for me to drop them and watch them scatter all over the cold floor. I still donʼt know what it was that opened my eyes and mind that night, but it was enough for me to not go through with swallowing them all. But, there are so many people, like the brilliant Robin Williams this week, who arenʼt granted that little sliver of light… And thereʼs another kind of evil lurking around the halls of the depressed, and itʼs the belief that those who are stricken with depression (or any mental illness) are suffering because of their lack of faith in Jesus. “If only youʼd pray for more joy,” people say. “If only youʼd ask God to take the pain.” Or, “Is there unresolved sin in your life?” Or how about this one, “If youʼd just meditate more on Godʼs Word…” Folks, saying someone is depressed or suicidal because they arenʼt praying enough, are self-absorbed, sinful, or donʼt have a deep enough faith? Itʼs abusive. And it needs to stop. Now… Sometimes, healing happens through good doctors, counselors, practitioners, and yes, medicine. Godʼs grace can look like a sliver of light on the bathroom floor, but it can also look like a life-changing counseling session or the right combination of drugs to regulate your brain chemistry. Prayer and a deepening faith have helped many along the road to depression. But it doesnʼt always work out that way. It didnʼt for me…
Nish Weiseth, “Thoughts on depression, suicide and being a Christian,” August 12, 2014. Nish is an Evangelical Christian and author who also writes pieces for Christianity Today on her experience of being a non-Mormon (a religious minority) in Utah.
Suicide Survivors: How the Clergy Can Help or Hurt You — “I have spoken with countless suicide survivors who have been deeply hurt by comments that ministers have made… I have been to funerals for angels who died by suicide when ministers have rambled on and on about suicide being a ‘sin.’ In spite of that horrible, unforgivable ‘sin,’ they said there may still be ‘hope’ that the person who died may actually go to Heaven. Many churches in the past would not even perform a funeral for someone who died by suicide because the ‘sin’ of suicide was so grievous and unforgivable… The ‘suicide is a sin’ mentality is still extant for many.”
Was typically frowned upon EXCEPT for cases in which suicide was undertaken for RELIGIOUS REASONS including mass suicide, which was regarded with veneration. This veneration is understood in the context of the doctrine of Kiddush ha-shem, i.e., ‘sanctification of the divine name’ which stated that suicide could be acceptable or even glorifying to God if one thereby avoided becoming a vehicle for desecration of His name in instances of rape, slavery or forced religious conversion to a non-Jewish religion. The best known example of this is Massada but mass suicides amongst persecuted Jewish communities continued to feature in Germany, France and Britain during the Middle Ages.
Martyrdom was highly regarded by the early church and the boundary between it and suicide proved to be a narrow one. Tertullian addressing Christians in prison who were awaiting martyrdom, encouraged and strengthened them by citing the example of famous suicides including Lucretia, Dido and Cleopatra. Chrysostom and Ambrose both applauded Palagia, a girl of 15 who threw herself off the roof of a house rather than be captured by Roman soldiers. In Antioch, a woman called Domnina and her two daughters drowned themselves to avoid rape, an act which, as in the case of the Jews, was venerated.
Jerome also approved of suicide for religious reasons and did not condemn austerities which undermine the constitution and which might be regarded as slow suicide. He recounts, with the greatest admiration, the life and death of a young nun named Belsilla who imposed such penalties on herself that she died. Martyrdom eventually became so popular amongst the more fervent believers such as the Donatists that it threatened the credibility and, in places, the very existence of the church. How to respond to this fervour was a difficult task for leaders of a religion founded on Jesusʼs voluntary submission to death and whose early leaders had all been slain in the course of duty.
It was Augustine who synthesized Platonic and Jewish traditions on suicide in a way that gave greater emphasis to the former. In “The City of God” he concluded that suicide was never justified, not even in the cases mentioned above in Jewish and early Christian tradition. By the 5th century suicide was regarded by the church as sinful in all circumstances.
Apparently suicidal depression was common in the Middle Ages because numerous guides survive that were written to instruct clergy how to go about ministering to those who were suicidal. Such guides emphasized keeping the person under close observation, keeping them busy, making them comfortable with warmth, food and music, and prescribing religious exhortation, as well as citing past success stories in which suicide was averted, and offering absolution from sins. Even in cases where the suicide was successful clergy held inquests and the records reveal that in the majority of the verdicts the suicide was attributed to a disturbance of the mind rather than the soul. As in the case of Jewish tradition this enabled the dead person to receive formal rites of burial. Throughout this period we see a dissonance between what the theologians taught concerning the horrendous nature of the sin of suicide, and what the clergy actually practiced. As for what the public believed, ‘folk’ superstitions concerning suicide proved remarkably resistant to change and persisted right up until the mid-nineteenth century, such as a belief that suicides were buried at crossroads.
In the seventeenth century, under the influence of the new spirit of inquiry, the more educated classes began to question the prevailing view that suicide was always wrong. John Donne, who was for a while himself prone to suicidal urges, wrote a treatise called Biathanatos in which he tried to prove (rather unsuccessfully as it happens) that self murder was not a sin. Interestingly, he cites as support the contemporary practice of euthanasia in which female relatives of those who were dying and for whom nothing more could be done would assist death by removing the patientʼs pillows. Donne records that this was common practice and that it was regarded as a ‘pious act,’ reflecting the fact, again, of a wide divergence between what the church taught and what society as a whole actually practiced. The term ‘suicide’ was first coined by Walter Charlton in 1651 as a bid to rid it of the criminal and sinful associations which had previously stuck to it. Although his exercise at moral sanitization failed the term itself stuck.
Laws were introduced in the early nineteenth century to punish those who attempted suicide or who assisted others to end their lives. Just as in the ancient world the upper classes (particularly those of a more artistic bent) were spared the indignity of imprisonment and for a while suicide even came to enjoy a bit of a vogue amongst the romantics. The lower classes, however, could expect a sentence of 10 days with compulsory counseling from a clergyman. Subsequently even stiffer sentences were imposed and between 1944 and 1955 13% of the 40,000 who attempted suicide were prosecuted; 308 of these were sent to jail and even in 1955 a man received a two year jail sentence, although this was subsequently reduced to a month.
Suicide only ceased to be an indictable offence in 196l and continues to be an offence for those who aid or abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another (Suicide Act 1961). The ostensible aims of such sentences were to discourage suicide as a phenomenon, although it is hard to be sure that some of the wish to punish wasnʼt due to misplaced anger towards those who were regarded as a social nuisance, a spirit which lives on in many medical wards and admissions units.
The nineteenth century was a time in which men started to collect data and to apply scientific method to the social evils of the day. Professor Olive Anderson has written extensively about suicide at this time. Her researches indicate that, despite the prohibitions, suicide rates in the UK started to climb, especially among men, from the mid-1800s onwards. Although the sociologist Emile Durkheim blamed the ‘anomie’ of modern industrial society, the process of industrialization cannot be entirely held to blame since suicide rates were highest in the old county towns. At this time suicide continued to be associated in the public eye with sin but the finding that it also showed a strong association with alcohol abuse, poor physical health and poverty sensitized the public towards a more sympathetic and understanding attitude, itself assisted by the rise of the popular novel in which the suicides of the wronged, abandoned and destitute often featured.
However, poverty was also popularly identified in many a Victorian mind as the just deserts of a life given over to sin; considerable debate thus took place over which of the poor should be seen as ‘deserving’ and which were beyond help. Under these combined influences those who saw themselves as having a responsibility to promote public order developed a variety of social and philanthropic programs to combat suicide.
Suicide is less common during wartime and times of national crisis. Conversely, suicide rates increase after a celebrity takes their life or a suicide is displayed on television.
Churches would do well to become aware of the problem of depression and its treatment since Christians are by no means immune from depression or suicidal thinking. (In fact, despair even to the point of suicidal thoughts, was something experienced by a number of figures in the Bible who are presented in a favorable light from Paul to Job, David, Jeremiah and Elijah.)
Christians would also do well to become more concerned about social justice and more vocal in their opposition to the real social evils of society. Alcoholism, marital breakdown and unemployment are far more serious issues than, say, the New Age movement or whether women should be ordained.
However, the question remains ‘Are there ever circumstances which render it legitimate to end oneʼs own life?’ The ancient Jews and early Christians clearly thought so. Nowadays we face new dilemmas concerning medicineʼs increasing ability to sustain and prolong life beyond that determined by natural processes.
Much of the above is from Russell Blackerʼs article, Suicide Down the Ages - A Judeo-Christian Perspective, on the website of The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF).
On suicide. “Rationally Speaking” is a well known blog and podcast by an atheist philosopher. See here, here, here, for discussion of suicide, i.e. what empirical inquiry tells us about suicides (who commits them, how, what are the best strategies for prevention) and how philosophers view suicide.
What does a nihilistʼs nihilist think of suicide? Forget Camus for a sec and read these quotations from E. M. Cioran:
When people come to me saying they want to kill themselves, I tell them, “Whatʼs your rush? You can kill yourself any time you like. So calm down. Suicide is a positive act.” And they do calm down.
We dread the future only when we are not sure we can kill ourselves when we want to.
Why donʼt I kill myself? If I knew exactly what keeps me from doing so, I should have no more questions to ask myself since I should have answered them all.
Only optimists commit suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility.
If death is as horrible as is claimed, how is it that after the passage of a certain period of time we consider happy any being, friend or enemy, who has ceased to live?
In a world without melancholy, nightingales would start burping.
What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us theirs?
Life inspires more dread than death—it is life which is the great unknown. (Or as Bertrand Russell put it, “We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think— in fact they do so.”)
Suicide is manʼs way of telling God, ‘You canʼt fire me - I quit.’—Bill Maher
Potential suicides should keep in mind that itʼs a decision they have to live with for the rest of their lives.—paraphrase of something Paul Tillich wrote
I am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.—David Levithan
The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.—Friedrich Nietzsche
There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. And then you accept it. Or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking in mirrors.—Tennessee Williams
The only difference between a suicide and a martyrdom really is the amount of press coverage.—Chuck Palahniuk
I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again.—Charles Bukowski
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.—Mahatma Gandhi
Once I tried to kill myself with a bungee cord. I kept almost dying.—Steven Wright
Thereʼs no reason to live, but thereʼs no reason to die, either… Life is not worth the bother of leaving it.—Jacques Rigaut
The New York Daily News suggested that my biggest war crime was not killing myself like a gentleman. Presumably Hitler was a gentleman.—Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
If the pain was constant and unbearable, or I was struggling for every breath and unable to sleep, I might consider suicide. I donʼt think Iʼve ever been the suicidal type because I have lots of addictive interests including making music. If the question is metaphysical, then I would add that metaphysics is sometimes full of bullsh*t. The thought of everything eventually perishing can create angst but not necessarily suicidal thoughts.
Cecil Wyche [agnostic, non-Christian, though interested in religious philosophy]
Devout Mormon Threatened to Harm Himself Unless His Brothers Stopped Cursing, Leaps to Death Rather than Endure Listening to Any More Profanity—(KSL News) Police now say an argument caused a 21-year-old man to jump from a moving truck. “Tyler Poulson was riding with his brothers last night when he became offended by one of them using profanity. Poulson, who recently returned from an LDS mission, threatened to get out of the truck if he continued. One of the men, not thinking he would, told Poulson to do so. Police said the car was going about 35 miles an hour when Poulson opened the door and jumped. He was pronounced dead on scene.” Posted Nov 12th, 2005
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In terms of the early evolution of what would become the human species, having offspring was key. Jesus may have taught that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” but we havenʼt inherited much from them genetically. Rather, it is the “disproportionate replicators” who left their mark on us, those whose drive and passion got their DNA into children who would continue passing down that drive and passion. You wonʼt find many shrinking violets in your ancestry. We are here because we had ancestors who did what it took to reproduce and survive in a world that was filled with competing groups of primates, pain, death and extinction events, long before modern humans arrived. What we inherited from them is not some taint of sin, but the very traits that allowed them to produce more of their kind. In other words, we are the genetic success stories of our ancestorsʼ behaviors, and such behaviors could be quite rough and selfish at times, but without them our species would not be here. One might say that taking what one could get was a ‘blessing’ to some extent in the past and such ‘sinful’ greedy behaviors helped create the human species.
Lamoureux, a Christian apologist for evolution, claims that “Adam (as an individual) never existed, and therefore suffering and death did not enter the world in divine judgment for his transgression.” But he fails to see the implications when he also claims that “the divine revelation in Gen 3, Rom 5-8, and 1 Cor 15 is very simple: humans are sinners, God judges sin, and Jesus died for sinful men and women.” But evolution raises one glaring question in response to Lamoureuxʼs view, the question being— Men and women are “sinful” because of what? Evidence suggests it is because of the very process God employed to bring about the human species.
Consider the “anger reaction” in vertebrates. We all lapse into angry outbursts from time to time. This is to be expected, because our threat system has evolved so that it is activated rapidly, because defenses that come on too slowly may be too late. We have been prey more than predators, even for most of human evolutionary prehistory, and there isnʼt much time to react when the tiger is about to pounce. Having a rapid-response amygdala for threat response is not our “sinful” fault; it is part of the way our brains evolved to function.
Christian apologists object that such a purely biological interpretation tends to reduce sin or evil merely to our acting on long evolved biological impulses, ignoring forms of evil made possible by our transcendence—evils such as idolatry of self, viewing other people as mere objects, and the like. But such traits could just as well be explained as being rooted in our survival instincts. As the anatomist and Christian Daryl Domning admits, our “sinful” human behaviors do appear to exist because they promote the survival and reproduction of those individuals that perform(ed) them. He adds that “there is virtually no known human behavior that we call ‘sin’ that is not also found among nonhuman animals. Even pride, proverbially the deadliest sin of all, is not absent.” Domningʼs “conclusion” is that animals are “doing things that would be sinful if done by morally reflective human beings.” Moreover… “Logical parsimony and the formal methods of inference used in modern studies of biological diversity affirm that these patterns of behavior are displayed in common by humans and other animals because they have been inherited from a common ancestor which also possessed them. In biologistsʼ jargon, these behaviors are homologous. Needless to say, this common ancestor long predated the first humans and cannot be identified with the biblical Adam.”
Or to quote Ed Friedlander, “We do not like to be reminded of the ways in which we resemble animals. We sinners like to think our motives are more holy than those of animals. And since we generally assume animals cannot have eternal life with God, thinking about animal deaths and about our own place in nature frightens us.”
Or to quote Sally Carrighar, “A preacher thundering from his pulpit about the uniqueness of human beings with their God-given souls would not like to realize that his very gestures, the hairs that rose on his neck, the deepened tones of his outraged voice, and the perspiration that probably ran down his skin under clerical vestments are all manifestations of anger in mammals. If he was sneering at Darwin a bit (one does not need a mirror to know that one sneers), did he remember uncomfortably that a sneer is derived from an animalʼs lifting its lip to remind an enemy of its fangs? Even while he was denying the principle of evolution, how could a vehement man doubt such intimate evidence?”
On the brighter side, to temporarily get off the topic of the evolution of “anger,” and of how the “meek” were not the ones whose genes gave birth to our species, letʼs just be happy that so many members of our species learned the benefits of agreeing collectively on certain moral ideas after coming to live in ever larger, more fixed societies rather than just roaming bands of kin. Aggression and selfishness help the individual or oneʼs kinship group survive but typically do not promote the flourishing of much larger communities.
Many Protestant and Catholic theistic evolutionists believe that at some point a soul appeared in two (or more) of our animal ancestors. One of these, or perhaps their representative, was assigned the name “Adam.” These ensouled humans were spiritual orphans, apparently. Their parents would have looked and acted much like them, with only a handful of DNA mutations distinguishing them, biologically, but these first ensouled humans would have suckled at the breasts of a soulless mother, and picked up their first lessons on how to behave by observing and interacting with soulless parents and friends.
Having acquired a “soul” that, according to Christian theology, now needed to be “saved,” what kind of salvation was available to our ancient ancestors who first chipped stones, carved spears, built fires, and later drew pictures of animals on the walls of caves in France? They seemed pretty involved in simply staying alive and noticing animal life, perhaps practicing some sort of religion involving the recognition of animal spirits. Which reminds me that besides the cave paintings from long ago, the oldest known human-made religious structure was built about 12,000 years ago, and is decorated with graven images of animals which would be prohibited by Exodus 20:4 thousands of years later. Early human artists also left behind carved images of large breasted women. No doubt the folks who pursued the healthiest women that could also keep their man warm at night, not necessarily the most “sinless” women, gave birth to the most offspring, leading to our species with its genes and behaviors.
Another question, how might a scientifically savvy Christian bridge the chasm between natural and supernatural conception in the case of Jesus? Did the Holy Spirit employ a set of freshly constructed chromosomes that fused with Maryʼs? In that case, some divinely produced DNA would need to be produced that appeared to have come from a human father with a long evolutionary past of his own. Thatʼs because the divinely implanted paternal chromosomes have to line up right beside the naturally evolved maternal chromosomes in Maryʼs zygote. So letʼs say the Holy Spirit injected a ready-made Y chromosome into Mary (along with 22 others from falsified meiosis in a non-existent human father), complete with endogenous retroviruses, fossil genes, and other hallmarks of evolution that would be capable of lining up beside Maryʼs chromosomes to form a fully complementary set. So the Holy Spirit would have had to add a Y chromosome that was faked to look like it had been passed down, with occasional mutations, from an endless line of evolutionary descendants. And we know what “those” guys were like. Weʼve already gone over that.
Nature contains a variety of pains that few people simply accept as part of Godʼs wonderful design. Instead, humans struggle to bypass or avoid such pains via city planning, safety regulations, modern medicine, dentistry, and devices that predict changes in the weather or environment (including marking danger zones).
Nor are “sinners” the ones who are plagued most by natureʼs pains but simply people unlucky enough to be in the paths of disasters or epidemics, or people unintelligent enough not to take safety measures, or people economically impoverished so their city or country cannot afford modern safety techniques and conveniences. Therefore natureʼs pains are not focused on “sinners.” Nor do such pains lead one toward any one deity or religion in particular. In fact such pains can traumatize people and lead them away from God entirely.
Attempts by Christian apologists to respond to the problem of pain in nature often begin with a proposition as cold as nature itself, beginning with the idea that God does not owe anybody anything. In fact Genesis 3 depicts God cursing the first couple, “to dust you shall return.” Such apologists start with the idea that humans are born into a cursed and fallen world, and humanity itself is fallen, and God is doing them a great favor by preserving anyone at all from disasters, either in this life (viz., the so-called worldwide flood of Noah) or the next (hell). In fact, seeing video of disaster victims makes Christians trust in the truth of both the “fall” and the promised resurrection and their other religious beliefs even more. That is how the ball of their philosophy/theology tightens when you tug on that string called, “natural disasters.”
Therefore it does not matter to Christians that natural disasters and epidemics may kill millions, tens of millions, or even a hundred million. Such disasters may appear utterly pointless, pure wreckage, and it may appear that any infinite Being with a true love for what it has created, knowing the immense pain, sorrow, and trauma such disasters bring, could and would have designed a cosmos without them. Christians certainly believe God is capable of doing so, since they believe God can create a heavenly cosmos that lacks such disasters. So they know a world without natural disasters is possible.
Indeed, an infinite Being has infinite resources at its disposal, and it is difficult to imagine how anything such a Being created could ever go disastrously awry if such a Being has infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite compassion (“God is love”).
Even the tale of “the fall” (understood literally or metaphorically) only makes one wonders why such a Being would have made the “forbidden fruit” “pleasing to the eye,” and placed its tree “in the middle of the garden” like some police sting operation waiting to be sprung. And when the “serpent tempted Eve” couldnʼt this Being have showed up and argued against the serpent? It could have granted Adam and Eve a vision of the future horrors their children would endure not only in this life but in the afterlife—if they ate of the fruit.
Christians might also ponder where this Being was when Islam was born, knowing how Islam would grow faster than Christianity and Muslims would wage war against the faith of Christians. Couldnʼt this Being have ensured that Mohammed received the correct revelation if this Being truly wanted everyone to be saved?
Even granted “a fall,” such a Being still has infinite resources at its disposal to influence, lead, instruct, discipline, everyone to help them come to agreement concerning what is true and trustworthy even if it takes billions of years. Satan has no such resources at his disposal, and humans have merely a finite intellect. So how could an infinite Being with infinite resources and knowledge fail to influence every finite creature eventually? Or as the Jewish saying goes, God and time are the best teachers.
Speaking of God and time being the best teachers, Shana, a Christian, a First-Grade Teacher, and Therapist for Autistic Children put it this way:
A Christian brother told me that when we are in heaven we will have no concern for those who will be in eternal hell. But if we are to “love our neighbors as ourselves,” how can this be true? God has said that He will have “all” come to Him. Is any heart so dark (and without the slightest flaw or crack) such that the light of Christ could never penetrate it? Doesnʼt emptiness abhor a vacuum? And what could be more vacuous than a heart trying to keep itself pumped up with lies and deceit which have no substance of and by themselves. Surely such vacuous hearts cannot avoid being eventually filled with the only solid and substantial Truth that is, was or ever will be? Something written by the 19th-century universalist Christian, George MacDonald, encouraged my own heart…
Jesus said for us to love even our enemies. We were His enemies at one time and He came down into our hell. And what shall we say of the man Christ Jesus? Who, that loves his brother, would not, upheld by the love of Christ, and with a dim hope that in the far-off time there might be some help for him, arise from the company of the blessed, and walk down into the dismal regions of despair, to sit with the unredeemed, and be more blessed in the pains of hell, than in the glories of heaven? Who, in the midst of the golden harps and the white wings, knowing that one of his kind, one miserable brother in the old-world-time when men were taught to love their neighbor as themselves, was howling unheeded far below in the vaults of the creation, who, I say, would not feel that he must arise, that he had no choice, that, awful as it was, he must gird his loins, and go down into the smoke and the darkness and the fire, traveling the weary and fearful road into the far country to find his brother?—who, I mean, that had the mind of Christ, that had the love of the Father? Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Will He not continue to seek out and save all of the lost? Will we have the love of Christ in heaven?
In short, how much sense does it make for Christian apologists to continue to invent imaginative excuses for eternal suffering/damnation when according to their own definition of God He has seemingly endless knowledge, means and time at His disposal to teach, purge, enlighten, influence and heal the merely finite beings He has created, i.e., rather than see them suffer for eternity?
Nick Peters, Christian Apologist, has recently published a debate book on the topic of Natural Evil. The bottom line for Christians like Nick is that God can do whatever “He” wants with what “He” has created. Nick admits:
Anything I say in this discussion… should not be seen as meant to provide comfort for those who are undergoing suffering from a natural disaster.
Nick adds that if a person knows about Christ and rejects Him, “he is doing wrong,” which reduces all questions of evil, natural or otherwise down to one, convert or be damned. Obviously, if a Christian can defend damnation, they can defend anything. What are natural disasters, mutations, diseases, parasites, death and extinctions, compared with damnation? To quote Nick, “Sometime we do not respond to gentle nudges and wooing but rather require difficult circumstances to come our way to wake us up to what is going on in the world. If other means have not worked and a natural disaster could keep us from a greater suffering (such as eternal separation from God), then I would find that the suffering would be justified.”
Thatʼs the bottom line for Christians, avoiding “eternal separation from God.” The pains in this life could just as well be God “nudging and wooing” us toward faith (not a very precise nudge since oneʼs faith and beliefs could wind up veering off in several directions, from Buddhism to Islam, not to mention cursing God).
And if individual day-to-day pains donʼt work, God uses firmer “nudges” like full scale natural disasters (including health disasters like epidemics and persistent diseases like malaria and TB, or in the past, influenza, the plague, smallpox. and dozens of childhood illnesses) that have killed countless millions, far more than died in all the wars of humans against humans. Which reminds me of a dialogue I once read by Mark Twain between a devout mother and her questioning daughter over what part natureʼs pains play (keep in mind that Twainʼs son died of diphtheria at age 19 months):
“In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us afflictions to discipline us and make us better… All of them. None of them comes by accident; He alone sends them, and always out of love for us, and to make us better, my child.”
“Did He give Billy Norris the typhus, mamma?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“Why, to discipline him and make him good.”
“But he died, mamma, and so it couldnʼt make him good.”
“Well, then, I suppose it was for some other reason. We know it was a good reason, whatever it was.”
After a pause: “Did He make the roof fall on the stranger that was trying to save the crippled old woman from the fire, mamma?”
“Yes, my child. Wait! Donʼt ask me why, because I donʼt know. I only know it was to discipline some one, or be a judgment upon somebody, or to show His power.”
“That drunken man that stuck a pitchfork into Mrs. Welchʼs baby when…”
“Never mind about it, you neednʼt go into particulars; it was to discipline the child - that much is certain, anyway.”
“Mamma, Mr. Burgess said in his sermon that billions of little creatures are sent into us to give us cholera, and typhoid, and lockjaw, and more than a thousand other sicknesses and, mamma, does He send them?”
“Oh, certainly, child, certainly. Of course.”
“What for?”
“Oh, to discipline us! Havenʼt I told you so, over and over again?”
“Itʼs awful cruel, mamma! And silly! And if I…”
“Hush, oh hush! Do you want to bring the lightning?”
“You know the lightning did come last week, mamma, and struck the new church, and burnt it down. Was it to discipline the church?”
(Wearily) “Oh, I suppose so.”
“But it killed a hog that wasnʼt doing anything. Was it to discipline the hog, mamma?”
“Dear child, donʼt you want to run out and play a while? If you would like to…”
“Mamma, Mr. Hollister says there isnʼt a bird or fish or reptile or any other animal that hasnʼt got an enemy that Providence has sent to bite it and chase it and pester it, and kill it, and suck its blood and discipline it and make it good and religious. Is that true, mamma, because if it is true, why did Mr. Hollister laugh at it?”
“That Hollister is a scandalous person, and I donʼt want you to listen to anything he says.”
“Why, mamma, he is very interesting, and I think he tries to be good. He says the wasps catch spiders and cram them down their nests in the ground - alive, mama! - and there they live and suffer days and days and days, and hungry little baby wasps chew the spiderʼs legs and gnaw into their bellies all the time, to make them good and religious and praise God for His infinite mercies. I think Mr. Hollister is just lovely, and ever so kind; for when I asked him if he would treat a spider like that, he said he hoped to be damned if he would; and then he…”
“My child! oh, do for goodnessʼ sake…”
“And mamma, he says the spider is appointed to catch the fly, and drive her fangs into his bowels, and sucks and sucks and sucks his blood, to discipline him and make him a Christian; and whenever the fly buzzes his wings with the pain and misery of it, you can see by the spiderʼs grateful eye that she is thanking the Giver of All Good for…well, sheʼs saying grace, as he says; and also, he…”
“Oh, arenʼt you ever going to get tired chattering! If you want to go out and play…”
“Mamma, he says himself that all troubles and pains and miseries and rotten diseases and horrors and villainies are sent to us in mercy and kindness to discipline us; and he says it is the duty of every father and mother to help Providence, every way they can; and says they canʼt do it by just scolding and whipping, for that wonʼt answer, it is weak and no good - Providenceʼs invention for disciplining us and the animals is the very brightest idea that ever was. Mamma, brother Eddie needs disciplining, right away; and I know where you can get the smallpox for him, and the itch, and the diphtheria, and bone-rot, and heart disease, and tuberculosis, and…”
“Dear mama, have you fainted?”
There are a limited number of “theodicies,” in fact most can be broken down into one of four basic kinds:
“Mysterious Greater Good” Theodicies. God has a cunning plan that cannot fail, so even if we canʼt figure it out who are we to lack faith in it, or in Him?
“Soul Making” Theodicies. God is using evil like an oyster uses a grain of sand, to create a pearl.
Natural Law Theodicies God canʼt make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. And he canʼt build a planet that circulates important minerals without also creating earthquakes. And he canʼt circulate the air and distribute heat in the atmosphere without creating tornadoes and hurricanes. An endless list of things God canʼt do without creatures suffering or dying, sometimes in massive natural disasters, famines, plagues, or even after a lifetime of suffering.
Free Will Theodicies. God wants creatures to love him freely, so he gives us the power to do both good and evil.
But for every theodicy there are simply more questions or even rational rebuttals.
“Mysterious Greater Good” Theodicies.
Rebuttal: This is not a rational defense but an assertion that rational discussion will not challenge that personʼs belief system. It is to accept blindly the spectrum of suffering “for some greater good,” from minor daily suffering and loses to major ones like mass deaths of animals and people, even if they are deeply troubling, even if one cannot offer rational reasons why God would do or even allow such things.
People employing such a blind assertion are also likely to comfort themself with the belief that the only “truly bad thing” that can happen to anyone is for them to NOT become a Christian. (Of course rival religions and cults assert the same thing, namely that the only “truly bad thing” that can happen to a person is for them not to love and believe in _insert name of deity, favorite religion, denomination, sect or cult, here_.)
Such a theodicy of blind assertion also resembles the thinking of a spouse who is too afraid to even question whether or not their marriage partner may be mistreating them. Consider these lines that abusive spouses use to assert control over their marriage partners: “You better not even think about leaving me.” “You better not even think about questioning me, my purposes, reasons. ” “I know best.” “Donʼt listen to anyone who doesnʼt understand what we have.” “Youʼre nothing without me.” “Iʼm only doing this because I LOVE you.” “Youʼre not worthy of my love.” “You donʼt deserve me.” “Youʼll never find anyone as good as me.” “Youʼre a terrible person and you need me to be better.” “You brought this upon yourself.” Religions that threaten damnation and assert Godʼs inscrutability whenever questions arise involving suffering and evil, function in ways that are similar to how and why an abused spouse convinces themself to not ask questions and instead remain in an abusive relationship. Relying on this form of theodicy is more like being trapped by a brain-washing mechanism based on fear, rather than providing an explanation for evil, pain.
Also, if “the greater good” consists in becoming a specific type of truly believing Christian (as opposed to “untrue Christians” or believers in other religions or no religion at all), then it does not look like this cosmos was designed in order to achieve “the greater good.” In fact if the “greater good” is defined as just stated, and if eternal damnation is the “lesser good,” then it appears more like this cosmos is simply a web in which God might catch souls for hell. Just consider the fact that we live relatively short lives, a couple decades long, limited further by oneʼs geographical place of birth and the culture into which one is born, so we have limited personal and cultural experiences, limited educations, limited time for study, and limited vision as to what lay on the other side of the metaphysical curtain, as well as living in a world containing a plethora of holy books and an even greater number of books containing rival interpretations of them. And one must add to such “less than good” circumstances the countless non-religious obligations one must expend time fulfilling daily just to survive — in a world already clouded and crowded with ignorance, waves of emotion, headaches, backaches, toothaches, strains, scrapes, breaks, cuts, rashes, burns, bruises, PMS, fatigue, hunger, odors, molds, colds, yeast, parasites, viruses, cancers, genetic defects, blindness, deafness, paralysis, mental illness, ugliness, ignorance, miscommunications, embarrassments, unrequited love, dashed hopes, boredom, hard labor, repetitious labor, accidents, wars, PTSD, old age, senility, fires, floods, earthquakes, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes and volcanoes. Knowing all such limitations and the full spectrum of suffering and ignorance, I donʼt see what rational sense it makes to claim that anyone, after they are dead, deserves “eternal punishment” as well.
“Soul Making” Theodicies.
Rebuttal: Soul making? What about all the things in this life and world that harden peopleʼs hearts or destroy peopleʼs souls? I mentioned some of them above. At best one could argue that this world appears just as good at destroying (or damning souls) as making (or saving) them. This world is practically a net in which Jehovah catches souls for hell with its ignorance, confusion, fears, endless holy writings and endless bickering over their interpretation, and with all of the other things mentioned above, the suffering and pains, with humans tossed on seas of emotion and cultural prejudice as well.
And I left something out of my list above, namely religions that claim you must believe (or be damned) even though you canʼt see what youʼre supposed to believe in. You canʼt hear or touch it. We donʼt get to see what Adam saw when he allegedly walked with God in the garden, or get to see what doubting Thomas saw when Jesus made a special trip back to the apostles just to prove his resurrection to that one doubter. We donʼt get to see heaven or hell either. Or Mohammed riding his horse to heaven. Or Joseph Smithʼs alleged golden plates. And not seeing is proclaimed a virtue in the Gospel of John. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Virtue for some maybe, but certainly a curse for those with inquiring minds.
Natural Law Theodicies.
Rebuttal: According to the Bible God can create heaven, apparently a place with no earthquakes where souls can supposedly grow and flourish forever. He can also create a Garden of Eden with a tree of eternal life in its midst that seemed safe and peaceful enough. But according to “natural law theodicies” God HAD to create an earth and cosmos like this one in which we “flourish” only on the trembling skin of one tiny planet, a third of whose surface areas is comprised of deserts or parched lands. See also this parody, a list of reasons Why We Believe in a Designer
Which reminds me of a joke. A man was having a pair of pants made by a Jewish tailor. But the man grew impatient over how long it was taking the tailor to finish them. The man complained, “It only took God six days to make the world, but itʼs taken you over a month to make the pair of pants I ordered.” The tailor held out the manʼs pair of pants with pride and said: “Dat may be so, but take a look at the world … den take a look at dees pants!”
Which reminds me of another joke. A preacher was visiting a farm and said to the farmer, “Godʼs been mighty good to your fields, Mr. Farmer.” “Yes,” the Farmer replied, “But you should have seen how He treated them when I wasnʼt around.”
Did God design the sawtoothed grain beetle, angoumois grain moths, Mediterranean flour moths, scale insects, cabbage worms, corn earworms, corn rootworms, cutworms, tomato fruitworms, etc., that destroy 30% of U.S. food crops by devouring leaves, fruits, grain, and also by spreading fungal and bacterial plant rots as well? Are we supposed to praise the Lord for designing such insects whose proliferation leads to human starvation?
Did God design the bacteria that infect the food we eat? Even prayed over leftovers from Thanksgiving Day? Microgram for microgram, the poisons produced by some bacteria in our food are more potent than all other known poisons on earth. It is estimated that one tenth of an ounce of the toxin produced by bacteria causing botulism would be more than enough to kill everyone in the city of New York; and a 12-ounce glassful would be enough to kill all 5.9 billion human beings on the face of the Earth. (The same goes for the toxin that causes tetanus.) Is that Godʼs handiwork?
Free Will Theodicies.
Rebuttal: Christian theologians continue to dispute how “free” the human will is. Some believe God knows the end from the beginning. But if God has such knowledge then everything must happen the way God knows it will. Therefore the doctrine of Godʼs foreknowledge and the idea of libertarian free will have been at odds with one another for millennia, and theologians continue to debate how “free” human “will” is.
Another dispute among theologians is how to reconcile the Christian doctrine of human depravity with libertarian free will. Both Luther and Calvin concluded that “after the fall ‘freewill’ is just a word, and not something we still possess. And if an historical Adam never even existed, as some Evangelicals are now proposing, what then?
Opposed to the view of Luther and Calvin are Universalist Christians who view “free will” as going hand in hand with eternal salvation rather than eternal damnation. Universalists point out that God has an infinite mind and infinite powers of persuasion at His disposal (and God is everywhere and in everything, at the core of everyoneʼs being, “In Him we live and move and have our being,” per Paul), therefore if God wants everyone to fall in love with the same things or believe the same things, and those things are the only true things, then there is no way a finite creature can resist Godʼs infinite will and infinite powers of persuasion eternally. Therefore, Universalists think the only logical view that someone who believes in a personal loving infinite God can hold is universalism. God has said that He will have “all” come to Him. Is any heart so dark (and without the slightest flaw or crack) such that the light of Christ could never penetrate it? Does not emptiness abhor a vacuum (neither does any such vacuum truly exist since God is in all things)? Hence every “heart” must eventually come to acknowledge the only solid and substantial truth that is. The early Christian father Origin appears to have argued in a similar fashion.
Also, the damnationist Christian portrays God as teaching, “If you donʼt freely love me, you will suffer for all eternity,” which is like saying, “Choose whatever you want to eat for dinner, just keep in mind that if you eat anything else but the green beans you will be puking it up so violently for all eternity that you will never be granted another choice.” (A similar damnationist perspective is used by rival denominations and religions that compete with each other for souls.) How free is a choice that is coerced via threats of eternal suffering, i.e., if you donʼt love and believe specific things?
If “free will” is of such grand importance to God, will there be free will in heaven such that people could still experience temptation there and even sin there? If not, then what types of circumstances has God set up to ensure that heavenʼs inhabitants will always be more tempted to choose good rather than evil? And why didnʼt he set up those circumstances right from the start?
Aside from the theological controversies above, has it been demonstrated that free will exists? There does not appear to be a way to demonstrate the existence of libertarian free will experimentally since we cannot place ourselves in the same exact time, place, and mental state in which we first made each of our “free” decisions to see if we might choose otherwise. Even if we could run such an experiment, going back in time and space, repeating a scenario multiple times, to show that people CAN make a different choice under the exact same circumstances, it would not demonstrate that the different decision was “better informed,” only that it was a “different decision” from the one previously “willed.” Of what use then would it be to have “free will?” Itʼs more to the point to be able to make “better-informed decisions” than “free” ones. To make the former you have to be connected with the cosmos, not free of it — you have to collect and analyze input from as wide a spectrum of the cosmos as possible, like a computer. Therefore, building a machine that collects ever-widening amounts of data and continues to subject them to comparative analysis would be of greater value than creating a machine or human that is disconnected from this cosmos and arriving at decisions “freely.”
Tweets attributed to “God” on Twitter:
People like to imagine Me coming down to end civilization because itʼs less scary than imagining being left alone and doing it yourselves.
The people who think the world will end all at once will be largely responsible for it ending gradually.
If itʼs any consolation, the nine quintillion other universes I oversee are all going to sh*t too.
Praying is the definition of the least you can do.
The best thing about atheists is they never blame Me.
The people who say “itʼs all part of God's plan” give Me waaay too much credit.
tweets from jmiz8
When people tell me “I found the Lord” I assume the Lord had been hiding from them. Then I pray for Jesus to find some better hiding spots.
I have a Christian friend who is so devout he refuses to covet his own wife.
I get religious people being anti-abortion, but them thinking .25mg of estrogen or 2 grams of latex can stop the “fate of god” I'm fuzzy on.
Naked female scientist tries to tame belugas in the freezing Arctic
Green Porno - Dolphins (what kinds of sex WONʼT dolphins have?)
The Simpsons, Quotations!
Marge [praying before having sex]: Dear Lord, thank you for the physical intimacy we are about to enjoy.
Homer: And as always, have fun watching.Homer ordering ice cream at a Christian theme park: “One Tower of Babel and build it to Heaven” (Ge 11:1-9).
Homer: Whatʼs the big deal about going to some building every Sunday. I mean, isnʼt God everywhere?
Bart: Amen, brother.
Homer: And donʼt you think that the almighty has better things to worry about then where one little guy spends one measly hour of this week?
Bart: Tell it, Daddy.
Homer: And what if we pick the wrong religion? Every week weʼre just making God madder and madder.
Bart: Testify!Rev. Lovejoy [playing a Protestant in days of Queen Elizabeth]: Lord Jesus, although our country turned protestant for the soleful reason that our fat mean King could dump his faithful wife, we know youʼre on our side. So please destroy these horrible monsters [Catholics] who believe your mother should be revered.
Ned Flanders praying in Israel: ..and Lord, thank you for letting me be in this wonderful place where the end of the world will soon begin.
Pirate: We must pray to Santa Maria to save us. Santa Maria de Guadalope, mystical rosa, interceda por .. (lightning strikes the ship.) One of you were not praying!
Homer: Oh heavenly God, my son is plagued with homework. With Your vast knowledge of “The Shore Birds of Maryland”, I know You can help him.
Homer: Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me, and I am thankful. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So hereʼs the deal; you freeze everything as it is and I wonʼt ask for anything more. If that is okay, please give me absolutely no sign. Okay, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. Thy will be done.
Zoidberg: Whoʼs brave enough to fly into something we all keep calling a death sphere?
Bender: Dying sucks butt. How do you living beings cope with mortality?
Leela: Violent outbursts.
Amy: General slutiness.
Fry: Thanks to denial, Iʼm immortal.Reverend Lionel Preacherbot: The only lies worth believing are the ones in the Bible.
Hermes [showing line graph]: As you can see, since Benderʼs death, request to bite one shiny metal ass are down 98%. [Scruffy walks by, using parts of Benderʼs disconnected robot body as a noisy vacuum cleaner] Do you mind doing that later?
Scruffy: Bite my shiny metal ass. [the end of Hermeʼs line graph rises]God: Bender, being God isnʼt easy. If you do too much, people get dependent on you, and if you do nothing, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch. Like a safecracker, or a pickpocket.
Bender: Or a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money!
God: Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing. When you do things right, people wonʼt be sure youʼve done anything at all.Bender: I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe!
GODʼS BLOG (from the New Yorker, humor)
New novel poses the question whether God might not simply be an adolescent: There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff – review
Interesting Bible News!
“The Book of Jeremiah is now one-seventh longer than the one that appears in some of the 2,000-year-old manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some verses, including ones containing a prophecy about the seizure and return of Temple implements by Babylonian soldiers, appear to have been added after the events happened.”
St. Christina The Astonishing!
Her life story was composed by a contemporary! (Witty writer sums up what we know about her, the original flying nun!)
10 Vestigial Traits You Didnʼt Know You Had (The article left out all the vestiges left in the human genome, from genes inserted by viruses in our ancestors to pseudogenes, and multiplying jumping genes that landed in the same relative places in us and our predecessors. What are the odds! Obviously they didnʼt land in the same places, we inherited the same DNA.)
Violence Vanquished: We believe our world is riddled with terror and war, but we may be living in the most peaceable era in human existence. Why brutality is declining and empathy is on the rise.
According to Cavanaugh every concentrated community of power, whether of religion or of the state, is likely to tilt toward violence under certain circumstances. He also thinks that during the 17th century the western world went from religions that deemed themselves beyond criticism to governments that did so, calling it a “migration of the holy.” He judges that the nation-state was formed at the turn of the modern era as a concentration of power for the conduct of war. In order to sustain itself in the violence business the nation-state has taken to itself religious or quasi-religious claims that are shrouded so as not to be subject to the critique that it is a form of religion that is producing violence. In the end the nation-atate--not least the U.S. in its pious, self assured, exceptionalism—has become the core idol in the modern world. “God Bless America.” We are witnesses to an assumed holiness of the state in its aggression that is rooted in a myth that continues to have wide and uncritical acceptance. So says the reviewer of Cavanaughʼs two recent books. Cavanaughʼs view reminds me of Eric Hofferʼs view in The True Believer. Though Cavanaugh is a Christians and Hoffer an atheist.
Quotations From Logan Pearsall Smith, E. M. Cioran, Kierkegaard.
Prey turns on Predator! Beetle larva flaps its tail, enticing the frog to come after it,then the frog swallows it, but canʼt keep it down, then the larva attaches itself to the frogʼs belly and sucks and eats it till the frog is just bones.
“Brain eating” amoeba kills three people
Plants survive animal attacks by creating lots of new DNA. Creationists take note, nature makes more DNA naturally. And portions of that continue to undergo mutation.
The bacterium responsible for the Black Death was once a mild stomach bug.
Rats were not responsible for the Black Death (I thought that the medieval killing of cats contributed to burgeoning rat populations that led to the fleas on rats carrying the plague).
6 Animals That Kill Natureʼs Scariest Creatures For Fun
500+ Atheism versus Theism Debates
“Atheist,” a poem by sci-fi author Dennis Danvers I recommend Circuit of Heaven, and also his recent short story, “The Fairy Princess.”
