Hurricane Katrina did all of its damage, much of which will be swept under the national rug and kept hidden from most people. But one thing was clear back during the short time the storm slapped the gulf coast area and flooded New Orleans, many people were calling it an act of God. (At least many people who were making statements to the media.) As survivors began to counted and interviewed, many of them made statements to the media about how good God is for getting them through the tumult alive. I don't knock anyone's reasoning for getting through anything alive, but I wonder about the idea of a God that would cause the storm in the first place and yet would have the graces to save certain people when it is clear that certain others didn't make it through. Everyone always likes to call natural disasters "the will of God" and yet immediately turns around and credits the same God with any good that came out of it. Why does the God who would be so precocious as to destroy a city and countless towns get the credit for saving some people? (What about all those other people who didn't get out alive? Why isn't God called to account for what happened to them?)
Faith and beliefs are amazing things in that they can result in dazzling mental gymnastics of this sort while fooling most others into thinking that such gymnastics are logical and or rational. The point is faith makes no sense, especially if you have to have faith in a God who damages your life severely and yet you rely on that same God to make it all right again. If it was God that did the damage in the first place, then we all know who to point the finger at now don't we?
So instead of thinking about ways people can better deal with or survive more storms, we can just say it is God's will. Instead of thanking all of those rescuers and other personnel who come to help during times of disaster, we can just say that is God's will too. Much like when two sports teams both pray to God before the game with the winners crediting it all to God. What about the losers? What about those who don't make it through natural disasters? What about those who live through disasters only to die because they relied to heavily on the government to come sort everything out?
Just pray, right? I am sure that's what President Bush would rather have the survivors of Katrina do instead of asking for their rightful share of federal disaster relief.
People will blame this being called God for everything under the sun, especially all of those things they don't like (unless they also believe in Satan, then he gets the blame for everything from incompetent government workers to the horrid pain of stubbing one's toe). The same people then go around and credit that very same God with all that is good and right in their lives to an extant.
What kind of horrible twisted mindfuck is going on with these people? Is it a trick perpetrated on humanity by real beings known as gods, or is it that we have merely tricked ourselves into seeing that way to blame, excuse, or credit behaviors and activities which we refuse to investigate?
The amazing thing about faith isn't in all of those platitudes and claims of power that believers like to cite. The amazing thing about faith is that it has the power to keep people under its thrall, even when the explanation of what is really going on undercuts the very basis of the belief. The amazing thing about faith is that it sucks people into its insistence that they are all the good guys (never mind all those good people who get killed by disasters or by human cruelty), even when such people are doing all sorts of horrible things to each other and to different people. The amazing thing about faith is that it allows people to pass the buck around endlessly to mythological beings who may or may not exist, and this idea of passing the buck is not only celebrated but encouraged by most people in the society at large. Remember, it was faith that led those hijackers to crash their planes into the World Trade Center. It was faith that led Bush to invade Iraq. It is faith that allows and excuses the horrible things people do to each other across the world.
But the fact that someone repeats the lies of faith...or the fact that people die for their faith does not, no matter what anyone says, make that faith any more true. It is faith that is leading the Christian Fundamentalists to try to take over American political structures so they can "reconstruct" a Christian society. (And it is faith which leads those people into actually thinking that America was founded as a Christian society, in clear ignorance of history.) Faith is the hidden threat that is not hidden much at all.
Let me be clear here that by faith I mean "blind belief." I don't mean the other more common sense faith which would be more accurately termed "reliance." As in when you have faith in your lover or child, etc. You can rely on them or expect them to do a good job because you know them and they have demonstrated their reliability. But can you rely on a God that wrecks a city and kills hundreds or thousands and then turns around and saves certain people? Can you rely upon a God who slaps you one minute and then comforts you the next? (I do think that Yahweh, the major totemic god of the USA, needs to go to see a therapist for His anger management issues and for treatment of his compulsive abusing behavior patterns.) Would you marry someone who did the same thing to you and then tell others who ask you about it that it's okay because your spouse "moves in mysterious ways" or "who are you to question the ways of my spouse?" Think about that for a moment (while I take a breather from preaching to the choir). The most amazing thing of all about faith is that we could drop it and life would be more beautiful and mysterious because we wouldn't be rushing to fill in the holes and gaps of our knowledge with ready made excuses or beliefs.
Now, I actually like Eris. I think She exists. This is no more crazy than thinking that some of the rest of you all exist. But do I have faith in Her? Are you out of your goddamn mind? No. I can trust Eris to be Herself and that's about it. But in true Pagan fashion, I'll take care of my own problems for myself before I appeal to any other person or being. This reliance on myself has a much more fantastic success rate than relying on beings who may or may not be trusted anyway. Besides, Eris was the one who originally said "Think for yourselves, idiots! Now leave me alone and stop praying to me unless you want me to send St. Gulik again." Double besides, if the divine is within, then the way to actually connect with any of the gaggle of gods and goddesses is to live and let yourself dance, so to speak. Faith has nothing to do with any of it. Neither does any belief system related to any faith. Now if you are one of those rare souls that actually does call on gods and those gods actually do show up, you may wish to keep quiet about it in public (but feel free to contact me. We'll compare notes. Though I still don't believe in any of it.)
Well, if you didn't get the point of this little exercise in mental effluvia by now, you might find it in your mailbox tomorrow.