Zoo Testimony

[NorthShoreCoug]

So at fast and testimony meeting today, the counselor who was conducting (and bore testimony) told an interesting and inspirational story.

He was in Louisville last week to take a medical bar exam - he is just completing his residency. Upon completing the exam, most of the residents wanted to go celebrate at a bar. This brother deferred, and instead, went to the Louisville Zoo. After wandering around for a while, he was about to leave when he felt a strong prompting to go see the gorilla exhibit. He thought that was a bit strange, but followed the prompting nonetheless.

Just as he arrived at the exhibit, he heard a loud crashing sound, then screams. The zoo train had derailed, as described in this link:

http://www.wlky.com/news/19625792/detail.html

With his medical training, he was able to aid in the initial efforts to rescue and treat many of the passengers.

[SeattleUte]

What a whimsical God we have. He allows the train to derail but intevenes to guide a resident to the scene to lend a bit of emergency medical aid for a few minutes before the professional emergency medical specialists arrived. Meanwhile, he didn't do a cotton pickin thing save the Air France jet that went down between Rio and Paris last week.

[JohnnyLingo]

What a whimsical God we have. He allows the train to derail but intevenes to guide a resident to the scene to lend a bit of emergency medical aid for a few minutes before the professional emergency medical specialists arrived. Meanwhile, he didn't do a cotton pickin thing save the Air France jet that went down between Rio and Paris last week.

So profound. Tell me, what other new and thought-provoking thoughts do you have on the nature of God?

[DU Ute]

What a whimsical God we have. He allows the train to derail but intevenes to guide a resident to the scene to lend a bit of emergency medical aid for a few minutes before the professional emergency medical specialists arrived. Meanwhile, he didn't do a cotton pickin thing save the Air France jet that went down between Rio and Paris last week.

Maybe he tried to warn the Air France Pilots, but they were past feeling. You really didn't think this one through, did you?

[woot]

So profound. Tell me, what other new and thought-provoking thoughts do you have on the nature of God?

I think his point is good, which is likely why he keeps repeating it. A god who intervenes in such a shallow and meaningless way while not intervening in any number of more important events is not a god that anyone should feel comfortable believing in.

[RC Vikings]

What a whimsical God we have. He allows the train to derail but intevenes to guide a resident to the scene to lend a bit of emergency medical aid for a few minutes before the professional emergency medical specialists arrived. Meanwhile, he didn't do a cotton pickin thing save the Air France jet that went down between Rio and Paris last week.

How do you know the pilot didn't get a prompting before the fright that maybe today was a bad day to fly and he didn't follow the prompting?

[CardiacCoug]

So profound. Tell me, what other new and thought-provoking thoughts do you have on the nature of God?

Classic response. Indy is also great at these sarcastic responses that lack any substance.

Most intelligent people think that the question of why an all-powerful, all-loving God would allow so much suffering is in fact quite profound.

[Fiyero]

What a whimsical God we have. He allows the train to derail but intevenes to guide a resident to the scene to lend a bit of emergency medical aid for a few minutes before the professional emergency medical specialists arrived. Meanwhile, he didn't do a cotton pickin thing save the Air France jet that went down between Rio and Paris last week.

You are finally starting to catch on. Very rarely does God drop manna from heaven; rather help comes from the people. We are the ones who serve and aid one another. Occasionally God points a person in the direction of someone who has needs.

Of course why should man learn to engineer stronger cages and better airplane protocols when God can just intervene and fix every problem before it occurs, allowing man to prosper in ignorance? Eat, drink, be merry, and don't worry about a thing, God has your back.

[SeattleUte]

Einstein is on my side on this one. He said that anyone who believes in a God who intervenes is childish, using exactly my reasoning.

Personally, I think it's immature of this resident to see this accident as being all about him.

[CardiacCoug]

How do you know the pilot didn't get a prompting before the fright that maybe today was a bad day to fly and he didn't follow the prompting?

Why would God rely on such an unreliable method for preventing a tragedy as producing some type of "prompting" in the pilot?

God can do anything and everything He feels like doing, but He sure likes to be awfully subtle -- practically invisible.

[JohnnyLingo]

Classic response. Indy is also great at these sarcastic responses that lack any substance.

Most intelligent people think that the question of why an all-powerful, all-loving God would allow so much suffering is in fact quite profound.

Well if "most intelligent people" think that, then I'll back off.

I apologize, SU. My snark was undeserved.

[SeattleUte]

Classic response. Indy is also great at these sarcastic responses that lack any substance.

Most intelligent people think that the question of why an all-powerful, all-loving God would allow so much suffering is in fact quite profound.

Ultimately the problem of evil and suffering is the final insoluble problem. This is the big enchilada all through the history of philosophy. Of course our own Johnny Lingo and Fiyero (as well, it seems, as the young resident who happened by the Louisville zoo last week) are untroubled by it. Such wise men!

[Babs]

Ultimately the problem of evil is the final insoluble problem.

It's the inequity of it that's the thing. If God were to measure out doses of good and evil uniformly, or even perhaps in proportion to righteousness, we might be able to reconcile ourselves to the concept. But the notion of the Christian in Houston rejoicing that "God saved her" from the hurricane, while the Christian in Muslim Africa has watched her entire family executed and lies dying in a refugee camp -- we have a really hard time explaining or coming to terms with that reality. The Calvinists are the only ones (in terms of Christian sects) that have done so in any sort of logical fashion. Not coincidentally, the Calvinists have adopted an almost cold and heartless cerebral sort of faith.

[il Padrino Ute]

What a whimsical God we have. He allows the train to derail but intevenes to guide a resident to the scene to lend a bit of emergency medical aid for a few minutes before the professional emergency medical specialists arrived. Meanwhile, he didn't do a cotton pickin thing save the Air France jet that went down between Rio and Paris last week.

Don't be mad at God because you're about the only American who likes France.

[SeattleUte]

It's the inequity of it that's the thing. If God were to measure out doses of good and evil uniformly, or even perhaps in proportion to righteousness, we might be able to reconcile ourselves to the concept. But the notion of the Christian in Houston rejoicing that "God saved her" from the hurricane, while the Christian in Muslim Africa has watched her entire family executed and lies dying in a refugee camp -- we have a really hard time explaining or coming to terms with that reality. The Calvinists are the only ones (in terms of Christian sects) that have done so in any sort of logical fashion. Not coincidentally, the Calvinists have adopted an almost cold and heartless cerebral sort of faith.

Right. "The problem of evil and suffering" is shorthand reference to the conundrum you describe. Remember when Pat Robertson said God guided the hurricane away from his television station, and then it veered up to Long Island where it slammed into a residential area and killed a number of people?