So it was God that put Bush in the White House?

[Cyrano]

Let me say right up front that I am a devout agnostic.

So let me get this straight. After the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the genocide taking place in too many African countries, and so many more instances of human depravity, there are still people on this planet who believe in some benevolent supreme deity watching out for our well being?

Well, assuming such a deity exists, it explains why George W. Bush is in the White House. Is this some kind of great God, or what?

And if he/she/it actually exists, we're talking about galactic incompetence. After all, if you were in charge, is this the world you would have created?

Okay, true believers, give me your best explanation as to the behavior of this supposed almighty being.

[mhr]

1. Well You Know, Wink - Wink, God Gets Colds, Has Bad Hair Days, Etc.

Sarcasm off

[havocmom]

2. James Baker may be a lot of things

but 'god' is not among them.

[Zensea]

3. one word -- Antichrist

:evilgrin:

[lutherj]

4. "God" couldn't even get a majority vote in 2000, so he had to

rig the election.

[skygazer]

5. They say god works in mysterious ways

If this is one of them, I guess we'll never figure it out!

Seriously, I'm with you. I've seen so many things in the world that point to there being no god but very little that tells me there is.

[glitch]

6. God doesn't need to cheat

says my dear 74-year-old Mum.

[Vickers]

7. Here is my question: of ALL the USA citizens over 35, God picked

George Walker Bush?

I mean...c'mon! At least pick the guy who was #1 in his FLIGHT SCHOOL or something!

I mean, really....George Walker Bush? It's mind-boggling!

The whole argument falls apart right there (not the "is there a God?" argument, but rather the "God Chose Dubya" argument).

Unless this is some sort of test that we are failing? :shrug:

[kerry-is-my-prez]

8. Yeah - we're being punished for being money-mongering capitalists.

:tinfoilhat:

[prodigal_green]

9. beat me to it!

pride cometh before a fall and all that.

[sui generis]

10. I picked up a Bullfinch's Mythology the other day

and the funniest thing -- in the preface the author had a section about how sad it was that the Greeks and Romans had spent so long with their "false" gods, and how much better the world was since the one true god made his presence known.

Where could you even start to reply to that?

Well to answer the thread though, the idea of a "beneficent" god is only a recent invention. For most of the actual practice of organized judeo-christian religion, he was mostly an evil tempered mighty smiter, and just the lesser of two evils by any modern standard.

[shawn703]

11. Who said God ordained *?

I'm still trying to find that passage in the Bible that says God promised everyone a rose garden. If you find it, let me know!

[okieinpain]

12. what makes god great is the gift of free will. It's up to us to shape

what happens in this world.

[Cyrano]

13. You mean he/she/it has gotten out of the smiting business?

[DivinBreuvage]

14. Well, I wouldn't blame God for human depravity

Because I neither read the Garden of Eden story literally nor subscribe to mass-market comic book descriptions (e.g., benevolent supreme deity watching out for our well being). I think a supernatural entity would be more impersonal and/or inscrutable than that.

I do believe there is something larger than individuals that influences human events, though I'm not sure exactly what it is. Perhaps there are immutable laws of human society just as there are immutable laws of physics, and this is why things repeatedly sort out the way they do.

When I am in a believing state of mind, I do believe that God wishes for Bush to be in power, but not for the reasons claimed by fundamentalist conservatives. I believe he is using Bush as a tool to bring about certain conditions or events, just as Julius Caesar, Hitler, Abraham Lincoln and Joan of Arc were all tools used for various ends and dispensed with when their purpose had been served.

I don't believe individual human life or suffering is of particular concern to such a being.

[truthspeaker]

15. "God is with us!"