Comments on Dreaming Without Memory in Strangled Sleep: Why Do the Wicked Prosper?

Mxrk--you know me too well. But, seriously, good q...

2008-03-23T23:50:00.000-05:00

Mxrk--you know me too well. But, seriously, good question. I don't know how we can tell. I guess it depends who you ask. My parents see God everywhere--for them, even the fact that I got a good job is a miracle from God, rather than evidence of how hard I have worked to earn it. But ask someone living on the streets, or in Darfur, or in a Nazi death camp, and I think they would have a hard time

Perhaps you're wicked? But seriously, this is one ...

2008-03-20T21:32:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you're wicked?

But seriously, this is one of the key concepts in my mother's articulation of Atheism: that God, in order to be God, must be all good and all powerful, so when bad things happen to good people (and vice versa) one or the other of those principles isn't working.

Of course you could go the "moves in mysterious ways" route, or "he's testing us," or "

Monica, I just want to say "amen" or whatever -- t...

2008-03-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

Monica, I just want to say "amen" or whatever -- this question often perplexes me. And it only gets worse with the NT, where Jesus is obviously a sandal wearing hippie on the fringes of a material culture, and Pharisees are obviously Republican country-clubbers who have been "blessed" up the wazoo.

I know this makes me a little Jeremiah Wrightish or whatever, but at some level it

Myshkin2--Thanks!! Now there's a crazy thought--th...

2008-03-19T22:31:00.000-05:00

Myshkin2--

Thanks!! Now there's a crazy thought--the idea of being colonized by one of Job's accusers! Interesting that you brought up the book of Job--the connection makes sense. Then again, the creepy possibility that the "good" can be tested and purposely afflicted is unsettling--a very disburbing "explanation" for suffering, though in the end that's not the point of Job at all.
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See, I tend to think that "blessings" and "desert"...

2008-03-18T23:19:00.000-05:00

See, I tend to think that "blessings" and "desert" have nothing to do with one another, and that's actually the point of the "why the wicked?" complaint. You can't win "blessings," and you can't lose them either.
Illusions of control.
(btw, too bad you will be coming our direction, just when we're leaving)

How about chucking David (stepping on your pup sur...

2008-03-17T07:35:00.000-05:00

How about chucking David (stepping on your pup surely doesn't match sending your mistress's husband to death in battle) and jumping a few biblical books ahead to Job. The end of your post sounds a bit like one of Job's accusers--so here you've been "colonized" by them. (I know it's so hard for all of us to give up the Deuteromonistic view of the moral universe.) But doesn't Job learn the hard