[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

[bryant]

Pat Robertson said that God was punishing Sharon by sending him a stroke. We are, of course, horrified. What a cruel thing to say!

Then again, it's in the same logical category as something that's said every day, broadcast on TV regularly, and so on. "... and I thank God for helping us win this game." Which is equivalent to "I thank God for making sure my opponents lost the game." Which means God's making choices about who wins and who loses. He's gotta choose sides there.

Maybe it's more reasonable to claim that God is making choices about relatively unimportant things like sporting events. But... the culture accepts the idea that God reaches down and affects the outcome of everyday events. We don't object when an athlete makes that claim. We ought not be surprised when that claim shows up in other arenas.

Comments

Not a sparrow falls...

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Lord hear my prayer
Look down on me
I’m not as wealthy as I used to be
It’s not even ten and I’m busted again
Why does this happen to me?

Give me a sign
Show me you care
A straight to the Ace Lord, or even a pair
I can’t make it alone and I’ll sink like a stone
Unless you can undo what I’ve done

So Lord lift me up in your tender embrace
Lend me your wisdom, your strength and your grace
Help me to smash my opponent’s fat face
Oh Lord help me take money from my friends

Deep down I know
That it’s only a game
But I want them shaking in terror and shame
It’s just poker and beer
Still I need them to fear me Lord
It’s not enough just to win

Deal me good cards and I’ll handle the math
We’ll take their money while they take a bath
I’ll show them my hand and you’ll show them your wrath
Oh Lord help me take money from my friends

And I don’t want to cheat them
Because I know that’s a sin
I just want to defeat them
And make it hurt when I win
Make it hurt when I win

So poke them with sticks
And crush them with stones
Chew them up good Lord and spit out their bones
Make my riches grow and let those bitches know
That you hate them and love only me

Burn it all down until nothing survives
Make them regret for the rest of their lives
The day that the bet their dogs and their wives
Oh Lord help me take money from
Help me take money from
Help me take money from my friends

--Jonathan Coulton, "The Gambler's Prayer"
[get the mp3 here]

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Enh. I think God and religiousity are pretty irrelevant to the mainstream attitude to Robertson.

Someone wins a football game, a beauty pageant, a spelling bee, anything, and says "I'm so happy I won." I think sentiments of that flavor are pretty routine, no one objects to them. The same person would be on much shakier ground publically saying "I'm so glad the other guys lost."

Someone with a bad heart sits on the donor list. Their relatives are probably hoping/praying pretty intensely for a new heart. But they aren't going "Come on, let someone croak with a nice intact heart. A nice brain injury would be perfect. Comon, persistent vegetative state! DNR! DNR!"

A person dies, someone who has done some bad things in life. At their funeral, it is relatively unlikely that someone will catalogue all their bad deeds, and finish up with "So really, it's not so bad, right?"

It's logical to say that if God influences unimportant/positive events, then he must also influence important/negative events, sure. But that's the way human beings construct lots of sentiments in societies, running around saying every hurtful-yet-true (for the sake of this discussion, I'll posit that Robertson's assessment is correct) thing that comes into their head isn't done by people who aren't hopelessly socially broken/callous assholes.

[aquamarcia.livejournal.com]

An episode of Grey's Anatomy addressed the heart transplant/God issue in a rather forceful manner. A young boy was up for a second heart transplant and was refusing the transplant because he didn't like that his mom was praying to God for a heart to become available. He thought that was wrong because it equated to his mom praying for another child to die so he could live.

[bryant]

I'd agree, but it turns out that in sports there's a significant evangelical Christian influence. USA Today did a nice piece on it. The tendency to attribute events to God's will is the same coming from Robertson as it is coming from Mike Sweeney of the KC Royals. We just write one off as harmless and meaningless.

Note: this is in no way meant to denigrate Christianity or evangelicalism in general. I don't see anything wrong with preaching your faith.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Sure. I'm just saying, expressing positive sentiments is embraced as harmless and/or meaningless in a variety of entirely secular human expressions, while expressing similar negative sentiments is frowned apon.

I don't think it says all that much about religiosity or Christian evangelism, it just says something about language and the way social interactions have to work for societies to be functional.

In other words, I think your statement most fundamentally is "In a complex and not always wholly explicable world, people aren't very rational about whether positive or negative outcomes are attributable to specific causes or chance. Over this irrationality we overlay a certain amount of positivity out of politeness and empathy when we attempt to explain our shared experiences to each other, but some people, either lacking in empathy, or poorly socialized, or driven by ideology, feel free to go negative. Logically though, one interpretation has no less validity than the other, in the absence of any real data."

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

I am reminded by an article in The Onion where some basketball player blames God for making his team lose the game. Alas, I'm too lazy to search their archives for the article.

[bluegargantua]

Heh,

I'd like to thank the DM for helping our adventuring party bring down that lich and I'm especially greatful for that bonus roll on the magical rings table. Thanks, DM!

Tom