Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Attack Brought Sniper Victim 'Closer to God'
Oh, dear. This is what happens when 14-year-olds get religion. I don't doubt that the experience of being shot in the chest by the DC sniper was horrific for 14-year-old Iran Brown. But his statement that it "brought me closer to God" is curious.
I am guessing that, being 14, Iran is not saying this in an ironic way--that is, "It brought me closer to God because I could see him at the end of the bright tunnel alongside my dog Sparky, who got run over by a milk truck in 1998." And I am also guessing that Iran was probably not an atheist before this. Thus we can guess he was a person who would have expected God to be looking out for him already on the morning of October 7, 2002. So I wonder what he thinks God was doing, precisely, in the moments when John Muhammad had Iran lined up in the crosshairs, and Iran needed his intervention like never before.
Now, far from finding God derelict in his duty or simply incompetent, people who believe in him often trot out the idea of free will. God can't prevent people from committing evil acts because that would interfere with a person's free will to choose good or evil and would thus make people into automatons. Well, how come John Muhammad's free-will decision to shoot Iran Brown is more important than Iran Brown's free-will choice to ride to school in the morning without getting his spleen blown off?
I have raised this sort of point in the past and people think it's impolite or intolerant or sacrilegious. Which it may be. But nobody has answered me satisfactorily yet, either. "God has a plan and we aren't supposed to know what it is" doesn't count.
Oh, dear. This is what happens when 14-year-olds get religion. I don't doubt that the experience of being shot in the chest by the DC sniper was horrific for 14-year-old Iran Brown. But his statement that it "brought me closer to God" is curious.
I am guessing that, being 14, Iran is not saying this in an ironic way--that is, "It brought me closer to God because I could see him at the end of the bright tunnel alongside my dog Sparky, who got run over by a milk truck in 1998." And I am also guessing that Iran was probably not an atheist before this. Thus we can guess he was a person who would have expected God to be looking out for him already on the morning of October 7, 2002. So I wonder what he thinks God was doing, precisely, in the moments when John Muhammad had Iran lined up in the crosshairs, and Iran needed his intervention like never before.
Now, far from finding God derelict in his duty or simply incompetent, people who believe in him often trot out the idea of free will. God can't prevent people from committing evil acts because that would interfere with a person's free will to choose good or evil and would thus make people into automatons. Well, how come John Muhammad's free-will decision to shoot Iran Brown is more important than Iran Brown's free-will choice to ride to school in the morning without getting his spleen blown off?
I have raised this sort of point in the past and people think it's impolite or intolerant or sacrilegious. Which it may be. But nobody has answered me satisfactorily yet, either. "God has a plan and we aren't supposed to know what it is" doesn't count.
