Apocalypse

Does anybody else feel like the end of the world is near?

9/11 and its aftermath...tsunami...suicide bombings...earthquakes...hurricanes...seems we can't go a week without some kind of death and destruction, whether it's Mother Earth turning on us or a terrorist group spreading its wrath.

Take this horror show that is going down in New Orleans...is it 1) God's wrath 2) natural selection or 3) shit happens, without any rhyme or reason to it?

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God's Wrath
If this is a case of God getting pissed and exacting His own brand of ass-kicking punishment, then He 'dun smote 'em GOOD. All that Mardis Gras nakedness must have caught up with The Big Easy, and in a bad way. The bible thumpers will have a field day with this one; fast living, loose women, those Godless heathens got what they had COMIN'!

Can I get an amen...and your checking account information, please.

Natural Selection
This seems to be the opinion of the head of FEMA:

"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN.

"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.

"So, we've got to figure out some way to convince people that whenever warnings go out it's for their own good."


If you take this stance, then you see this as Mother Nature thinning out the herd. Those who didn't have the sense to escape are now removed from the gene pool, increasing the possiblility that the next generation (spawned from those who had the brains to run their asses off) will be smarter and NOT build their city 6 feet below sea level, henceforth increasing the possibility of continuation of the species.

"Fucking idiots."

Shit Happens
Finally we have the "shit happens" stance, one where we accept the fact that there IS no higher power, no rhyme nor reason, no grand design. There is no plan, there are no pearly gates...we're along for the ride, with no control over where it ends up.

This theory makes us little more than a colony of ants. Ants work hard, they dig their tunnels...in spite of the fact that at any moment, it could rain and drown them all, or some obnoxious kid could kick their anthill and ruin their life's work just for fun.

"6 feet below sea level? Shit, we can swing that."

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My whole life, I've been a believer. I've always felt that there is something beyond this world, something greater than ourselves. I've believed that there is a grand design; everything happens for a reason, there is a karmic balance, and if we live good lives we'll be rewarded.

When you see the kinds of things that are happening down in NOLA...rape, violence, looting, babies dying in the streets...maintaining such belief is challenging, at least for me. What kind of a God would allow such suffering?

I can't help but think that maybe we're on our own.