Is Religion the Cause for War and Societal Disruption?

Man plays John's Lennon Imagine at Paris after the attack

Published on Nov 14, 2015

A man pulls his piano with a bike up to rue Richard Lenoir ten meters from the Bataclan, the theater which last night was the scene of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Paris. Then he began to play the notes of Imagine by John Lennon. Around the pianist, a small crowd gathers....

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War of the Gods

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-butler-bass/war-of-the-gods_b_8578368.html

by Diana Butler Bass, author, Grounded: Finding God in the World -- A Spiritual Revolution

Posted: 11/17/2015 11:18 am EST Updated: 11/17/2015 9:59 pm EST

True faith consists of one thing and one thing only: love. And love does not mean you

get to kill your neighbor in the name of God or destroy the planet. It resists apocalyptic

nightmares in favor of a dream for a world household of peace.

One of the most poignant moments in the wake of the Paris attacks was the street musician who played a moving rendition of John Lennon's Imagine. As the melody sounded, the familiar words rang in my mind:

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

The Paris attacks reignited an argument we have been having for a long time, but most especially since 9/11. Religion, particularly when twinned with nationalism, is to blame for division, terrorism, violence and war. Not just Islam. Religion. As Lennon lyrically opined, the planet would be better off without it. Religion is the problem.

And I agree. Religion is the problem.

By its nature, religion embodies particular understandings of God. For the last millennium or so, the world's most influential religions have envisioned a hierarchical God who ruled over a vertical universe. God lived above in heaven; we lived on a sinful or evil earth; and the terrors of death threatened us from below.

Thus, religion became consumed with an issue: getting people from here "up" to heavenly bliss with God in order to escape damnation. Although a crude image, religion basically functioned as a sort of holy elevator between heaven, earth, and hell. And an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-distant God in the clouds oversaw the whole business, ready to condemn or punish heretics and infidels at a moment's notice.

Vertical religion has made a mess of the earth

First, it diminished life here in favor of obsessive concern about eternal destiny. The planet served as little more than a temporary station on the way to the heavenly afterlife.

Second, religions developed different plans about how to receive eternal reward. Each designated their path as the only one, making everyone else spiritual and ethical competitors in the process. And each valorized divine violence against outsiders as a mark of holiness.

Many people still believe in a hierarchical God and the vertical universe. Despite each religion's claim to uniqueness, this conception of God is not exclusive to any one. Adherents of the vertical God are Christians and Muslims and are counted in most other religions as well.

And that is the problem.

The followers of the sacred hierarchy seem behind much of the world's most insidious evil at the moment. This is especially true when they view everything as a battle of "our" true God against "your" false one, hoping to force an apocalyptic confrontation that assures heavenly reward for the faithful in a global holy war.

With such a horrifying narrative, it is no wonder so many other people have come to believe that no religion is the best option for our time. But I think there is another way, one that is even hinted at in John Lennon's song:

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today...

Although the old God is the source of much trouble, there is a spiritual possibility that does not banish God from the moral equation.

• What if the vertical universe with its heavenly rewards and hellish threats, and not the divine presence itself, is the real problem?
• 
  
• What if the whole point of faith is life here, on earth, living for today? This does not exclude God from the human story. Instead, ridding ourselves of the vertical universe relocates God with us.

In my new book Grounded: Finding God in the World, I argue that there is a spiritual revolution that is doing just that. And this revolution has everything to do with what just happened in Paris.

Millions are rejecting "religion" in favor of "spirituality," a turn that can be empirically demonstrated in polling data, church membership statistics, and changes in faith practices. Recently, for example, a Pew Research Center study showed that Americans were less conventionally religious but more spiritual than ever.

The data, however, is odd. While people are less religious, belief in God remains high. People believe, but they believe differently than they once did -- it is increasingly clear that they have lost trust in distant institutions and the distant God of the old vertical universe. They find it increasingly difficult to sing hymns that celebrate a heavenly realm, recite creeds disconnected from life, pray liturgies that emphasize personal salvation, participate in sacraments that exclude others, and listen to sermons that claim there is only one way to God.

But this is not a negative revolution. Instead, God is being relocated with the world and with all of us, in nature and with our neighbors. It is a revolution of divine nearness -- as if people are storming heaven and dragging the sacred into the here-and-now. True faith consists of one thing and one thing only: love. And love does not mean you get to kill your neighbor in the name of God or destroy the planet. It resists apocalyptic nightmares in favor of a dream for a world household of peace.

What if the real choice is not between a Christian God and a Muslim one? What if the choice is not about embracing the hierarchical God or rejecting him? There is a different choice -- to walk a way of compassion, justice and kindness wherein God is discovered in the earthy horizons. This is a grounded God whose primary concern is not eternal life but life abundant for the whole human race.

Fundamentalists get all the headlines with their brutal dedication to a deity whose day is nearly done. But this other God revolution is happening as well -- and it is that which can heal and save us. 

You may say I'm a dreamer. But I assure you, I am not the only one.

A Christian Perspective of Evolution, Human Survival, and the Bible

SocioBiologist E.O. Wilson

What is eusociality? Sociobiologist and biodiversity scientist E.O. Wilson's evolutionary epigenetic law is second only to Darwin's law of species adaptation to survive. It says that successful species will work together and even sacrifice itself to ensure the larger group's survival. This genetic trait is known as eusociality and was evidenced again in the terrorist attacks in Paris: "Chris Cocking says that most people are likely to try to help each other even in extreme situations. 'There's an assumption that it's everybody for themselves but that just doesn't happen,' he says."

Pointedly, the Christian faith is centered around one God-man who redeems, Jesus. That the Christian church as an institution in its best traditions sacrifices for the spiritual and physical survival of humanity. That the bible's best passages preach a narrative of like group cooperation to survive. And that even the Christian story of origins is built upon the eusocial narrative that humanity is part of something greater than itself. That the way to achieve our epic constitution unites human spirituality, instead of cleaving it, so that it is composed of the best of the human nature, filled with potentiality, finitude, and loss.

As a Christian, though these ideas are part of evolutionary observation and corroborated in the bible as epic narratives composed from an ancient mythological mindset using poetic language, I find comfort in knowing our God wisely placed these evolutionary instincts into the construct of life both by decree as well as by sovereign guidance. This observation then would describe the teleology of evolution - that at a deep level of procreation there are genetic principles of nurture driven to a concerted end of species survival against all environmental outcomes. At Relevancy22 this has been written and restated in dozens of articles for further evaluation.

So then, horrific events like the one witnessed earlier this week in Paris detail both the evil of a committed nihilistic society believing it must sacrifice itself by ridding the world of non-groups of unbelievers based on an errant religious myth of purity/divine acceptance. While at the same time other religious and non-religious groups work together against this threat to their own eusocial society's survival. Each evidencing epigenetic characteristics of survival. This is what is meant as studying humanity from an anthropologic social behaviorist or biodiversity mode of perspective both from a humanist and/or a religious viewpoint.

And, I might add, in an odd way, but completely understandable view, the reason non-group refugees are either rejected or accepted to be aided. I like to think its consciously based but it must allow for unconscious choices as well driven either by species survival or species expansion as a postmodern reaction against past urges. Which is a discussion best left for another time (ReneGirard, mimetic theory, scapegoating & victimization).

R.E. Slater

November 20, 2015

Related Topics

Wikipedia Bio - E.O. Wilson

Wikipedia - Epigenetics

Wikipedia - Eusociality - Eusocial animals express complex behaviors, like group decision-making. Evolutionary biologists have asked how and why eusociality has evolved, and what we can learn from eusocial organisms.

Knowledge Project - An Introduction to Eusociality

Wikipedia - Evolution

Figure 4: Diagram illustrating factors contributing to the evolution of primitive

eusociality and that advanced eusociality is a social state that is not reversible

(past the point of "no return," individual workers have lost the capacity

to reproduce independently)

© 2010 Nature Education All rights reserved.

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What should you do in an attack?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34844518

Attacks of the magnitude of those that took place in Paris, killing 129 people and injuring more
than 400, are extremely rare. The authorities do prepare for these emergencies but what advice
is there for ordinary people?

A Christian Apocalypse and End-Time Judgment of Care and Love For One's Fellow Human

Lately the Christian message of xenophobia, Islamaphobia, and "marching to war" has dominated the headlines and is the answer to all things different from and unlike the "westernized American version" of church civilization. This dire message is in the news media, preached on the political dias, and can be found throughout social media networks.

As a bystander observing the crazies of my Christian faith and the rashness of America's governmental leaders I might suggest that the Jesus of the Bible is one of "victim, and sufferer, and minister" to all the wrongs of society. And because of Jesus' apocalyptic vision of love and peace He was unjustly scapegoated and horribly crucified for his religious views and acts of ministry (sic, Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory of Scapegoating and Victimization).

Might I also suggest that this same Jesus is the one whose beloved disciple John looks forward to in the book of Revelation as the world is shown blowing itself up in the rage and turmoils of its economic, ecologic, and societal wars. That John envisions this "helpless God" once crucified as the "Lamb of God" to return as the "Lion of Judah" to end sin's judgment of evil behavior and acts of injustice. That in His coming Jesus will resurrect what He had begun before dying at the hands of His "religious" countrymen and secular governments.

And lastly, might I also suggest that rather than purposely hastening the "Coming of the Day of the Lord" through prayerful glee and unholy vindictiveness we might step back and consider the spiritual importance of the church's role as God's peacemaker, mediator, and arbitrator of sanity, to an insane world locked in its many apocalyptic versions of end-time religious battles, economic/ecologic woe, and civilization's collapse?

That perhaps the biblical future we tell ourselves, or imagine, is not the one we think we read  and rant about. That those popular imaginings might be an incorrect view playing out our own hatred, fears, and racisms. That the conquering "Jesus of War" we envision striding through the bloody fields of our slain enemies might actually be a Jesus marching through the aftermath of what we have done to ourselves. A Jesus terribly angry, whose wroth would smite any refusing to relent of their hatred and anger to one another.

Now that would be a Jesus I think many of us may not wish to welcome. A Jesus who comes to judge all mankind and not just the ones we think He should judge. And isn't it written that Jesus will judge both the sheep and the goats? That He will open up "the books of deeds and of life" to find all those who acted - or didn't act - according to His Holy Will? And if so, then this is a truer picture of an end-time apocalypse than the one I hear so popularly preached defending our actions of economic usary, enslavement, greed, inhospitality, and callousness to the suffering and oppression of other society members, cultures, genders, and races. This is the kind of stuff we find in the books of James and 2 Peter judging our words and behavior with eternal consequences.

So then, my plea is that the church learns to hate war; seeks to make stronger efforts at waging peace with her enemies; and immediately forsake all sinful idols of self-righteousness and unholy anger. That we be in our own selves God's worthy lambs and emissaries speaking His words and acts of peace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. For without these holy jewels we are all the more impoverished and destined to self-destruction, perhaps eternally. And if this happens, then yes, all has been lost... even the eternal life which "the Prince of Life" had promised.

Peace,

R.E. Slater

November 18, 2015

Tony Campolo - Religious Alternatives: Choosing Love Over Power

Tony Campolo - "Red Lettered Christians"

Link to RedLetterChristians.org

Syrian Refugees In Crisis - Why, How to Give, What to Do

The European Refugee Crisis and Syria Explained

Google Links to Syrian Refugee Aide Organizations

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https://www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/syrian-refugees-a-crisis-of-faith

Donate - https://www.frontiersusa.org/donate/

Blog - https://www.frontiersusa.org/blog/

Volunteer - https://www.frontiersusa.org/act/find-your-role

Syrian Refugee Project - Do More - https://www.frontiersusa.org/churchproject

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Refugees in Crisis

The Scary Thing About Immigrants

http://alwaysloved.net/2015/09/11/the-scary-thing-about-immigrants/

by Andre Rabe

September 11, 2015

Why are we secretly afraid of people who are different – whether it’s their culture, race or language? Yes, differences might make us uncomfortable, unsure how to speak or act in their company … but I think what scares us most is not their difference, but the possibility that they might be more like us than what we are willing to admit.

When we are insecure in ourselves, the differences between us and others becomes essential in giving us a sense of identity. It is the differences that makes us unique. And so while we openly draw attention to the differences and consequently the superiority of our own culture and way of life, while we attempt to stir fear by emphasizing the unknown … what we actually fear more is that others might be too much like us. For if my identity is based on my superior difference, then the discovery of likeness will make me, well, … ordinary, even unnecessary.

Only when we find a way out of our own insecurities, our sense of lack and deficiency, will we no longer perceive likeness as rivalry. When we find peace within ourselves, the likeness of others becomes an opportunity for friendship, and their differences an intriguing opportunity to discover even more about ourselves. We find our most authentic selves not in desperately protecting the boundaries of our self-made identities … but in giving ourselves for the benefit of others. Mother Teresa once diagnosed the world’s ills in this way: we’ve just “forgotten that we belong to each other.”

For me this was one of the reasons why the image of the drowned little migrant boy was so powerfully disturbing. The innocence of this child reminded us that we are not just dealing with scary ’different’ people … but with people who might be very much like us. What beautiful courage has been shown by Germany and a few others, to rise above their own fears and insecurities and welcome others as their own.

Comments

Lee Schwartzrock on September 13th, 2015 - 9:19pm

I find it sad to see how immigrants are denied friendship, and fellowship in the first world countries today. We see them as a source of our economic troubles. We fail to see the real causes of our poverty. We forget that we, or our recent forefathers, were similar immigrants.

The cause of economic weakness, is due to the failure to give a fair wage to anyone, for a fair day’s work. If you have ample room to house more citizens, welcome immigrants, and pay them well. They will strengthen your economy. Seeing them as a source of inexpensive labor, and paying them less than what we would be willing to do the same work for, is asking for economic weakness. People with income, spend that income, and empower the demand for goods and services. The newcomer isn’t the culprit; he is the victim along with all the existing citizens who are displaced when employers seek to gain at the expense of the newcomer.

Anyone who gives less in a transaction, than he is receiving, is cutting his own throat. True, he won’t feel the effects for some time, but they will eventually catch up with him. Capitalism can work, but only when the players learn this important rule: If anyone is cheated, all will eventually suffer.

The current trend of seeking the cheapest labor market, in which to manufacture goods, is foolish beyond words. We seek low prices, but look for a high price for our goods. Low priced goods are the surest way to import our own poverty. The high market is sought as the place to sell the underpriced goods, but this soon destroys the high wage jobs in that marketplace, which created the high market in the first place. You cannot steal from your brother without impoverishing yourself.

The first-world’s lust for cheap products, and our use of China to get them, lead to a one-way flow of money out of the first-world nations, which could only be supported by borrowing. As the manufacturing jobs were outsourced, they were replaced by construction jobs, as lenders sought to cash in on the ballooning prices in real estate. When you loan money to individuals who do not have good jobs, chances are you are not going to be repaid. It wasn’t long before the housing bubble burst, and the huge debt hanging on the deflating real estate market began to show itself for what it was, a source of wealth that never existed.

The reality that wealth is simply the production of raw materials times price, is something that few understand. Today we believe a myth that wealth is created by central banks. Well, the central banks have worked their magic, creating wealth out of thin air, and have bought up most of the bad debt. So now we find ourselves atop an unsustainable house of cards that must constantly be propped up every time a new crack shows. When will we learn that you cannot funnel most of the world’s wealth into the coffers of the few, and expect things to motor along smoothly?

Yes things are going to go south, and it’s all to be blamed on the immigrants. Nope, I place the blame squarely on laissez faire economics. Greed does motivate, but it cannot stop until everything built is also torn down.

Andre Rabe - Questions About the Bible In A Postmodern Era, Parts 1-12

And Our Eyes Were Opened …Part 13 in The Scripture Series

The problem of interpretation is nothing new. It was as important to the first believers as it is today. The road to Emmaus is a brilliant piece of literature in which Luke gives us a profound insight into the art of interpreting scripture. But I must begin this article with an acknowledgement. Luke 24 has… And Our Eyes Were Opened …Part 13 in The Scripture Series“>read more »

Swallowed Whole, No Questions Asked?Part 12 In The Scriptures Series. (by Dave Griffiths)

In the 1999 film ‘Fight Club’, Edward Norton’s character has an epiphany. Sobbing into Meat Loaf’s weirdly ample bosom, he confesses ‘I let go… I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom’. Watch the clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtIEquOkDpo I have had a similar experience dawn on me. I didn’t mean to find it. I was pretty… Swallowed Whole, No Questions Asked?Part 12 In The Scriptures Series. (by Dave Griffiths)“>read more »

How Does Scripture Relate To Myth?Part 11 in The Scriptures Series

… I am not convinced by the objection that the performance of a musical work of art is interpretation in a different sense from, say, reaching understanding in reading a poem or looking at a painting. All performance is primarily interpretation and seeks, as such, to be correct. In this sense it, too, is “understanding.”(1)… How Does Scripture Relate To Myth?Part 11 in The Scriptures Series“>read more »

Church: An Anthropological RevolutionPart 10 of The Sriptures Series (by Anthony Bartlett)

We should really forget the popular distinction of spirituality and religion, it is anthropology which is making the difference. What does that mean? It means that the basic way humans relate to their world shapes their core understanding of God. But the God of the Hebrew and Christian bible is remaking the human way of… Church: An Anthropological RevolutionPart 10 of The Sriptures Series (by Anthony Bartlett)“>read more »

The End Of The World – Did The Bible Get It Wrong?Part 9 of The Scriptures Series

What does the end of the world and Biblical inspiration have to do with one another? Let me put it in context: This article is part of a series regarding the scriptures. Today we’ll look specifically at the claim of inspiration found in Timothy. What does that have to do with the end of the… The End Of The World – Did The Bible Get It Wrong?Part 9 of The Scriptures Series“>read more »

Under Reconstruction: Crazy Characters, Unreliable Narrators and the Divine ArchitectPart 8 in The Scriptures Series by Brad Jersak

After Deconstruction The last years have seen a grand deconstruction of Scripture reading and interpretation—some would say of Scripture itself. Of course, this has been an ongoing centuries-long project, but two unique elements dominate the past decade: first, the ‘New Atheists’ are actually reading the Bible—carefully and, unlike liberal scholars, they have read it literally… Under Reconstruction: Crazy Characters, Unreliable Narrators and the Divine ArchitectPart 8 in The Scriptures Series by Brad Jersak“>read more »

What Would Jesus Deconstruct?Part 7 in The Scripture Series

WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) – became a popular christian slogan. I enjoyed the similarly titled book, namely, What Would Jesus Deconstruct. It is so much safer to leave these saying as popular slogans and not give them any serious thought … for one of the things Jesus would surely do today, is deconstruct our… What Would Jesus Deconstruct?Part 7 in The Scripture Series“>read more »

Caleb’s Journey With The TextPart 6 in The Scriptures Series by Caleb Miler

My father was a man who continually studied the Bible. He’s currently a 35-year veteran of pastoring local churches. During that time, I’ve watched him pour over the scriptures, all in an effort to “get to know” this God. Much of what I believe today was fundamentally influenced by his wrestling with the scriptures and… Caleb’s Journey With The TextPart 6 in The Scriptures Series by Caleb Miler“>read more »

When God Disagrees with ScripturePart 5 in The Scriptures Series

How often have you found yourself drifting away while listening to a monologue? When the Chicago Statement of Inerrancy says that Scripture has one divine author and that it is wholly and verbally God-given, without error or fault in everything it states … it basically tells us to shut up and listen. There is no… When God Disagrees with ScripturePart 5 in The Scriptures Series“>read more »

The Vulnerability of Scriptures.Part 4 in The Scriptures Series

When I was 4 years old, I thought my dad was a superhero. He could do nothing wrong. Later on in life I discovered that he was indeed human – not as inerrant as I first imagined. His humanness did not deteriorate our relationship, in fact it enriched it. I discovered that I could learn… The Vulnerability of Scriptures.Part 4 in The Scriptures Series“>read more »

Original Biblical Manuscripts to be Destroyed!Part 3 in The Scriptures Series

You can imagine the outcry such action would cause. But no need to panic – that is not about to happen. The original biblical manuscripts have already been destroyed … now panic! We have many translations of the Bible. Some people maintain that any apparent errors in the text are due to translation – that the… Original Biblical Manuscripts to be Destroyed!Part 3 in The Scriptures Series“>read more »

The Error of InerrancyPart 2 in The Scriptures Series

The Bible has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Before I could read, it was read to me. Unlike other children’s stories, these had a ring of truth about them for not all the stories had happy endings. In fact the tragedy of the crucifixion had me in… The Error of InerrancyPart 2 in The Scriptures Series“>read more »

Inserted Into a Living NarrativePart 1 in The Scriptures Series

I’m paging through a travel magazine that features safaris in Africa. The pictures are stunning …  and normally I would find these images very engaging, yet I skim through the magazine with little interest. The reason is simple: I’m sitting a few feet away from a camp fire overlooking a vast african landscape. The magazine…Inserted Into a Living NarrativePart 1 in The Scriptures Series“>read more »

Andre Rabe - Select Videos

Icons of Beauty

by Andre Rabe

Beauty is not something we simply behold … its something we enter into.

It disrupts our indifference and draws us to what is worth pursuing.

Does God Have A Clue ...?!

by Andre Rabe

Does God Have a Clue What It's Like to Be You?

by Andre Rabe

Thomas Jay Oord - Did God Allow the Paris Attacks?

Did God Allow the Paris Attacks?

http://thomasjayoord.com/index.php/blog/archives/did-god-allow-the-paris-attacks

by Thomas Jay Oord

November 16, 2015

Most theologians would say “yes.” I say “no.”

If current reports are correct, ISIS planned various attacks in Paris that killed more than 100 people and injured about 500. An attack occurred in Beirut, and other acts of terror have been committed. The death, pain, and suffering are immense.

Those like me who believe in God are wondering how we ought to think theologically about this. We’re wondering what we should do. We’re wondering what love asks of us now.

I join those believers who offer heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of victims. These are dark days. Our hearts rightly go out to those in pain and grief.  And I’m pondering what more I can do to help.

But I’m also thinking about God.

Many believers will rightfully say God is present with all people in times of horror and tragedy. God suffers with victims and survivors. The Christian God consoles and suffers with those in pain.

I agree. But I don’t think that goes far enough.

Other believers will say God is angry when people choose violence in this way. They will say God opposes such terror-oriented activity. God hates injustice and evil.

I agree that God hates sin. But I don’t think that goes far enough.

Some believers will ask what proactive steps can be taken to prevent further attacks. A number of proposals will surface, I’m sure. Some may be wise; others not.

I agree with those who say that we must find a way to respond in love to prevent more suffering. But I don’t think that goes far enough.

Too few believers will go so far as to ask themselves this question: “Could God have stopped the Paris attacks?”

Perhaps many who believe in God will not ask this question, because the answer they have likely been told is not comforting. Most theologians in the past and present, after all, would say God allowed the Paris tragedies. They believe God has the kind of power to prevent this death and suffering. But according to most theologians, God permitted this pointless pain in Paris and elsewhere.

I disagree.

According to most theologians, God permitted

the attacks in Paris and elsewhere. I disagree.

It is true that a few theologians may say it is logically impossible for God to both give free will and not give free will. So in choosing to give free will to the ISIS terrorists, God was self-constrained.

But these same theologians will say that if God wanted to do so, God could interrupt the entities, agencies, molecules, and atoms involved in these events. These aspects of reality do not have full-blown freedom.

These theologians would also say God could interrupt natural laws, if God saw fit. They believe God could intervene among entities and atoms in ways that would not involve overriding the free will of those who perpetrate evil.

For instance, this view of God’s power among entities and atoms says God could have jammed the rifles the terrorists used. It says God could have made the bombs fail to detonate. Or God could have controlled the weather or environment to thwart the attacks. In the minds of these theologians, God can control all parts of creation that don’t involve free will, if God so chose.

But if God can control non-free agents and entities, why didn’t God do so to prevent the Paris attacks?

The uncomfortable truth is that most theologians and Christians today and throughout history have said God permits genuine evil. God allows pointless suffering. And they appeal to mystery when asked questions like, “Did God allow the Paris attacks?” They say, “Don’t ask me, I’m not God!”

By contrast, I think theologians and Christians in general need to rethink God’s power. This means rethinking what it means to say God can control creatures and creation, whether these existing things have freedom or not.

In my new book, I’ve carefully laid out an argument that says God’s uncontrolling love prevents God from being able to prevent genuine evil unilaterally. God is still almighty, I argue. God is omnipresent and loving too. God knows everything that can be known. But the uncontrolling God I describe should not be blamed for tragedies like those in Paris, because God cannot stop them acting alone.

The key to my answer is my claim that God’s self-giving, others-empowering love comes first in God’s nature. This means God must give freedom, agency, self-organization, being, or law-like regularities to creation.

The Paris attacks were awful. While we ponder how we ought to act, how to console those in grief, and how to affirm that God is with all who suffer, let us also take a moment to consider the possibility that God’s power is not controlling.

A God who cannot control others entirely is not culpable

for failing to prevent the Paris attacks. I believe in that God.

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To read more of The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence go to the Amazon link here - http://www.amazon.com/The-Uncontrolling-Love-God-Relational/dp/0830840842.