The pictures reaching us from Pakistan are truly shocking. One third of the country lies under water following a heavier than usual monsoon and over 1000 people are dead, with over a million homes damaged. Clearly, the rest of the world needs to do what it can to alleviate the crisis in a country of some 243 million people, but I have one simple question: where is Allah?
It’s not just the absence of Allah that concerns me at times like these. Other Gods, especially the christian one, are always missing when a crisis comes along. For a supernatural creator, who apparently carries out constant surveillance on all of us at the same time with his all-seeing eye, he doesn’t seem to be doing very well.
This must be particularly galling in Pakistan where some 96.47 of the population is muslim and folk spend a lot of time praying. And then this happens.
I get annoyed about all kinds of things. God must have seen every single act of paedophilia that has ever taken place and watched as children have died of cancer, but what did he do? Plenty of these people were surely theists. I’m sure they thought that there might be some worth in praying but it turns out there might not be.
As ever, the answer to the devastation in Pakistan, as with every other issue on this Earth, will lie in the hands of those without super powers. Lives will be saved by other human beings and homes rebuilt by the same people.
I know this probably comes across as a bit cynical, especially if you have faith in a God, and I really don’t mean to offend you. It’s just that I get very weary of people relying on the God who probably isn’t there and if he is, what the hell is he doing, or rather not doing?
