Many people ask me, "How can you believe in a God who allows such terrible things to happen?" "How can you believe in a God who lets people starve, children die, and disease run rampant?" I believe that God has given us free will. With free will comes the responsibility for what happens in our lives and in the world. What we experience is almost always directly related to our own actions or the ripple effect of others' acting out their free will. How can God let people starve? The question should rather be, how can we? When we either pollute or allow the pollution of our air, water, and earth, is it any surprise that there is disease? When we allow our food sources to become corrupted, are we surprised that there are consequences? When we try to genetically modify the plants and animals that we eat, adding hormones and antibiotics to our meats, is it any wonder that cancer is growing exponentially? How can God kill our children and us? The better question is how can we? Greed has led to shortcuts and short-term thinking, and these actions are having dire consequences for our planet and its people. We have placed our own economic success above the well-being of our own children. We've undervalued education. We have not protected our own children from abuse; children suffer because of our actions or lack thereof. The one who created the universe and us understands how we can best live in harmony with the earth and each other. However, if we choose not to follow the guidance given, how can we blame the one who showed us the way? These enactments of our free will put the blame for the state of the earth firmly upon our own shoulders. We cannot blame God for what we have done.
I turn from the chaotic world that we have created and look deeply into its original state. I look at the wonder of the variety of creatures, the different colors and types, each unique and yet somehow connected. I see the complexity of the ecosystems, the interdependence of all life, and I know this universe had a creator. I look at the complexity of human beings, and I know that this design was no accident. People ask me how can I believe in God, and I look around me and answer how can we not? www.fcccarrollton.org
