... which is why it's taken me a week to discover her reaction to the tragedy in Japan: "With the terrible earthquake and resulting tsunami that have devastated Japan, the only good news is that anyone exposed to excess radiation from the nuclear power plants is now probably much less likely to get cancer."
This response is troubling, but not surprising. In an odd way, it is the logical extension/extremitization of the view that people are naturally good, progress is defined by our innovations, and the things we create are designed for societal good, not harm. With this worldview comes the imperative to explain away any possible fallout (pun intended, sorry) from man's inventions as unrealized benefit or progress. If we fail in this explanation, we face the possibility that we cannot produce good - and in fact may not be good. Ann Coulter offers the archetypal response of this worldview: find an option - however extreme - that still leaves hope for man's goodness.
The alternative - that man is naturally evil and the things we create are designed to destroy each other - seems no more reasonable. If this is true, where is our hope? Here is where many turn to faith, but what kind of God would allow such wrongdoing and violence to go on in the world? Well ... a loving God would, if he knew that in destroying evil he might also have to destroy humanity.
"This world exists not as a spectacle of evil and violence but as a platform purposed by God to show his love for His enemies, that he might win their hearts." (Ray Ortlund)
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