Weekend Violence

This past weekend I got to see my first piano recital. I have never played the piano, and in fact, I have very little musical talent to boast of. It always amazes me when I see other people do musical things because it’s so far removed from what I feel I am capable of doing. I also think this keeps me from being able to appreciate it as much as other people, but I enjoy it as much as I can.

I also got to watch game two of the Lakers v. Celtics Finals Championship Series. The first two games were horribly officiated. Ridiculous calls were made on both sides, and it’s hard to tell what the reason for it was. Conspiracy theorists will blather about how the NBA as a business profits more from longer series since there is so much advertising money at stake. There is probably some truth to that, but I think it would be something of a miracle to produce any kind of evidence to support that, or any other related notion. Regardless, I have enjoyed watching the games, frustrating though they may be at times.

I also recently had an interesting discussion with somebody, and by “discussion”, I mean internet post. The premise was: “God loves violence…Why else would there be so much of it?”

My response was:

“The basic premise of this goes back to question, “If God was a loving God, why would He allow suffering in the world?” I mean, you could really apply this to anything, right? God loves Coke. God loves drugs. God loves porn. God loves murder. God does not love these things, and so, the mere existence of a thing does not solely merit God’s love. This, of course, presumes the existence of God, so that is not in question.

At the heart of this question is why do these things exist? And the question before that is, do you believe in free will? I believe in free will, as well as God, and therefore I believe that many things exist in this world because mankind has chosen to do them. Violence is one of them. It is easy. It is powerful. At times, it is effective. To subdue someone with violence is far easier than to subdue someone with love because the body is so much more easily broken then the soul is. We as humans have a knack for wanting results regardless of cost.

It is an act of the greatest love that God allows us the option to love or not to love. What would love be unless the possibility to hate existed? We would have to call it something else altogether.

As for acts of nature, death is a part of life. It only stands to reason that some acts of nature birth life, and others death.

In the end, God loves us so much that he allows us the ability to make mistakes, and mistakes we have made.”

Looking back at the response, I believe it communicates what I had intended, even if the wording is a bit clumsy at times. Perhaps I will write a book one day…

[tags]violence, God, Lakers vs Celtics, basketball[/tags]