Listening to radio 4 this morning on the drive to work and hearing about the distressing story of a nun that had been raped and abused by a Catholic priest. I suspect this is just the latest (Earthly) revelation to emerge from that pitiful organisation and it will grow in volume over the coming months and no doubt we'll learn that the "problem" is systemic and has been known about for decades. Listening to the Women herself relay her story filled me with sorrow, for years she'd "accepted" her lot whilst under the spell of that cult, she'd convinced herself that "God" must have wanted her to be raped. This idea that the universe revolves around an individual or a particular "in-group" is central to many religions, "the chosen people" is often how you hear it expressed and anything bad that happens is dismissed as "mysterious ways". From the outside it looks and sounds very much like a mental illness.
You often see this same idea expressed in utterly trivial and asinine ways, for example as some deity being accredited with the winning of a particular sports team (see above) I often wonder what state of mind you must be in if you actually believe the creator of a universe of 100 billion galaxies each with a 100 billion stars most with planets orbiting them is concerned with the outcome of your particular amateur football league. If true, what would it say about that same deity's concern for starving children, can she not also fix that too? All of these behaviors, desires, randomness and evil actions are quite easily explained by evolution of course, after all, we're only half a chromosome removed from Chimpanzees all these base-hormonal urges (like lust, greed and a desire for vengeance) aren't buried that deep in any of us, just witness the confessions of a certain Hollywood star recently!
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