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 A man pauses at a memorial of crosses near the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, the scene of last week's mass shooting.
July 26th, 2012
02:49 PM ET
My Take: CNN readers' 7 answers to 'Where was God in Aurora?'
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN Over the last few days, CNN’s Belief Blog has received more than 10,000 responses to its question, “Where was God in Aurora?” The underlying concern here has vexed theologians for centuries: How can evil happen in a world that is lorded over by a good and all-powerful God? As CNN's readers struggled to make sense of God's presence (or absence) in the Aurora, Colorado, massacre, I counted seven different answers to this question: 1. There is no God. Self-professed atheists may make up only 2% of the U.S. population, but they are extraordinarily active online, and on CNN's Belief Blog. A commenter who identified as Jason spoke for them when he wrote, “Where was God? He was where he has always been. Nowhere because God does not exist.” Bob Dobbs agreed: “God is imaginary. The question is moot.” Many in this camp also quoted the ancient Greek philosopher (and skeptic) Epicurus:
2. Don’t blame God, blame Satan. Many theists on the site described the world as a battleground between God, who is working for good, and Satan, who is working for evil. “As long as Satan is loose to promote evil, bad things will happen to good people,” wrote kat. 3. Don’t blame God, blame us. Probably the most common response from Christian commenters was that evil is a result of free will. Do we really want to be “puppets” or “robots"? Of course not. So God has given us the will to choose either evil or good. Watch: Survivor of massacre says he forgives gunman Believer summed up this position well:
Here Deborah also chimed in: “This act of violence was not God's will. I get so tried of people blaming God for evil acts. Humans of their own free will do evil things.” 4. God was behind the massacre, and it was just. Some believers saw God’s righteous hand in the Aurora massacre, inflicting a just punishment on a wayward nation now run by secular liberals rather than conservative Christians. Lenny wrote:
Read: The man who made Aurora’s iconic crosses Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, took a similar tack in an appearance on the Heritage Foundation's "Istook Live" radio show, laying the blame at the feet of a nation that has turned away from its God:
5. God was present at the massacre but with the victims, not the perpetrator One classic claim in the Abrahamic tradition of Jews, Christians and Muslims is that God is with those who suffer - the poor and the oppressed. Some commenters saw God’s miraculous hand in the midst of this suffering, not causing it to happen but bringing it to an end. “This may sound crazy,” wrote Diana, “but I believe God had a hand in that the gun jammed so that more people weren’t killed.” CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories The most common claim in this category came from peacemaker, who wrote, “God is and was with the victims and s/he is weeping.” In a more explicitly Christian vein, Lauren wrote: “He was there in the theater, pierced by bullets with the victims. He was scarred by the shrapnel. His eyes were scorched with gas and then burned with tears as He mourned alongside the broken.” 6. Which God? Some commenters interrogated the question itself, arguing that the knots it twists us into are rooted in what commenter Ego_Death called “a false idea of what God is.” After all, the problem of evil in a world ruled by a sovereign and good God only presents itself if you posit one personal God who is both good and all-powerful. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter Referring to "our idea of a human-like personal God" as "an ancient myth," Northstar56 wrote:
Evoking something more akin to the “watchmaker” God of the deists, who makes the world and its laws and then refuses to intervene in its operation, Norm wrote: “God is not involved in our everyday mundane activities. How arrogant of man to think he’s the center of the universe and has God’s constant attention and every action is ‘God’s will.’” Taking a different tack, "varun" invoked the teachings of the beloved Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita:
7. Who knows? It’s a mystery Agnosticism is a rare virtue in the United States nowadays, but there were a few commenters who admitted to something less than the absolute certainty exhibited by atheists and evangelicals alike. "The answer," wrote Terry, "is we don't know where he was." Fluffy the Gerbil of Doom saw this "God works in mysterious ways" move as “ultimate cop-out/rationalization,” but I am not so sure. In September 1862, in the midst of a much greater American tragedy, Abraham Lincoln wrote a private “Meditation on the Divine Will” in which he struggled to make sense of what God was doing in the Civil War. He later reworked those reflections into his second inaugural address, one of the greatest speeches in American history. Surveying the corpse-ridden landscape of North and South, Lincoln observed, “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.” Clearly there was little good in slavery, he reasoned, yet equally clearly God was not giving a swift and sure victory to the Union. So what was God up to? In the end, Lincoln had to admit he did not know. Or, as he put it, “The Almighty has His own purposes.” I suppose this is in a sense a “cop-out,” but it is a humble one, uninfected by the absolute certainties (either pro- or anti-God) that have shed more blood on earth than agnosticism ever will. It is also a classic example of answering a question with a question: What is God doing with this war? Who knows? “Josephpusateri” also answered our question with a question. His comment was in my view the best of the hundreds I read, so I will end with it here:
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  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of 
Allah will detroy nonbelievers one day insallah. They will burn in hellfire if they don't accept Allah and his words.
Good, I could do with a tan.
NOOOO! I don't want to be detroyed! I like my troy!
He can destroy what he likes....lay a glance on my family and he will be shreded
i guess the people of Syria don't believe. Their behinds are getting scorched big time.
"I shudder to think about how this nation would be if it was actually Christians. Would just be like living in Iran."
Really? Don't confuse Christianity with religious cult of Islam. Christians do NOT have Sharia Laws. We do NOT have any clothing or dietary laws. BTW you already live in a Christian country but with freedom of religion.
Christians are tolerant to everyone.
This is NOT a Christian country. It is a secular country in which the majority of the citizens happen to be Christian. That is a very important distinction.
I guess you could say that in reality, the Christians are the minority and we do celebrate Christian holidays. But technically, we're secular. Which is a good thing. And how are Christians tolerant of everyone?
"Christians are tolerant to everyone." WOW! You win – most ridiculous comment on CNN ever!
I am an athiest.
I am angry, stupid, brainwashed, ignorant, blind, diseased, gothic, satanic, misguided, immoral, mentally ill, faithless,drug addicted, criminal, uneducated, darwinian, communist and a supporter of the French Revolution.
And I will not do anything to convince you otherwise.
Thanks for telling the truth. You either convert or you may end up in hell.
Yawn. Go back and finish high school. And don't get high this time.
I'm most of those things also, except a communist, uneducated and gothic.
I love the athiest point of view because it shows how little they read and why I don't believe them. No where in the bible does it ever say God will intervene in evil. As a matter of fact, if you study the bible, God is not as concerned with this physical life as we as humans are. We were built to die.And science and experience has already confirmed that. Physical life is not eternal. How we die will vary but at the end of the day, death comes for everyone. So if you study the bible, you know that the goal is too not be concerned with this life, but the judgement that comes after we die. Now while some people may think this is stupid, just becaue you think something is stupid doesn't mean it's not true and real. I think 3-D tvs are stupid but they exist. My point is if God has not explained it, there's no truth. But if He has explained it and you just don't like it, well that's another issue. I personally welcome the growing number of athiest. Because at the end of the day I'm 100% confident in my belief and judgement can not come until the wickedness in the world is so great. So many people think they are disproving God but at the end of the day, they're doing nothing more than fulfilling the prophesies in the bible. In the case of athiest, they're fulling the last thing Jesus said at the end of the persistent widow "When the Son of man returns, will He really find faith on the earth?" I'm sorry my athiest friends, but God was expecting your numbers to grow.
Well that's convenient, isn't it? God doesn't ever intervene or have to prove he's there, we'll just have to take your word for it then?
Sounds like a win/win for you guys, huh?
I agree that we are made for dying and God interceding in Aurora would only make us wonder why he didn't make us immortal to begin with. If there is a loving God, the only explanation can be is that suffering and death are not what we think they are or perhaps, learning to love your enemy and knowing how to forgive is extremely important. IF there is a God.
Wow! This was very eloquently put. I completely agree with you.
LOL Super Mario, your comment is hillarious. God has proven His existence but people like you reject the evidence that He has left behind. I mean He sent His son into the world but no body wants to believe that Jesus Christ is a real person and the son of God. Ironicly the Jews crucified Him because they said Jesus was lying when He declared Himself to be the son of God. We have the bible but numerous people reject that. I mean, if I show you evidence but you reject it because you say it's not evidence or proof, whose fault is that? Your position is not new. You've been given the evidence but you want to reject it because you want to see God face to face. Trust me my friend, that day is coming.
Sara, not sure what your position is as it relates to Christianity and God but we as humans do not think like God and thus the problem. We want revenge, He wants us to forgive. We want to respond in anger, He wants us to love. We don't want to go through difficult times but He allows difficult times workout for good. Jesus' crucifixion is a great example of this. So I'm a strong believer in trying to learn in difficult situations. Not easy but I've found that it is in those times I learn the most. Like how we are suppose to rejoice in difficult situations. Because anyone can love God when things are going good, but what happens when things start to go bad?
The only reason the question 'where was God in Aurora' is raised is to provide a divine target for frustration anger and bigotry. Nobody really cares where God was except perhaps the aggreived families of those who suffered injury and loss.
The answer is contained in the very question. Its like asking how much it costs to put gas into a Rolls Royce. If you have to ask you can't afford it. If you have to ask where God was in Aurora you are admitting that you have no idea as to the meaning of the question. Neither would the question accept a truthful answer.
The Bible clearly teaches that when a nation turns its back upon God, He will withdraw His protection and allow the forces of wickedness to consume it and all its works. If God had wanted to protect people, He would have directed one or two law abiding individuals or even off duty police offices to attend the show.
While I'm on a roll, let me tell you about an afternoon I spent at a gun range in Florida two weeks after the Sanford/Zimmeman incident. The building was packed. White folk were there practicing with their hand guns. Black boys brought sniper rifles. What does that tell you? It tells me that there is good reason for a lot of people being real nervous.
How many are on their knees praying about this mess we're in?
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
Unless you think God has turned his back on yourself, you don't believe that God turns his back on entire nations.
God gave us Freewill and if a person intent on evil, God cannot prevent it. God does not cause evil, only evil people cause evil.
If there is a divine plan, there is no free will and everything is God's fault.
Why the Hell did God give people free will? Like giving an Uzzi to a baby, and then saying, "Hey, not my fault!'
If man DOES NOT have free will before God, then he should shut up and take his medicine.
If man DOES have free will before God, then it should be obvious that the wisest CHOICE would be to bow before irresistable divine power.
The fact that there are fools in the world is proof that man has free will.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
how will religion explain if life is found on other worlds, even primitive life. I think it will be a stake to the heart of most religions. Religion itself has become a booming business with huge salaries. i thought preachers were called to pread the word of god by god, not by a huge paycheck and a nice car and a very short work week. Who's relgion is right, ours or others who kill us in the name of god. Religion has cost more lives through war than any other reason in history and continues to do so today
Although I doubt his divinity, Jesus seemed like a cool guy throwing the moneychangers out of the temple. Now, they control it.
Jesus was a d.ouche.
Good counterpoint. He's the reason we have Christians.
Sad to say but there is no righteous being , god or whatever you call it.
The fact that you take time to make such a statement proves that you accept the idea and rebel against it. If there were no God, as you say, then what would be the point of arguing about it?
The fact that there is such vehement intolerance of God is itself proof to two things; that there is at the very least a God principle and that there is a very real even desparate desire to wish that He didn't exist.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
God needs no apologists! He was in the same place He was on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, in His office writing down names. His ultimate, perfectly righteous, and eternal justice will given out at the perfect time. At that moment the mystery of existence itself will be made clear. The alternative atheism leaves us with nihilistic existentialism and its dark conclusion that is worthy of totally reprobate behavior, you know, like in Congress.
your nuts
So God's evil. Got it.
Do you ACTUALLY believe that? That some omniscient being has planned out every nanosecond of every minute of every day of every year of every life of every human (let alone other living beings) since the dawn of time? You're not just nuts – you're delusional.
deep down we are all atheists, we know there is no god and that when we die that's it, some of us accept it and live our lives the best we know how, some us have doubt and do a little here and there thinking they'll get to heaven, and then some are just plain delusional and believe with utmost certainty they can follow the rules in a book that changed over thousands of years and get everlasting paradise in whatever form they imagine .... yeah that sounds reasonable...
Thanks Kenny, there are so many people out there that belive in an imaginary friend in the sky. I will not believe in things that people make up just to make themselves feel good. I only believe in facts that can be proven.
Kenny,
I know you don't believe in God, so I will not try to share the truth with you at this time. However, I would ask that you attempt to let God speak to you. Keep an open mind. You never know what you will hear.
@Jeremy Does G-od sound like Barry White? Are you Jeremy Lin?
The bible teaches us that God in ALWAYS with us. He was there. We live in a world of spirtuial warfare satan fighting for your soul and Christ telling you he is there if you seek. In the end God's way will win for eternity. Which side will you be on. Have faith God is always present in Good and in bad and someday he will end bad for those who chose him.
Is God up my ass? And I'm not being facetious.
Hey, Rational – that's not God – that's just me with a strap-on – you big rugged (your description, I believe) hunk of rationality!
ATHEISTS SHOULD BE BANNED FROM CNN AND ALL OF THE INTERNET !
Yeah, how dare we have opinions?
Without a very special atheist, the Internet might not exist at all.
You should be banned from life for your inability to think for yourself.
Aren't Christians pleasant?? Such nice, freedom-loving people...
Rob should be banned from using UPPERCASE!!!!!!
Why does everyone seem to think God is all about a happy, carefree life? Life includes death. There is no escaping that, and frankly 12 lives one way or another really don't matter ... and yes I'd feel the same way if it was my child, parent, or even me who'd gotten killed.
2% atheists in the U.S? I bet there are less than 0.1%.
atheism will die soon
So will you Head Sheep.
He was probably blessing some gay marriages and wondering why James Holmes wasn't aborted as a fetus.
Many comments take issue with the author's mention of %2. This is from Freedom From Religion Foundation, if CNN let's me post it again;
America’s “Nones” — the nonreligious — are at an all-time high, now comprising nearly one in five Americans (19%), according to a new study by the Pew Center for the People and the Press. The 19% count is based on aggregated surveys of 19,377 people conducted by the Pew Research Center throughout 2011 and reported by USA Today.
People were going to see that night a action-paked, dark and intense movie. MAYBE God does not like people watching the movie??? There are some religions that DON"T allow movies like TDKR and other stuff. THAT is a POSSIBILITY of why God let this happen.
BUT the PROBLEM comes when all kinds of people were killed. A 6 year old to a 51 year old. Men, women and young children. Innocent people who had their WHOLE LIFE ahead of THEM!!!
THATS the question MY friends why would GOD allow this happen to these particular people?? What kind of knowlegde, wisdom or truth can explain this???????
Self-professed atheists may make up only 2% of the U.S. population, but they are extraordinarily active online, and on CNN's Belief Blog. A commenter who identified as Jason spoke for them when he wrote, “Where was God? He was where he has always been. Nowhere because God does not exist.” Bob Dobbs agreed: “God is imaginary. The question is moot.”
Few 100% true Reasons why Atheism is TERRIBLE and unhealthy for our children and living things:
† Atheism is a religion that makes you angry, stupid, brainwashed, ignorant & blind.
† Atheism is a disease that needs to be treated.
† Atheism makes you post stupid things (90% of silly comments here on CNN blogs are posted by closet atheists)
† Atheist are satanic and have gothic lifestyle.
† Atheists are misguided and causes problem in our religious & public society.
† Atheists are mentally ill, that's why they have no faith.
† Atheism won't take you to kingdom of heaven and paradise.
† Atheism making you agree with Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler (denied his faith later), Mao, Pol Pot & other terrible mass murder leaders who killed religious people because of their religious cult!
† No traditional family lifestyle, no holidays, no culture, boring and feeling 'outsider'
† Atheists are angry, drug additcted and committ the most crime.
† Atheist try to convert people over internet because they feel "safer" behind closet.
† Atheists do not really exist, they just pretend that they don't believe in God and argue with religious people.
† Atheists have had terrible life experience, bad childhood and not being loved.
† Most atheists are uneducated... No atheists could run for presidency.
† Atheism brought upon the French Revolution, one of the most evil events of all of history.
† Atheism cannot explain the origins of the universe, therefore God exists.
† All atheists believe in evolution, which means they don't believe in morality and think we should all act like animals.
† The Bible says atheism is wrong, and the Bible is always right (see: Genesis 1:1, Psalms 14:1, Psalms 19:1, Romans 1:19-20)
† Countries where Atheism is prevalent has the highest Suicide rate & Communist countries = Atheism!
**Only 2-3% of the U.S. are atheists/agnostics VS. over 90% who believe in God (80% Christians) in the U.S.**
† † Our Prayers goes to atheists to be mentally healthy and seek their creator † †
PS! the USA is a † nation and will always be. You know it's true and stop being ignorant and arrogant!!
(Take a look at our federal/state holidays, 99% of our presidents, blue laws in parts of the nation, the majority of people, some laws, calendar, culture, etc.)
http://rightremedy.org/tracts/7
Your picture truly belongs next to the word "Bigot", and a few other adjectives I won't share here. Suffice to say they're not good.
Random non-denominational fictional deity bless you.
I shudder to think about how this nation would be if it was actually Christians. Would just be like living in Iran.
If this is a joke then you are brilliant.
If not, seek help.
I am an athiest.
I am angry, stupid, brainwashed, ignorant, blind, diseased, gothic, satanic, misguided, immoral, mentally ill, faithless,drug addicted, criminal, uneducated, darwinian, communist and a supporter of the French Revolution.
And I will not do anything to convince you otherwise
I'll remember your comments the next time I see the Westboro Baptist Church protesters at a service member's funeral because, by your idiotic logic, "Christians must = American"
"† The Bible says atheism is wrong, and the Bible is always right (see: Genesis 1:1, Psalms 14:1, Psalms 19:1, Romans 1:19-20)"
I see that someone hasn't been reading his bible. Typical.
HA! Good satire!
How about possibility #8....There is a God, but He wass overwhelmed by other issues and matters and didn't get focused on Aurora until it was too late. It's the Overworked God Theory-it satisfies the God worshippers and adds a sweet touch of reality that we all can identify with.
Or there isn't a god but he isn't omnibenevolent i.e. "just doesn't give a sh**".
It doesn't satisfy most believers really. The Abrahamists won't accept that their god is overworked.