Nuking North Korea; Is God really that messed up?

Back in the 1600’s a French mathematician attempted to use the laws of logic to prove that whether or not God really existed, it was “rational” to believe in that existence.  Blaise Pascal’s attempt to convince people to believe in God for no other reason that it was in your interest to do so was not immediately embraced by the Church.  But eventually, the Church agreed that believing in God, because it was logical to do so, was just as valid as taking the Church’s word for God’s existence.

Pascal’s argument went something like this.

• Either God exists or he doesn’t.
• It is impossible to prove God’s existence.
• We can either choose to believe in God without this proof, or we can deny God’s existence.

This sets up a convenient 2 x 2 logic square.

In short, if you are an unbeliever, you are taking an unacceptable and irreversible risk just because you don’t have enough evidence to prove whether or not God exists.  Remember that Pascal, like many European thinkers of his time, had been freed from the Catholic Church’s restrictions on science and logic that had plagued the continent for a thousand years.  As the Reformation weakened the power of the Church, rationality and logic once again became honored and useful tools in human development.

With this background in mind, I think it’s time to once again introduce rationality and logic into an American society which has been so poisoned by reactionary evangelicals who presume themselves to be Christian and apparently have a personal Skype connection with the man upstairs.  Since Ronald Reagan was seduced by the votes the radical right could deliver, our country has had to pay homage to some of the most unchristian ideas in history.

There isn’t enough space to chronicle the improper respect we have paid to Westboro Baptist Church, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, Billy Graham, Joel Osteen, Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts, etc. just because they claimed to be Christian.  National Prayer Breakfasts and embarrassing meetings in the Oval Office with “prominent” evangelicals touching Donald Trump (as if they could cure him), are all part of the undeserved and reckless power people who promote hate and intolerance have at the highest levels of our government.   We are afraid we might violate the First Amendment by telling these people to go do their thing, but leave us the hell out of their vicious hatred of women, homosexuals, and the entire LGBT community.

But it is time we did just that.  Enter Dallas “Christian” Robert Jeffress.  On August 9, 2017 he declared that God has given Donald Trump the authority to nuke North Korea.  It would be better for us all if Jeffress would have video taped his conversation with God and put it on Youtube so we could all enjoy this moment, but sadly, God appears to be inclined to appear only to the most foul haters one-on-one.

So assuming Jeffress wouldn’t lie to us, it is time to invoke whatever powers we need to bring Pascal back so he can help us sort this out.

Let’s start with the simple stuff we can borrow directly from the 1600’s:

• Either God exists or he doesn’t.
• It is impossible to prove God’s existence.

And then let’s add a new line of analysis…

• Nuking North Korea would involve incinerating millions of innocent civilians and cause untold environmental damage to areas beyond North Korea like Japan, South Korea, and Russia. Only an asshole would do this.

So using Pascal’s square again, we are left with this:

You decide.