There is little controversial about the disasterous earthquake in Haiti so far. The devastation is awful. Many are saying that 100,000 people or more might be dead. This estimation could be premature, only time will tell.
However - maybe I shouldn't be surprised - but Pat Robertson said that the earthquake happened because Haitians made a deal with the devil.
Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story, and so the Devil said OK it’s a deal.Ha ha, where does he get this stuff? How does he know this? Was he there when the deal went down? What book did he read it in?
Haiti came to be from a slave revolt against the French in 1804. The Seattle Times provides a good thumbnail history of the country.
Unfortunately, Pat Robertson represents a certain group, a subset of Christians (and probably others), who tend to blame people when misfortune befalls them. Somehow they have sinned against God and God punishes them for it. The strange thing is - according to Robertson's thinking - that many Haitian people today are being punished for a deal they never personally made or are probably aware of.
Of course, I don't believe such a deal is possible. How do you make a deal with an imaginary being? Why, supposedly, are people held accountable for such a deal - more than 200 years later - who have no knowledge of such a deal?
Such are the results of superstitious and non-rational thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment