Conscience and History

I believe we are called urgently to free ourselves from the idea that God controls history and chooses some people to prosper, to win the wars and chooses other people to die.

I share a quote from the beginning of Karl Lowith's book Meaning in History.

"History no more proves or disproves the incomparable value of a singe man's righteousness and heroism in the face of the powers of the world than it proves or disproves the existence of God. Of course, individuals as well as whole nations can be hypnotized in to the belief that God or some world-process intends them to achieve this or that and to survive while others are going under, but there is always something pathetic, if not ludicrous in beliefs of this kind. To the critical mind, neither a providential design nor a natural law of progressive development is discernible in the tragic comedy of all times. Nietzsche was right when he said that to look upon nature as if it were a proof of the goodness and care of God and to interpret history as a constant testimony to a moral order and purpose--that all this is now past because it has conscience against it. But he was wrong in assuming that the pseudo-religious makeup of nature and history is of any real consequence to a genuine Christian faith in God, as revealed in Christ and hidden in nature and history."

Lowith tells us the truth, but doesn't calculate the true cost of the belief that God intends people or nations or kings or dictators to achieve this or that. Millions have been brutalized and killed, controlled partly by fear and partly by that belief. I still feel the beauty and mystery of the St.Petersburg. Yet, I hear the anguish cries of dying peasants and soldiers and women and children. When our conscience sings yes to Lowith's perspective, then we are called to battle against the deep evil of the idea that God has chosen or blessed one particular group or nation to achieve this or that, to conquer this land or that land.

NO EXCEPTIONS. GOD IS NOT ON OUR SIDE.