Don't blame nature on religion
Some of my neighbours recently had a discussion on the causes of the current floods that might interest your readers.
Elizabeth is a Baptist. She said God is punishing Thailand for tolerating homosexuals, transsexuals and transvestites. Also, most Thais are Buddhists, who, she says, worship idols. She said the Bible makes it very clear that God doesn’t like idols or the people who worship them.
Paweena is a Buddhist. She said Elizabeth’s theory is nonsense. If God doesn’t like idols and the people who worship them, why did he create them? She said that the floods are karmic retribution on the Thai people for selling their votes, tolerating corruption and treating Burmese immigrants badly.
Aisha is a Muslim. She said the floods are Allah’s punishment for Thailand’s support of the US “war on terror”, which she says is actually a war on Islam, and also for oppressing the Muslims in the South.
The discussion was getting heated when my husband Horace stepped in. He said that God, Allah and the law of karma had nothing to do with it, adding that if God or Allah exists, He must get mighty tired of people blaming Him for their problems. He said the floods had entirely natural and human causes: too much rain, lack of foresight, poor planning and incompetent water management.
Everybody got angry at Horace for his lack of piety, and they all went home.
In his defence, I have to say that Horace is actually very religious. Later he told me what he really thinks. The Beer God is punishing Thailand for letting Carlsberg and Kloster go out of business. And he went to the fridge for his sixth beer of the day. When I told him Meechai Burapa is worried that too many beers in the morning will make him impotent, he smiled, winked, popped open a beer, said “But it is now after noon”, drank a toast to Meechai, and chugged the beer down.
Constance Beasley
Bangkok
