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Submit a comment or question Responses to Comments	Who’s in Control? Over and over we hear it from pulpits and from news interviewees following some catastrophe: “We don’t worry because God is in control”. Really? Do people really believe that? Is Gods in control? Was God in control when Hitler decided to massacre eight million Jews and hundreds of thousands more people in World War II? Was God in control when most of California caught on fire and burned hundreds of homes? Was God in control when an airliner was flown into the World Trade Center? Was God in control when a man walked into a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and killed 26 people? I could go on and on, catastrophe after catastrophe: tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires, mass killings, suicide bombers. If God is in control either he is not doing a very good job or he is a very cruel God. It wasn’t God who stepped in with some supernatural miracle and stopped Hilter, other nations stepped in and stopped the war. God didn’t step in and supernaturally stop the fires, firefighters did. In times of natural disasters it has been humans beings not the hand of God that aided those in need. God didn’t stop the maniac at Sutherland Springs, it was a man with a rifle. Human actions not supernatural intervention have come to the rescue in times of need; people helping people. Sometimes God becomes an excuse for inaction. “God will take care of it”, “Don’t worry, God is in control”, “It’s in God’s hands now”, but it’s really not. Those arguments simply do not comply with reality. Sure, God might be in control of the overall condition of the universe and future events when humans are extinct on the earth, but here and now, on this planet, humans are in control. Maybe that’s the way it's meant to be. Think about it. Out of all of the creatures on this planet why are humans the only ones to develop such an impressive intellect? Why are we the only ones to possess the ability to accumulate knowledge and use that knowledge to make decisions? Why are we the only ones to be able to reason to the extent that we do? Certainly there were other creatures that evolved in the same environment at the same time as we did so why aren’t there other creatures that possess these attributes? Could it be that we were meant to be in control? If that’s the case then it’s not God who is not doing a very good job, it’s us. What if we were created and evolved with these attributes and abilities so we could take care of the earth and all of its creatures. Maybe we’re the ones who have the responsibility of caring for each other. Maybe it’s time we stopped trying to pass the responsibility on to God and started realizing that our future depends on us. Maybe we should stop hoping and praying for God to intervene with a supernatural act and start plugging our brains in to find real human solutions to real human problems. Maybe we should face the fact that the hope of mankind is mankind; that the future of our planet lies with us and our decisions; that the well-being of humanity is the responsibility of humanity. Regardless of how much religions proclaim that this world is not our home, the fact is that it is. We fit here. We live here and it’s time we cleaned house. There’s a lot to do. The enviroment’s a mess. Political and religious ideologies have divided us. Ignorance, tradition and political correctness have blinded us to the truth causing us to make bad decisions. We need the unity that only knowledge can bring. We need solutions firmly founded on reason. We need the kind of compassion that only comes when we all realize that we are in this world to help each other. We are the answer to our problems. Until we realize that we are in control and we accept the responsibility of that enormous challenge we will never experience a healthy, unified, vibrant civilization. Amen. (An offering will be taken when the ushers finish their smoke break.)
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Who’s in Control?

Over and over we hear it from pulpits and from news interviewees following some catastrophe: “We don’t worry because God is in control”. Really? Do people really believe that? Is Gods in control? Was God in control when Hitler decided to massacre eight million Jews and hundreds of thousands more people in World War II? Was God in control when most of California caught on fire and burned hundreds of homes? Was God in control when an airliner was flown into the World Trade Center? Was God in control when a man walked into a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and killed 26 people? I could go on and on, catastrophe after catastrophe: tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires, mass killings, suicide bombers. If God is in control either he is not doing a very good job or he is a very cruel God.

It wasn’t God who stepped in with some supernatural miracle and stopped Hilter, other nations stepped in and stopped the war. God didn’t step in and supernaturally stop the fires, firefighters did. In times of natural disasters it has been humans beings not the hand of God that aided those in need. God didn’t stop the maniac at Sutherland Springs, it was a man with a rifle. Human actions not supernatural intervention have come to the rescue in times of need; people helping people.

Sometimes God becomes an excuse for inaction. “God will take care of it”, “Don’t worry, God is in control”, “It’s in God’s hands now”, but it’s really not. Those arguments simply do not comply with reality. Sure, God might be in control of the overall condition of the universe and future events when humans are extinct on the earth, but here and now, on this planet, humans are in control.

Maybe that’s the way it's meant to be. Think about it. Out of all of the creatures on this planet why are humans the only ones to develop such an impressive intellect? Why are we the only ones to possess the ability to accumulate knowledge and use that knowledge to make decisions? Why are we the only ones to be able to reason to the extent that we do? Certainly there were other creatures that evolved in the same environment at the same time as we did so why aren’t there other creatures that possess these attributes? Could it be that we were meant to be in control? If that’s the case then it’s not God who is not doing a very good job, it’s us. What if we were created and evolved with these attributes and abilities so we could take care of the earth and all of its creatures. Maybe we’re the ones who have the responsibility of caring for each other. Maybe it’s time we stopped trying to pass the responsibility on to God and started realizing that our future depends on us. Maybe we should stop hoping and praying for God to intervene with a supernatural act and start plugging our brains in to find real human solutions to real human problems. Maybe we should face the fact that the hope of mankind is mankind; that the future of our planet lies with us and our decisions; that the well-being of humanity is the responsibility of humanity.

Regardless of how much religions proclaim that this world is not our home, the fact is that it is. We fit here. We live here and it’s time we cleaned house. There’s a lot to do. The enviroment’s a mess. Political and religious ideologies have divided us. Ignorance, tradition and political correctness have blinded us to the truth causing us to make bad decisions. We need the unity that only knowledge can bring. We need solutions firmly founded on reason. We need the kind of compassion that only comes when we all realize that we are in this world to help each other. We are the answer to our problems. Until we realize that we are in control and we accept the responsibility of that enormous challenge we will never experience a healthy, unified, vibrant civilization. Amen. (An offering will be taken when the ushers finish their smoke break.)