This is being dictated on Christmas of the year 2012.  It is near noontime and the house where we have lived for a long time is quiet now.  The children who carry the Carr surname and their husbands and children are involved in festivities in Florida and in Texas.  So in these peaceful surroundings I thought I would dictate a few lines having to do with my Christmas ponderings.
The year of 2012 was marked by two catastrophic events.  I suspect that there are other catastrophic events but the damage of Hurricane Sandy and of the catastrophe at Newtown, Connecticut are foremost in my thoughts on this Christmas day.  In terms of chronology the hurricane happened before the events at Newtown.  As the storm approached coming from the Caribbean, we were told that at some point or other the storm would make a left turn into the mainland of the United States.  As it turns out, the forecasters were absolutely right.  The storm turned left abreast of New Jersey.  The full fury of the storm could be felt not only in New Jersey but in Manhattan, Statin Island, Brooklyn and the towns on Long Island.  It was a vicious storm.
A month or thereabouts later we became aware of the catastrophe at Newtown, Connecticut.  There were 20 first-graders killed in cold blood.  In addition there were six teachers and staff members of the school who were also killed.  And then there was the mother of the shooter and the shooter himself, which makes a total of 28 people who are not here to celebrate the Christmas of 2012.
And so the events involving the hurricane and the shootings in Connecticut are on my mind as we celebrate this holiday.
If we are to take the teachings of Richard Cheney, the former Vice President, there is a God who knows everything about everything that goes on in worldly affairs.  Not long ago, Mr. Cheney sent a Christmas card saying that God knew of every sparrow that falls apparently to its death.  Preachers tell us that God, whoever he or she is, is omnipotent and that “He always was and always will be.”
If God is so powerful, my Christmas ponderings suggest that he could have averted the hurricane that engulfed New York and New Jersey and secondly that he could have averted the murder of the 20 schoolchildren, their teachers, and the shooter’s mother as well.
If he were omnipotent a few years back, he might have avoided the tragedies of World War II including the Holocaust, the domination of Adolph Hitler as well as the Rape of Nanking.
All of the readers of Ezra’s Essays are quite familiar with the fact that I am a non-believer in religious affairs.  As I sit here on this Christmas morning, certain ponderings come to mind.  In the first place, did these disasters, Hurricane Sandy and the Sandy Hook killings, have such significance that God would be concerned with them?  I find it hard to believe that God would be unconcerned about the hurricane and the killings.  But apparently it is possible that a God or Jesus or the Holy Ghost or the Perpetual Virgin did not think of these events as being of proper significance so that they should pay attention to them.
There is a second scenario here.  Is it possible that a God or another such celestial character was in favor of such catastrophes as the hurricane and the killings?  That is the second of the three scenarios that present themselves on the actions of God.
The third of these is the possibility that a God or any such celestial characters are simply unable to guide events differently.  In other words, presented with the killings in Connecticut, God may be aware of the fate of those school children but can do nothing about it, so he lets it happen.
My view of it is that there is no God.  It is also my belief that the idea of God flows from man’s creative nature.  A review of all of the world’s cultures would disclose that there may be a dozen or more Gods whom religious authorities would claim have jurisdiction over such events as the hurricane and the killings in Connecticut.
I am fully aware that on this Christmas morning I should be of good cheer.  And I am of good cheer but I cannot overlook the sufferings of those thrown out of their homes by the advent of the hurricane nor am I willing to look the other way when there were 20 first-graders slain in Connecticut.  My thoughts are with those people who are suffering at this moment.
And so as afternoon approaches, my mood will be lightened by listening to my audible books.  The fact of the matter is that my thoughts will always remember this Christmas as the year of the hurricane and the slaying of those innocent children in Connecticut as well as their teachers and staff members.  For me, that is the way it is.  There is no appeal to a God or the Holy Ghost or anyone else to relieve my thoughts about the sufferings of other human beings.
So, having recorded my ponderings on this Christmas day of 2012, I can only wish you, all of my readers, a merry Christmas and hope that in time things will get better and that we should all enjoy happier times.  With that, I say, “We shall see!”
 
E. E. CARR
December 25, 2012
Essay 726
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Kevin’s commentary: And here I was thinking that I was going to read a cheery story before I drifted off to bed. So I picked one written on Christmas, of all times. And here we are.
For someone who does not believe in God, Pop seems to spend a whole lot of time thinking about Him. Granted this is pretty inevitable especially in the wake of the tragedies discussed, but I am not sure it is productive to rehash the same “omniscient + omnipotent + good” paradox that has and will continue to be a paradox so long as the idea of God exists and so long as bad things continue to happen.
More important, I think, is to discuss how being an atheist does not cheapen or diminish our ability to relate to these catastrophes as much of the buzz around them would have us believe. We cannot join in the prayers or take comfort in the fact that all those children will be up in heaven soon. We simply have to accept the fact that they are gone and that there is honestly no good reason for it.
But I think this means that for atheists these tragedies, instead of being less difficult to parse, may even be more so precisely because there is no afterlife to look forward to, no secret benefit to be received. There is only loss, and for that I think people sometimes forget that even those who refuse to believe in a future life may, as a consequence, hold the current one even more dear.
My thoughts go out to those families and I hope we can see cheerier essays from Pop in 2013.