Blogging Back: Death And Delegation

10 May, 2006. 326 words.

I’m not popular enough to get many comments (*sniff*), but even if I were I wouldn’t spend much time responding to them, because I figure blog comments should be the territory of the readers. If I find noteworthy comments, though, I’m going to start blogging about them (or maybe that should be blogging back at them), so in that spirit here are some responses to Vince:

In response to Introducing: The Party Afraid Of Death, Vince wrote: “It is morally superior to suffer than to be executed.”

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It’s an interesting point (seriously), but I think it’s reframing the issue a bit. I think the Death Debate, at least in the snippet I quoted, is more about the morality of allowing suffering and performing execution, presumably in circumstances where the sufferee cannot make the decision for her/himself. Either way, I think it depends on the situation.

In response to God’s Get Out Of Jail Free Card, Vince wrote: “Surely you’re not suggesting God has no plan, are you? The Bible seems clear that He had a plan for Job, although He didn’t bother to explain to Job what it was.”

I have no way of knowing if God has a plan or not. (I’m talking about a literal plan here, by the way — as in, on Day X, Event Y will happen at Time Z.) I was just saying that for me, it’s not terribly comforting to live my life thinking that everything is already planned. Especially in situations where you may have sunk a lot of time and money and energy into something that doesn’t work out. I think it’s more productive to look at life from the perspective that God may set things in motion (or maybe not), but then He steps back and lets us work out all the details for ourselves. I guess I see God as more of a delegator than a micromanager.

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