Unbelievers routinely complain about Biblical judgments in which children perish with their parents.
In a recent news report, two sisters (8 and 12) survived, while their mother and older sister (14) were murdered.
They were rescued, yet to some extent they’ve been emotionally ruined for life by the loss of their mother and sister at the hands of the killer.
A while back I read about a mother whose house caught on fire. She didn’t have time to get all her kids out of the house. So instead of trying to save some while leaving others behind, they all died together. Understandably, she couldn’t bring herself to choose.
Then you have movies where a natural disaster strikes while the father is away from home. He’s safe where he is. Much safer than if he tries to make his way back home–on foot. The natural disaster instantly reduces society to the law of the jungle.
But, of course, he doesn’t stay put. He goes to fanatical lengths to get back home, risking his life many times in the process. Fighting all the way back against various obstacles.
And he doesn’t even know if he will find his family alive. Maybe they were killed. Or maybe they left the area after disaster struck. Perhaps he undertook the hazardous return-trip for naught.
But none of that matters. He’d rather die with his family than live without them. He’s rather die trying. He can’t write them off.
We know the basic storyline before we see it. The plot writes itself. In the opening scene he has breakfast with the wife and kids. He leaves for work. Followed by the catastrophe, which leaves him stranded and separated from his family. The remaining 4/5ths of the film is about his heroic efforts at reunion.
That’s fictitious, but it has a realistic premise. The “survival instinct” is a cliché, but for many people, survival isn’t the be-all and end-all.
Also noteworthy that usually the people most angry about collective judgments in the Old Testament are also the most assured that the deaths of 3,000 American stockbrokers on September 11, 2011 are and were in some way justified, excused or mitigated by the fact that, on September 11, 1973, a coup backed by the American government deposed and murdered the president of Chile. Google "Blowback"...
ReplyDelete