the thread of another ju author's article included a comment to the effect that god's disapproval of homosexuality had been voiced by the destruction of the notorious (but not adequately documented to date) cities of sodom and gomorrah as described in the hebrew book of genesis.
despite the many times i've seen and heard similar interpretations previous to this, i couldn't help but marvel at how easily and casually people presume to know god's intentions, opinion, motivation, etc. even though we generally are unable to explain our own...much less those of others, even family members or lifelong friends.
not that it's necessarily our fault. humanity shares a number of need-driven traits. some are crucial for individual and species survival. just one tier down from those is our constant, pressing drive to understand...everything.
whatever, whoever god may be, if he created mankind, that need-to-know thing has to be a factory feature, the advantages and drawbacks of which he possesses perfectly total knowledge, no? unfortunately, nothing about mankind is perfect so expecting us to actually be able to grasp anything with complete accuracy and precision--much less the mind of god-- is clearly asking more than we can deliver.
the best we can possibly hope for is serendipitous epiphany or satori.
with that in mind, i began wondering (see!) why god would leave something like moral values--which have no real margin of error and such potentially hazardous consequences if we fail--so ambiguously unresolved as to provoke conflicting opinions very likely dating back to the dawn of human consciousness.
and then i had one of them epiphanies. until just a few years ago, the technology wasn't quite there yet. there was no way (other than some sorta undignified divine shouting) to instantaneously deliver and update the word from above to the entire planet without incurring huge expenses.
now--as anyone who's skimmed 'wired' or seen a verizon ad on tv knows all too well--things are different.
we no longer need to wallow in our ignorance, argue our flawed perceptions or lower ourselves to calling vegas for the current odds or even attempt to analyze exit polls to KNOW for sure what god is doing (or has done) to whom and why.
just as we no longer immediately attribute beheadings or other acts of barbarism to specific terrorist scum like al-quaida and al-zarqwahri--or even conclude one of their kidnap victims has been murdered--until they claim or deny responsibility on their websites, we should, at very least, have the good grace to avoid presuming towns destroyed by hurricanes, victims of epidemic disease like aids or the election of our leaders involve divine direct action--much less his reasons for doing so-- until the celestial site is updated.
while i admit this is an almost supernaturally brilliant resolution for ages-old confusion and bickering, like all things human there is one slight hitch. god.com, god.net, god.org--in fact, all the god.xxx domain names--simply argent available so he's got two choices. convince the usurpers who own those domains to see the light...or opt for an alternate such as imgod.org which can be acquired for 19.99 a year if its licensed for five years through network solutions or as little as $2.00 a year for infinity through godaddy.com (hosting not required; unique ssl certificate may be higher).
(i apologize in advance to anyone who finds the content offensive. those for whom god has a specific name other than just 'god' --as well as pantheists--are permitted to to copy the text and use their preferred text editor to modify it using the 'find and replace' feature. note: athiests are advised to do the same but leave the 'replace' field blank. should you consider this blasphemy, please feel free to distance yourself from me during electrical storms. id advise moving even farther away from whomever owns them god.xxx domain names.)