Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1492490
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 FEBRUARY 2023 OPINION 10 OPINION The Gods must be crazy… I know they say that 'God moves in mysterious ways,' and all that; but… aren't we taking things just slightly too far, now? IN case you were wondering: I'm not talking about the Biblical deluge He un- leashed upon these islands, over the past few days. For let's face it: we've all been 'praying for rain' since around the end of October, at least. So it would hardly be fair of us all to actually complain… when God actually DOES 'answer our prayers', for a change (and with inter- est, too!) No, the sort of cataclysm I had in mind was more along the lines of the 7.8 mag- nitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria this week; and which – at the time of writing – has left a staggering 22,000 people dead (with more bod- ies being pulled out the rubble, as we speak). And even, if it comes to it, the much less devastating (though still 'unnerv- ing') spate of tremors and mini-earth- quakes, that we ourselves have been experiencing over the past month or so. Not, mind you, that I myself hold God Almighty in any way 'responsible' for any of that (how can I, when I don't re- ally believe He even exists?); and I could extend that to all sorts of other natural catastrophes, too: from tsunamis in the Indian Ocean; to droughts and famine in sub-Saharan Africa; to tornadoes in the American Midwest; to any number of floods, landslides, hurricanes, vol- canic eruptions, bush-fires, in any other part of the world. No, indeed. If I were on the jury, try- ing God for the crime of "premeditated mass-murder of (literally) trillions of people, throughout history"… I would have to return a 'Not Guilty' verdict, for sheer lack of conclusive evidence. But that's just me: and I'm hardly the only human being on this planet, am I? As for everyone else: well, it seems that a fairly large number of those people who DO actually 'believe in God', also believe that He WAS, in fact, responsi- ble for those same calamities. And not only that: but they also argue that the same God actually chose to in- flict all that death and devastation, up- on so many innocent men, women and children… DELIBERATELY. (In order to 'send us a message', no less…) Now: once again, I feel compelled to include a small disclaimer here. There is, after all, such a thing as human right to 'freedom of religion'; so if other peo- ple choose to hold down such archaic beliefs, in their own personal capacity… well, so be it. As far as I can see, however: such be- liefs DO become slightly problematic… when they start influencing (or trying to influence) the entire policy direction of any given country. That includes Malta: where these same absurd ideas are now being propagated, not just by random 'nobodies' on the In- ternet – in which case, I wouldn't even bother with them at all – but by indi- viduals (and institutions) who actually wield considerable sway and influence, over Malta's entire political establish- ment. Let's start with one of the lesser in- fluences: a certain Karen Zerafa Boffa, who – while not exactly a 'household name' – is (or was) a member of the NGO Repubblika: having even run for its Presidency, in October 2020. On 25 January, Karen Zerafa Bof- fa posted that: "I believe in a spiritual realm separated from the physical one by a very thin veil. I believe that God will not stand by and allow us to con- tinue losing our souls by the thousands, and our direction as a country. He will not stand by as we violate the most sa- cred Gift of all – LIFE. "I do not believe that the timing of these tremors is a coincidence. "Throughout history God has always used natural phenomena to commu- nicate with us. I don't believe in God sending punishment, but I believe that our evil deeds and intentions do bring evil upon us all as a nation. […]" Now: to be fair, she also added that "you may call me a medieval religious zealot, and you can go ahead and think so for all I care" (and who can possibly disagree with that, huh?) But the point here is not 'what we all think of Karen Zerafa Boffa'; it is what her argument actually implies: coming, as it does, from someone who aims to influence government legislation, on matters that affect you, me, and every- body else's dog. As such, the argument cannot really go unchallenged. So let's try a little experi- ment: and see where Zerafa Boffa's own logic actually takes us all, in the end. Starting with her primary claim: i.e., that "God has always used natural phe- nomena to communicate with us." The word 'always' is rather significant, in that sentence: seeing as how Planet Earth has existed for well over 4 billion years … and 'Life on Earth' did not ac- tually appear at all, until around 2 bil- lion years later (with human beings only popping up at the eleventh hour: in the last million or so years). And given also that the Earth's cur- rent geology clearly indicates that earthquakes – and especially, volcan- ic eruptions – have been taking place throughout all that time (since the very beginning, in fact: when the entire plan- et was just a swirling mass of molten rock)… well, what was God tyring to 'communicate', through all those earlier natural calamities? More to the point: who was His mes- sage even intended for, anyway? The human beings who wouldn't actually evolve, for another two or three billion years? I don't know: maybe we're all being a little too harsh on those 'medieval reli- gious zealots'. After all, they had an ex- cuse for their ignorance: they knew lit- tle-to-nothing about geological history; and even less about the actual causes of phenomena such as earthquakes. But that, I fear, is just the start. For even if do we accept the bizarre prem- ise, that 'natural calamities' are 'God's way of communicating with us'… what makes people like Karen Zerafa Boffa