Does God actually do stuff?

Most tellingly, there is no substantial evidence for any of these claims. Yes, people get better from disease after prayer, but many don’t. If God DID play, well, God, and waved the magic wand occasionally, he seems to do it very randomly, so randomly in fact that if it seems no different to the lottery of good / bad luck that befalls the population. Studies reported elsewhere on this site make it clear that in controlled experiments, there is no discernible benefit in the health outcomes of patients for whom prayers were said.

So that brings us to the second Donald Trump presidency. While having a large, cult-like following, there are a number of problems with the Donster.

• There are numerous allegations that he stiffed contractors on his building projects, telling them to sue him for payment. Knowing this would incur monumental legal fees, the contractors had to right off the loss.
• He has been found guilty of the sexual assault of a woman.
• He has been found guilty of taking and concealing government documents
• He cheated on his first wife with his second, he cheated on his second wife with his third, and he cheated on his third with a porn actor at the time of the birth of his youngest son.
• He is an accomplished liar, fact checks of his speeches regularly hit three figures, challenging the bulk of what he says. Whether it’s false claims about the death rate during COVID (it was 1.2 million), that the 2020 election was stolen, the wall he said he’d build (not finished, not paid for by Mexico, crowd sizes at his rallies, and have you see how easily people scale it?), or immigrants eating cats and dogs, no lie or gross exaggeration is off limits for him.

This is a small subset of his list of sins.

The point is that he is unambiguously unqualified to hold the most powerful political position in the world. And perhaps worst of all is his faux Christianity. When asked about his favourite bible verse, his response was that this was private. Given that Christian teaching is to be a witness for God and NOT to hide one’s faith, his response shows his total lack of understanding of Christian doctrine. His professed faith is a charade to appeal to gullible evangelicals and others of faith, knowing that Americans don’t trust politicians, but they do trust their celebrities and they do trust even the most shonky evangelists – Kenneth Copeland, Ted Haggard and Benny Hinn for example.

So, if God was ever going to reach down with that magic wand, to do to US politics what people believe he does to football matches, it would be to make sure that an utter fake, a conman, a philanderer, an unscrupulous businessman would not ascend (again) to the highest office in the USA. Surely, if God was going to ANYTHING, just one thing to answer prayers, to do the right thing, to see that a man who falsely claims to love and honour God NOT get to the seat of power. To NOT get to deport undocumented migrants, to NOT demonsise transgender people, to NOT ridicule the handicapped, to NOT rip up progress on climate change action.

But God didn’t.

God just didn’t intervene, and today, 6 November 2024, Donald Trump, one of the most evil men on the planet has been elevated again to the presidency.

And if God is going to sit back and let that one through, one can only sensibly conclude that God doesn’t do ANYTHING. It is ridiculous to believe that God would intervene in miniscule matters like an individual’s health or prosperity, while allowing a seriously dangerous and evil person to lead his nation.

Face it people, God doesn’t do stuff. It may give you warm feelings that He listens to your prayers, that He cares about you and values you. But that’s where it ends. When God doesn’t keep a vengeful dangerous man from power, clearly he has left us to ourselves.