Praying to God
It’s often the case that when cataclysmic events take place even atheists pray to God. For example when cyclone Tracy hit the Australian town of Darwin in 1974, survivors recount that they held on to what they had and prayed to God. In the Koran there is a reoccurring theme that when human beings are put under pressure they pray to God for help, and then when He has helped them they forget Him.
(17.66) Your Lord is He Who speeds the ships for you in the sea that you may seek of His grace; surely He is ever Merciful to you.
(17.67) And when distress afflicts you in the sea, away go those whom you call on except He; but when He brings you safe to the land, you turn aside; and man is ever ungrateful.
I've mentioned before that an important part of learning, and of evolution,
is humility. If you are proud and think you know it all you will be unable to
learn. Such people are pushed to the point where their ego is completely broken.
At that point they pray to God and He comes to their aid.
We all like to do what we are good at. Often people say they like to stretch
themselves. The mountaineer wants to climb a bigger mountain; the chef wants
to prepare the better meal; the architect wants to develop new techniques. This
is all well and good but evolution often means developing in the areas that
we don't understand. The architect is tested in his marriage and has to understand
his emotions; the chef has to learn how to do his accounts and develop his rational
side; after an accident the mountaineer has to learn how to depend on others.
Artists often say they should be subsidised by governments so they can practice
their art. Some left-wing politicians (for example, the Australian Greens) say
that all people should be given a subsidy from the government so that if they
don't want to work they don't need to and can develop their own pursuits. People
who depend on government handouts don't evolve because there is no pressure.
The government has displaced God.
A socialist commentator wrote that he became a socialist during the depression in the 1930s. He lived in the East End of London where there was massive unemployment and in his account he said that one day he was in the house and they heard the most amazing singing coming from outside. They had never heard anything like it. Marching down their narrow streets were singing Welsh Miners. They had marched to London in protest at being unemployed. The people gave them what few pennies they had. How tragic, he remarked, that these people eager to work were unable to because of deficiencies in the economic system.
My take on this is somewhat different. The miners were forced to develop a different talent, their singing. Without the depression they would have spent their lives in a boring underground existence. As it was, their experience was broadened. Very often people who go through these kind of experiences find it changes their life. For example, they may become political activists or may write a book.
It’s invariably the case that when people are made redundant the trade unions complain. In my younger days I worked for Ford Motor Company in their research and development department. This meant occasional visits to the factory at Dagenham, a depressing place where thousands of people were employed on the line doing repetitive and monotonous tasks. The ‘progressive’ trade unions initially resisted attempts to replace the people by robots, finally having to give way to the economic realities. In many respects, these people were given a favour by being made redundant. There is nothing noble in spending your life doing a monotonous and repetitive task.
I've mentioned before (‘Good Intentions’) that what initially seems as a calamity
can turn out to be advantageous. The pressure that the calamity brings about
causes the person to be stretched and to develop aspects of their character
that would otherwise be latent.
