How many more people must I kill before you'll believe in me as your loving creator? - God

The absolute devastation that occurred recently in Haiti is a horrible reminder of the power of nature and its unpredictability - or, for some foolish people, it is a reminder of an all-powerful and all-loving god.

The newspaper headlines proclaimed "the hand of god at work" when a man was rescued from the rubble in Haiti 11 days after the initial earthquake. The rescued man, himself, claimed "It was God who was tucking me away in his arms. It gave me strength...". Surely the next part of his sentence was "but that bastard smothered and crushed a couple hundred thousand people so he isn't worth worshipping."

It never ceases to boggle the mind that people can rationalize their faith when something "extraordinary" like this happens. "God so loved this world that he/she killed a couple hundred thousand people so she/he could show you how much he/she loved this one guy" seems like a difficult position for any thinking person to accept.

Only 5 years prior, "god" killed almost a quarter million people with the earthquake off the coast of Indonesia and, after the devastation, the news sources were happy to report about the "miracles" - a single child found alive in a community that suffered thousands of deaths. The real miracle is that anyone believes the crazy idea of a loving god.

I'm sorry, believers; you must take the blame along with the credit. Your god either can do something in this world and chooses not to (not a god worth worshipping), he/she can't do anything in this world though he/she'd like to (not a god) or she/he simply fails to exist (true).

Update: Dan Dennett has a quick article in the Washington Post regarding the problem of evil. Read it here.