To the Editor:
As I approach my 75th year of a relatively agnostic life, I wonder how, if my religious friends are correct, there is no divine correction of all that is wrong with this world. Children dying of disease, starvation, murder. War and pestilence in every corner of the planet. Hatred, bigotry, poverty even in this, the greatest nation that ever existed. How could a divine being, that so many believe in, one that supposedly created humans in his (or her) own image allow all this to happen?
I finally got my answer. This being is a football fan (and no doubt a fan of baseball, basketball, and hockey, among other sports). After the NFC championship game, the Seattle quarterback, Russell Wilson, an excellent athlete, allowed that their victory and indeed, the progress of the game, was coordinated by heavenly intervention. Perhaps this intervention caused the amateurish and conservative play calling on the part of the Packers. No doubt after the Super Bowl, which hopefully the Patriots will win, with or without deflated footballs, there will be a great deal of prayer and gratitude to the celestial being that brought victory. I was brought up in the original monotheistic religion, but I was never taught that there was some regular guy, sitting around, having a brew, watching the game, with the added advantage of being able to affect the outcome. I was taught that my people were the “chosen people”; I didn’t learn that there were also “chosen” football teams, baseball teams, etc.
I am a huge sports fan. I love all sports, and I’d like to think that those who win do so because they practice more or are more talented. Sometimes luck is involved, but I doubt that there is someone in the sky above pulling strings to get a ball dropped or a kick to go wide right. If such a person or being existed, wouldn’t their powers be better used to make this a better world to live in? If I had a prayer, I would pray that this divinity would get off the couch, put down the beer, and attend to us mortals that he or she created.
Ted Jochsberger
West Tisbury
