Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, in his up-coming book, Breaking History: A White House Memoir, shares, among other things, his quiet battle with thyroid cancer while working in the Trump White House. He told the media (people.com) that he realized at some point that his disease was something out of his control and "was in the hands of God."
Though having lived in America for many years, I still shudder when I hear people, particularly successful, powerful or wealthy ones like Kushner uttering the word "God" when they describe their life experiences. Just what do these people mean by "God?" Are they being superstitious, pretentious or what?
When I think more about it, I realize my grief may have sprang from my own educational and cultural backgrounds. Growing up in China, the education I received in my youth was decidedly atheistic and anti-religious, which must be one of the reasons I feel uneasy whenever I hear the word "God."
Another reason is cultural. We Chinese, except for a small portion of our population that are religious, simply do not use the word "God" as frequently as Americans do. God is simply not in our daily verbiage. Instead, we use "fate," "destiny," "heavens," or even "earth" in place of God. So, while Westerners "thank God," we "thank heavens and the earth."
It will be wrong to assume we Chinese are all atheists just because we do not believe in or talk about God in the same way Westerners do. Professor Peter Kreeft of Boston College says that there have been very few true atheists throughout human history, perhaps no more than 1% of the human race. I don''''t disagree with him.
Anyone old enough to know misery, disease, death or even bliss will sooner or later realize there are forces in this universe much greater than ourselves at work. For example, death. No matter how much you want to avoid it, or how much money, fame or power you have, you will die. Death is inevitable and simply beyond our control.
How do you call this force or law that makes everyone die? Nature, fate, heaven or the Will of God? It doesn''''t matter what you call it, but obviously it is a force you cannot control, a power greater, much greater than yourself or anything you know. In other words, there is a "higher power" (or fate, spirit or God, the name is irrelevant) in the universe, and You Are Not It.
No matter what Kushner''''s motives are when he speaks of "the hands of God", whether coming from his Jewish faith, or pandering to his mostly conservative audiences, I must admit I am beginning to like the guy a little more. By invoking God in his personal struggles, he has at least shown some humility many of the rich and powerful in this world apparently don''''t have, including notably his own father-in-law.
One can be a convicted theist, an agnostic, a theistic agnostic, or even an agnostic atheist, but it is hard to be a convicted atheist. To be an absolute, convicted atheist, you have to deny the obvious existence of various laws, forces and powers greater than yourself on earth and in the universe. In a way, you almost have to believe you are God-like, the forces and powers of the universe do not apply to you, or the mere human power you possess can bend the rules of reality to your will.
Why is this bad? First of all, we call anyone who thinks and acts like they are above everything and anyone else selfish, self-centered narcissists. These people do not make lovely human beings. But if narcissists become leaders, that’s when real damages happen.
Think about the chaos narcissistic Trump caused in the 2020 election, or the horrors world-class narcissists Hitler, Stalin and Mao created last century, or the current leader of China, undoubtedly another big narcissist, who insists on “zero Covid” and other nature-defying, history-reversing policies that many fear will bring “Cultural Revolution 2” back to China.
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