Submitted by John Perkins on 17 December 2008 - 9:45pm.
[Hope] The film is about the sinking of a boat carrying refugees to Australia, in which 353 lives were lost. The people were refugees from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The film is narrated by the main character, a woman who survived the tragedy. It is an incident that deserves to be remembered.
The disaster occurred during the election campaign of 2001, just after the Tampa incident and September 11. Anti-Muslim and anti-refugee feelings were running high, inflamed by the Howard government. Suspicions remain that authorities in Australia knew of the boat's existence and position and therefore would have been aware of the danger it was in. Nothing was done by them to assist. Such was the nature of Howard government that it is not unreasonable to suppose that this was a deliberate and culpable policy of neglect, as was suggested in the book by Tony Kevin (A Certain Maritime Incident).
It is a story of the woman's survival through a terrifying night in the water. She begins her story by asking her god why she survived. In the end we find, to our great joy, that her son also survived. It is a great temptation for religious people to describe such circumstances as miracles of survival. From an atheist perspective, this is wrong. If one believes divine intervention had saved these people, then why did God cause the others to die?
To atheists there is no divine intervention because there is no divine being. There is just a sequence events that have both natural and human causes, not supernatural ones. It is our purpose in life to make the best of it we can -- for ourselves and for others. These are the only lives we will ever have.
No case for divine intervention
[Hope] The film is about the sinking of a boat carrying refugees to Australia, in which 353 lives were lost. The people were refugees from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The film is narrated by the main character, a woman who survived the tragedy. It is an incident that deserves to be remembered.
The disaster occurred during the election campaign of 2001, just after the Tampa incident and September 11. Anti-Muslim and anti-refugee feelings were running high, inflamed by the Howard government. Suspicions remain that authorities in Australia knew of the boat's existence and position and therefore would have been aware of the danger it was in. Nothing was done by them to assist. Such was the nature of Howard government that it is not unreasonable to suppose that this was a deliberate and culpable policy of neglect, as was suggested in the book by Tony Kevin (A Certain Maritime Incident).
It is a story of the woman's survival through a terrifying night in the water. She begins her story by asking her god why she survived. In the end we find, to our great joy, that her son also survived. It is a great temptation for religious people to describe such circumstances as miracles of survival. From an atheist perspective, this is wrong. If one believes divine intervention had saved these people, then why did God cause the others to die?
To atheists there is no divine intervention because there is no divine being. There is just a sequence events that have both natural and human causes, not supernatural ones. It is our purpose in life to make the best of it we can -- for ourselves and for others. These are the only lives we will ever have.