Of course not. Non-existent entities can’t hate anything.

What’s that you say? You believe gOd DOES exist? Well, then, how do YOU answer the question?

Consider:

—– Italy Quake Damages Churches (Reuters; April 6)

ROME: The earthquake in central Italy on Monday has badly damaged several historic churches and other heritage sites, the Culture Ministry said.

At least four Romanesque and Renaissance churches and a 16th century castle were partially destroyed by the quake centred in the medieval city of L’Aquila, the ministry said.

Part of the nave of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, one of the area’s most famous churches, collapsed.

The church, with a pink-and-white facade combining Romanesque and Gothic architecture, hosted the crowning of Pope Celestine V in 1294 and attracts thousands of pilgrims every year.

To the north, the belltower of the lavish Renaissance Basilica of San Bernardino also crumbled….

Monday’s quake, which killed scores of people, was so powerful that its effects were felt in the capital Rome, 100 km to the west….

—– Italy Seeks Help To Restore Quake-Damaged Churches (The Boston Herald/The Associated Press; April 9)

ROME: Italy appealed today for international assistance to restore historic churches, palazzi and other monuments damaged by this week’s earthquake, warning it will take years and millions of euros (dollars) to repair the treasures, if they can be saved at all.

Some 30 million euros ($39.82 million) is necessary for early operations alone, such as securing the buildings, Giuseppe Proietti, the secretary-general of Italy’s Culture Ministry, told The Associated Press….

Among the broken churches in L’Aquila is the 13th-century basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, which Proietti described as the symbol of the city. A huge chunk of the roof covering the transept, or cross-section, of the basilica caved in….

The church houses the tomb of its founder, Pope Celestine V – a 13th-century hermit and saint who was the only pontiff to resign from the post.

Late Thursday, RAI state television showed firefighters pulling the seemingly unscathed glass-enclosed display case containing Celestine’s remains, clad in a bishop’s miter and vestments, from the basilica’s wreckage.

The medieval Anime Sante Church, an important house of worship for locals, lost its dome.

The bell tower of the 16th-century San Bernardino church – its own construction delayed by 15th century quakes – collapsed, while the church’s dome also sustained damage. And the cupola of the Baroque Sant’Agostino church fell in….

Proietti said that in some cases, restorers may try to piece together the fragments of shattered frescoes. But he said it was proving difficult to even retrieve the pieces in the rubble. In some cases, it might not be possible at all, he said.

By way of comparison, it took restorers nine years to complete the restoration on the famed Cimabue and Giotto frescoes in the Basilica of San Francis in Assisi that shattered in a 1997 earthquake.

Proietti said the Anime Sante dome will likely be reconstructed anew, but in a way that will make it clear it is not the original one.

“Cultural heritage by its own nature cannot be reproduced,” he said. Even if a replacement is made, “the artwork is lost and can no longer be the original one.”

Here are two photos that hint at just how bad the damage is:

Duomo Cathedral of San Massimo

Santa Maria Paganica Church

An April 10 story from the Associated Press about the funeral Mass that was held for the many victims on Friday said that the Mass had to be held outside because none of the area’s churches were stable enough to host indoor services.

That story also included these heart-breaking details: “The quake struck Monday at 3:32 a.m. while many slept. It reduced entire city blocks to rubble. Although L’Aquila was among the hardest hit, the quake damaged some 26 towns across Abruzzo…. The 6.3-magnitude temblor – which killed at least 290 people and left nearly 40,000 homeless – struck Monday at the start of Holy Week, heightening the suffering in this deeply Roman Catholic country…. Twenty children and teenagers were among the dead. The youngest victim would have turned 5 months on Easter Sunday. Amid the rows of simple wood coffins, five small white caskets of children rested on those of their parents. On them lay mementos of lives cut short: a teddy bear, a toy motorcycle, a tiny T-shirt with a Tweetie Bird design…. At least 10 mourners fainted during the ceremony, according to a doctor at the scene….”

Such carnage and pain would shock and sadden me were it to occur to anyone anywhere in the world.

If I happened to be a Catholic, it would shock and sadden me all the more for having occurred not in Communist North Korea (which recently generated international outrage with its rocket test) or the Swat valley of Pakistan (where the Taliban are brutally repressing people) or Somalia (which has become the base for pirates) or Iran (which is allegedly developing nuclear weapons) or Atlanta (where American Atheists held their annual convention Easter weekend) but in what seems to be one of the most Catholic areas of the world.

According to an April 8 article from the Associated Press, “Across Europe, church attendance has declined in the past few decades as many believers – disillusioned by priestly pedophilia and molestations that have cost the Vatican millions in settlements – have drifted away from the faith. Italy is certainly no exception from that trend. Yet people in rural areas such as Abruzzo tend to be unimpressed by the secular sophistication so prevalent in Rome or Milan – and these Italians typically cultivate far more intense ties to the church…. Underscoring the deep devotion of the faithful across the hard-hit Abruzzo region, where religion is an ingrained part of rural Italians’ everyday life, a few priests wandered through a makeshift tent city offering communion wafers to some of the thousands of people displaced by the disaster.”

So, relatively gOdless Norway and Sweden and Britain were spared, Irish Catholics who have left the church were spared, and relatively secular Rome and Milan were spared as the quake seemed to specifically target one of the most devoutly Catholic areas remaining in the world.

And making matters even worse for Catholics and others struggling to reconcile this tragedy with their belief in a loving and merciful gOd: This is NOT the first time this has happened!

According to Wikipedia, “Italy frequently experiences earthquakes but it is uncommon for them to be very deadly. The last major earthquake was the 5.9 magnitude 2002 Molise earthquake which killed more than 25 people and was the deadliest in 20 years. Earthquakes mark the history of L’Aquila, a city built on the bed of an ancient lake, providing a soil structure that amplifies seismic waves. The city was struck by earthquakes in 1315, 1349, 1452, 1501, 1646, 1703, and 1706. The earthquake of February 1703, which caused devastation across much of central Italy, largely destroyed the city and killed around 5,000 people.”

The point is sharpened in an April 10 article from Britain’s The Times: “Three hundred years ago there was another earthquake in L’Aquila. It was the first day of the national Carnival, February 2, 1703. Villagers had packed the churches, travelling from across the region to celebrate the day of Candelora, when the clergy bless candles and lead prayers. The earthquake destroyed the entire city, toppling the churches and burying their congregations alive. More than 800 were believed to have been killed.”

The point is further sharpened when we recall that less than two years ago yet another quake brought death and destruction to hundreds of Catholics in Peru.

How might a Catholic explain all this?

Is gOd unable or unwilling to protect Catholics from a natural world that he himself allegedly created? (Why worship such a beast?) Is gOd willfully sending these earthquakes to punish Catholics? Is that gOd perhaps angry with Pope Benedict’s recent comments about AIDS and condoms? Or his promotion of a Holocaust-denying bishop? Or the never-ending, worldwide pedophile scandal?

Might that gOd actually be Allah (who might still be pissed about Benedict’s anti-Islamic comments)? Or Neptune (who might still be pissed that Italians abandoned him for Jesus – and whose own statue in Florence seems to have survived countless earthquakes)? Or some nature gOddess (who might be tired of the way Catholics promote world overpopulation despite its terrible impact on the biosphere)?

The best answer, of course, is that gOd doesn’t exist. Period. Case closed.

If you reject that answer… well, what do YOU provide in its place?

DOES gOd hate Catholics? If not, why does he/she/they/it keep treating them so much worse than I would ever treat my own worst enemy?

(Theists who are stumped might want to consult Shlomo Benizri. Or the Bible’s Nahum. Or maybe stop being theists.)