“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” Is Fantasy Theobabble

It’s the religious version of “Always look on the bright side of life”

Once god-is-good, god-is-great has been locked into religious human brains, it can be difficult to grasp the world as it actually is: that is, so much suffering and pain are overlooked or minimized. When the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 225,000 people, a Muslim cleric knew that his god was upholding moral standards: he claimed that European tourists wearing bikinis had prompted his deity to exact revenge. How does this square with the boast that “He’s got the whole world in his hands”? –which is meant to be an affirmation of god’s love. Well, it doesn’t, of course. In recent days we have seen horrendous devastation caused by the powerful earthquake that hit Thailand and Burma. The level of human suffering is staggering. The death toll will be in the thousands, and reconstruction will take years. Was god getting even for something here? No doubt clerics will try to put the best possible spin on this tragedy, to get their god off the hook.

 
One of the best satires on this kind of theology was the 1979 film, “Monty Python’s Life of Bryan,” which includes the famous crucifixion scene. A lot of fellows hanging on crosses sing, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!” Indeed that seems to be a common theological approach, as clichés are piled on by apologists, e.g., “Everything happens for a reason,” “We cannot know the mind of the creator,” “Our god works in mysterious ways,” “It’s a way for god to test our faith,” “God doesn’t interfere with our free will.” But the silliness of this tactic comes across powerfully as we watch the fellows on their crosses recommending focus on the bright side of life.
 
Of course there is a bright side of life, but it does no good to pretend that the dark side isn’t real and relevant—and that it doesn’t nullify feel-good theology. But again, the devout have been trained to deflect their attention from the dark side. “He’s got the whole world in his hands” is fluff; it is one way of enabling denial of reality.  
 
What a shame that the devout are not encouraged by their ecclesiastical leaders to study human history. Look at it carefully, honestly. Dig for the episodes, events, details that undermine the belief that a good, caring, powerful deity is watching out for us. 
 
What percentage of churchgoers are aware of the following—and how would they reconcile these events with he’s got the whole world in his hands? 
 
1850-1864, Taiping Rebellion in China, leaving 20-30 million dead
 
“The uprising was led by Hong Xiuquan, an ethnic Hakka who had proclaimed himself to be the brother of Jesus Christ. Hong sought the religious conversion of the Han people to his syncretic version of Christianity…” (Wikipedia)
 
The Black Plague in the mid 14^th Century
 
The estimated death count was 25-50 million people. Perhaps a third of the human population between England and India perished. And a horrible death it was, too. But the church explained it as god’s revenge for sin.
 
Babi Yar massacre, September 1941
 
Over two days, more than 33,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis at the Babi Yar ravine in Ukraine.
 
The Siege of Stalingrad, 1942-1943
 
According to Wikipedia, “…the battle epitomized urban warfare, being the single largest and costliest urban battle in military history. It was the bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entirety of World War II—and arguably in all of human history…” I recently finished reading Anthony Beevor’s 1998 book, Stalingrad, The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943, and it is indeed a grim depiction of the horrors and suffering endured.
 
“… the condition of almost all soldiers, not just the wounded, was terrible. They limped on frost-bitten feet, their lips were cracked right open from frost, their faces had a waxen quality, as if their lives were already slipping away. Exhausted men slumped to the snow and never rose again. Those in need of more clothes stripped corpses of clothing as soon as they could after the moment of death. Once a body froze, it became impossible to undress.” (p. 361)
 
The German invasion of Russia was the result of Hitler’s fanaticism. If the Christian god has the whole world in his hands, and is infinitely powerful, why didn’t he/she/it put an end to Hitler at the moment he came to power in 1933? In 2 Samuel 6, we read that god killed Uzzah instantly because he touched the Arc of the Covenant—as he was trying to steady it when an ox stumbled. Did god forget about this option?
 
Devout folks who take it on faith that the Bible was divinely inspired—that is, god was able to manipulate human brains to write what he wanted in scripture—also face this challenge: Why didn’t this god manipulate the brain of Hitler to erase his hatred of Jews? For that matter, why didn’t god do the same thing to Martin Luther’s brain? Luther’s championed virulent hatred of Jews, i.e., he suggested burning their homes and synagogues. There’s a major OOOPS! here too. Jesus-script in John’s gospel has the holy hero scolding the Jews, “You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires.” (John 8:44)
 
Does the Christian god protect tiny little babies? 
 
There’s another line in He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands that adds to the fluff: He’s got the little tiny baby in His hands. How many infants and toddlers died in the 2004 tsunami? How many died in the recent earthquake in Burma and Thailand? Moreover, for millennia, human infant mortality was high—much higher than after the discoveries of modern medicine. What heartache for countless parents, and added suffering for women who had to give birth to more babies. 
 
We can wonder if He’s got kids and children in his hands. The last time I checked, the Catholic Church had paid out more than three billion dollars—it must actually be much higher than that by now—in legal settlements because its priests rape children. And the church has worked hard to cover it all up. These days, the abuse-of-children scandals have been revealed in many other denominations as well. 
 
One more item—among many thousands that could be mentioned—that probably goes unnoticed by the devout. This is from a Wikipedia article:
 
“SS City of Benares was a British steam turbine ocean liner, built for Ellerman Lines by Barclay, Curle & Co of Glasgow in 1936. During the Second World War, City of Benares was used as an evacuee ship to transport 90 children from Britain to Canada. German submarine U-48 sank her by torpedoes in September 1940 with the loss of 260 people out of a complement of 408, including the death of 77 of the evacuated children.” 
 
The church devotes so much energy to making god look good. Every worship service is a drama, with music, costumes, elaborate staging that includes stained glass windows, art, and awesome architecture. All designed to promote god-is-good, god-is-great—with the fervent hope that the reality of horrendous human and animal suffering remains largely unnoticed. “He’s got the whole world in his hands” has been sung in churches, of course, since it was published in 1927. And the church has allies: Judy Garland with daughter Liza Minelli, Marian Anderson, and Mahalia Jackson have sung it in popular venues. My favorite version remains Laurie London’s rendition on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. It’s difficult to grasp the bad theology when the song is rendered so powerfully, so joyfully. 
 
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
·      Guessing About God (2023),
·      Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available. 
·      Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.