One of my favorite shows is HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. If you haven’t seen it, you should take a look. It is written by and stars Larry David. David is the co-creator of the hit TV show Seinfeld and, understandably, the humor on the two shows is similar. This season on Curb, Larry David (who plays himself in the show) decides to convince the former Seinfeld stars to do a reunion show. Each one he visits is reluctant (reunion shows are usually lame) but he manages to sway them. In one of his conversations with a cast member, he is told “Well, it would help make up for that final episode of Seinfeld.” For the one or two of you who didn’t see it, the final episode of Seinfeld ended with the cast being sent to prison for failing to aid a passerby who was being mugged. It was surreally disappointing.

It did bring up the point (humorless as it was) that standing by and doing nothing while someone is in need of assistance is, at the very least, not an admirable thing to do. Interestingly, the Seinfeld characters were prosecuted under something that is often called a “Good Samaritan Law.” It is named after the New Testament story where Jesus himself tells a story about a man who was robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. Several people pass by without helping, but a Samaritan comes by and bandages his wounds, takes him to an inn and loans him some money. He ends the story with the famous phrase “Go and do likewise.” It is clear that God believes in helping people if you are able, and many a Christian teacher has referenced this excellent parable and exhorted good Christians to do the same.

But a few years ago, God was caught in a classic example of “Do as I say, not as I do.” At 00:58:52 UTC on December 26, 2004, God was going about his business as usual. It is often hard for us to conceive of what “going about his business as usual” might mean for God. He is, if the stories are to be believed, not very much like us. He is what I like to call “omnimax.” This desciptor recognizes that he is supposedly omniscient (knows everything), omnipotent (can do anything), omnipresent (is everywhere) and omni-benevolent (is all loving). To put it another way, if you were rolling for the characteristics of a Dungeons & Dragons player that had God’s abilities, you wouldn’t be able to find dice big enough.

So, what can we know for certain about an omnimax God who is going about his business as usual at 00:58:52 UTC on December 26, 2004. Well, since he knows everything, we can be absolutely certain that at that time he knows that at 00:58:5 3 UTC on December 26, 2004 something terrible will happen. He knows that in one second, enormous pieces of rock that are pressing against each other underground with tremendous force will slip. He knows that in one second, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake will occur. He also knows (again, because he knows everything) that this earthquake’s epicenter will be some miles off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. He also knows that this earthquake will cause, through subduction, a giant tsunami that will ravage the coastline of most of the Indian Ocean and will kill around 230,000 people in fourteen countries.

But God doesn’t just see the big picture. If we are to believe the Bible, God knows the details too, even the number of hairs on each of our heads (Luke 12:7). That means he also knows that children will be ripped from their mothers’ arms by the wave to drown in horror and pain. He knows that there are good people in the path of that tsunami, many of whom worship and follow him. He knows that people will die drawn out, painful deaths of disease and exposure in the aftermath of the great wave. You name the horrible story and he knows it.

And what else do we know about an omnimax God in that moment before the second largest earthquake ever measured occurred? We know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he could have stopped it. He wouldn’t have abrogated anyone’s free will and it would not have been any effort at all (when you are omnipotent, nothing really requires any effort).

And there is one last thing we can know about God. With the prospect of 230,000 deaths and countless others suffering in the aftermath, God stood by and did nothing.

Does this really make sense? Would an almighty, all-loving creator who tells us it is good to help our neighbor really sit on his hands knowing 230,000 people are about to die? By the way, the Asian Tsunami is not the only instance where God himself was not a good Samaritan. It’s not even the worst case. If there is an omnimax God, he stood by idly again while Smallpox killed millions of innocent children. He looked down on the people of Pompeii as the pyroclastic flow preserved their last moments of agony and despair forever. Even today, he watches the goings on in a pediatric cancer ward, apparently unmoved. Yet somehow, in churches around the world, religious leaders still have the stones to tell us that there is such a God and that he loves us.

If Seinfeld and company belong in jail for not assisting during a mugging, maybe God should be in the adjoining cell? Or maybe, when analyzed in the light of real world events, such a conception of God is not compelling. The world is a cruel and unfair place. But it is worth noting that there is a force working to make it better. Humanity! Humanitarian aid was quick to flow to the victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. Humans stepped in and did something where God did nothing. They sacrificed money and time, some more than others, to help people halfway around the world that they did not even know. Is it any wonder that more and more people are placing their faith in humanity rather than the irrational concept of an omnimax God? Let us hope the trend continues, for there are lots of disasters yet to come, and we’d better be prepared to rely on the right Samaritan.