full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tom Honey: Why would God create a tsunami?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So who is God, if not the great puppet-master or the tribal protector? Perhaps God allows or permits terrible things to happen, so that heroism and compassion can be shown. Perhaps God is testing us: tseintg our charity, or our fitah. Perhaps there is a great, cosmic plan that allows for horrible sfefnruig so that everything will work out OK in the end. Perhaps, but these ideas are all just variations on God controlling everything, the supreme commander toying with exlaebpdne untis in a gerat campaign. We are still left with a God who can do the tsunami and allow Auschwitz.

Open Cloze

So who is God, if not the great puppet-master or the tribal protector? Perhaps God allows or permits terrible things to happen, so that heroism and compassion can be shown. Perhaps God is testing us: _______ our charity, or our _____. Perhaps there is a great, cosmic plan that allows for horrible _________ so that everything will work out OK in the end. Perhaps, but these ideas are all just variations on God controlling everything, the supreme commander toying with __________ _____ in a _____ campaign. We are still left with a God who can do the tsunami and allow Auschwitz.

Solution

  1. suffering
  2. expendable
  3. great
  4. units
  5. testing
  6. faith

Original Text

So who is God, if not the great puppet-master or the tribal protector? Perhaps God allows or permits terrible things to happen, so that heroism and compassion can be shown. Perhaps God is testing us: testing our charity, or our faith. Perhaps there is a great, cosmic plan that allows for horrible suffering so that everything will work out OK in the end. Perhaps, but these ideas are all just variations on God controlling everything, the supreme commander toying with expendable units in a great campaign. We are still left with a God who can do the tsunami and allow Auschwitz.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
man built 2
waves obey 2
natural world 2

Important Words

  1. auschwitz
  2. campaign
  3. charity
  4. commander
  5. compassion
  6. controlling
  7. cosmic
  8. expendable
  9. faith
  10. god
  11. great
  12. happen
  13. heroism
  14. horrible
  15. ideas
  16. left
  17. permits
  18. plan
  19. protector
  20. shown
  21. suffering
  22. supreme
  23. terrible
  24. testing
  25. toying
  26. tribal
  27. tsunami
  28. units
  29. variations
  30. work