In general people apologise too much. And that is a good thing. When other people bump into each other both parties normally say sorry. Forgetting to hold open a door, breaking wind violently and with olfactory nastiness, flirting with your partner’s mother or father, all these things are normally forgiven by saying sorry. It is when apologies are not forth coming that things get dangerous.
The Pope said sorry on behalf of the Catholic Church on 12th March 2000. They hadn’t apologised for 20 centuries so were penitent for a quite a few whoppers; the Crusades, the Inquisition, the torture and burning of heretics, holy wars, ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced conversions of Indians and Africans, discrimination against women including their enslavement by excessive childbirth resulting in poverty and poor health and its role in the Holocaust. So the next time you forget your Mother’s birthday don’t feel too bad. Get on the blower and say sorry before you start an
atrocity.
The worst offender has got to be God. He has said sorry on a couple of occasions. In Genesis 6:6 he repents that he made man, but in general has been fairly belligerent and free with the humanity destroying floods, earthquakes and diseases. Perhaps if he sat on the naughty step for a bit and reflected on how he was ruining it for everyone else, and when he was ready, came and said sorry, we could all get on. The only explanation for this behaviour is that, being an omnipotent being, he is showing off again and creating something that is impossible to forgive and then later we will forgive him.
(See 41Puzzles/Mysteries/Omnipotence Paradox).
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