One of the big news items of last week was the story of the baby about eighteen months old in Tennessee who was carried into the air by a tornado but safely deposited in a nearby field to be found by rescue workers.
A heartwarming story but spoiled for me I'm afraid by the many comments I saw on American blog sites that cited the boy's lucky escape as proof not just of the existence of God but of the facts that God is kind, just and all powerful. You see the good, kind, just God saved that little child. No reference to the child's mother. Thanks to God not pulling out the power lead on that Tornado the boy is now an orphan. His Mommy died in the wreckage of their home.
Did God not play a part in that? What about the other people who died in the Tornadoes, or the ones who lost homes and possessions, who must now grieve dead loved ones or spend their lives caring for people disabled by there injuries. Hey, forget them, God saved that kid, isn't that enough? He's only superhuman you know.
And Christians wonder why atheists ridicule them.
It is the dishonesty that angers me. Now many Christians try to be honest people and live by a set of values that are more or less impossible to live up to and then spend a lot of time beating themselves up when they fail. But the preachers who spin ancient fairy stories and modern news items together into lies that make God look good are the worst liars of all.
How do you know when a Christian preacher is lying?
His lips are moving.
Let's look logically at that survival story and see what really happened. It really is just a sequence of circumstances and coincidences just like many miracles that happen all around the world every day. Babies that age are very light, teeny little things, around 25 pounds maybe. I could lift that weight on one finger so the updraft of a Tornado would have no problem. But when that updraft weakens, such a light body would be deposited much more gradually than an adult body weighing five times more and having a higher density.
Then there is the fact that babies tend to relax when they are falling. There are various theories why, it doesn't matter which, if any, is right. They do. And so they are less prone to injury than an adult who in such a situation would almost certainly panic.
The child landed in a patch of soft earth, thus the impact of the landing was cushioned. No supernatural forces were at work, he could just as easily have landed on concrete and been splatted.
And finally, all the heavy, jagged edged, dangerous crap that was flying around missed him. It did not miss others who were killed or injured, so let's not try to pretend any magic was involved. The boy's survival was down to pure chance.
Whenever you hear the God squad revving up, remind yourself that an overwhelming majority of what happens to us in our lives, good or bad, is down to chance. Luck. The Roll Of The Dice. If you are in the path of a natural catastrophe and say a prayer you may survive. Don't forget though, of the 1000 people who said a prayer, the other 999 died.
Be sceptical about God and he will not exist, believe in him and he will make you crazy.
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Comments: 65
Are you the God of Abraham (that'a very Old Testament beard you have, or are you a Gof oif your own creation. The second I can believe in.
I think you could be right. (Cue Orff's O Fortuna)
Believing is for those who don't KNOW.
Nature works on irrefutable logic. God is not logical because he is the creation of humans. Watch my upcoming articles posted to religion / spirituality groups and you may find the guidance you seek. Not from me, but from the stuff I guide people towards.
I dont believe in god
And I truly think that if you are to attribute this type of thing to god then you must also attribute wars and famine and floods to him also.
But that is always the devils work.
I think that religion was invented to control the masses. And it works very well.
You have some mythical creature...lets call him god that is responsible for all the good stuff....dont mind the fact that you can see him and if you claim to be able to talk to him you are burned at the stake or put in a padded room.
Then lets have this mythical creature call him the devil...now he is the wrong doer. He is the one that MAKES you do things you really dont want to but as long as you have a scapegoat its ok cause then its not really your fault and you can go back to feeling all warm and fuzzy.
And dont mind the fact that you cant see or talk to the devil either...you just know hes there because if he wasnt then you would have to take responsibitlity for your own actions and you know that isnt going to happen.
Sceptic (Latin scepticus, Greek skeptikos) Either is correct but the K version is predominantly used in American English. I'm not American.
You are right, in the oldest scriptures the divinity (The Light) can clearly be identified as knowledge. In the creation story of those scriptures the divine only says two words I am. An allegory for humankind developing self awareness and becoming conscious of their relationship with their world.
And yes, you are the antichrist. I retired from the job a few years ago.
DORE'S ARGUMENT
(1) I forgot to take my meds.
(2) Therefore, I AM CHRIST!!
(3) Therefore, God exists.
If applied to Lori's case:
(1) I took my meds.
(2) Therefore, I AM THE ANTI-CHRIST!!!
(3) Therefore, the Devil exists.
I'll have to check out your article, Lori. We atheists really tend to rile people, don't we?
I have a God. He is God. And He is good. He's also got a great sense of humor.
Case in point, silly humans that think they know it all.
Sheryl yes we do...the article is flagged for harassment so if you cant find it let me know and I will send you the link.
Jett if I was god all omnipotent and all I would go on Letterman and burn a bush or shoot flames from my fingers or something miraculous like that...just to say that YA Im here.
Lousy pay, don't I know it. Thirty years I did the job man and boy, and never threw a sickie in all that time. You modern anti christs don't know you're born.
One goat a year was all I got when I started as a young antichrist. Still that was in the days when you could get the bus into town, see a movie, have a couple of drinks, ten cigarettes, a tuppenny upright with a lady of negotiable affection, treat yourself to a fish and chip supper and still have change out of a goat.
Sorry, just slipped into one of my old stand up routines.
Boy you really do not understand quantum physics do you at the sub atomic level do you..
The Higgs Boson a.k.a The God Particle is the thing that binds the Universe together.
Humans do not know it all, we have yet to prove the Higgs Boson exists and until that is done we will not understand how it binds everything together.
But you are right in saying your God has a sense of humour. He created evangelical Christians to keep us atheists amused.
I know. Any god that could possibly exist would have to be female.
Well that's truer than you imagine. The god that lives in men's dicks was invented between 1500 and 1000 BC. Before that men didn't understand they played a part in making babies and so they worshipped the womb (the Holy Grail)
Your turn. ;-)
Create an island in the Pacific and dump all the nutters there? We British already tried that, we sent our religious nuts to America and our criminals to Australia. I think your idea needs a bit of work but it has potential.
We already have such an island in the Atlantic though. Its called Greenland. Great place to send the idiots to cool off I hear.
Aw you're just throwing my own lines back at me. But the flaw in your argument is that when I post a piece ridiculing God I don't see and Christians laughing. And when a Chistian posts a piece about atheism its just warning us about Hellfire and damnation.
Give me a joke you haven't found in my threads and I'll top it.
I guess you can trade your goat for lentils. Or make yoghurt from its milk.
Wow, wish I had the time, and you deserved the attention. Alas, neither are true.
I am laughing at your post, Ian, and perhaps...just a bit...at you, and any human who thinks they know better than God just what's what.
# ARGUMENT FROM BLINDNESS (II)
(1) God is love.
(2) Love is blind.
(3) Stevie Wonder is blind.
(4) Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
(5) Therefore, God exists.
Lori, you and Ian should have been around for This discussion from Monday.
The answers were inconclusive and could have used input from the "one in question"
I do believe in a higher power, but I don't have to go to any building and follow any ritual or listen to anybody else to believe or know what I believe. I don't find my faith in a book and positively no one in the whole world has to agree with me to make me feel better about how I feel. I believe he/she/they don't control every little damn thing that happens, that they don't know every damn thing that will happen and that horrible things we do to each other dismay them - if they're even still paying attention to us. Rather than defy science, they live by it and used it in order to do whatever part of creation they actually had a hand in - and I don't really have an opinion on how much of that there is.
There is nothing I've found in any "holy" book that I couldn't fit to my notion of God(s) at most putting us here, spending a little effort trying to teach us to grow up and treat each other nicely and then leaving us to fend for ourselves. Like a good parent. Or a child with an ant farm. I'm hoping it's the former, but, if it's the latter, I won't be spending a lot of time worry about his/her/their happiness.
I don't believe in Hell, Satan and feel that much of these holy books are filled with people doing bad things and either using their "faith" to excuse their excesses or blaming Satan for their own decisions.
I not only don't need anyone to take on my sins for me, I don't want anyone to do so. I'm willing to take on responsibility for myself.
Not funny, I know, but I've always wanted to put it down succinctly.
Someday, I'll post my blasphemous poem up for your entertainment, Ian.
ARGUMENT FROM FORMATTING
(1) Behold, foolish Atheists, I present you with an incontrovertible proof of the existence of God.
(2) [Christian posts 10,000 word document without a single paragraph break.]
(3) [Atheist's eyes implode.]
(4) I see that nobody can refute (2).
(5) Therefore, God exists.
:-)
I miss all the good stuff.
Thanks, Charles.
You ask " Are any of you agnostics? "
We don't know.
You must find the time, you se I AM the antichrist. When I dies for a few minutes ten years ago, my soul departed and my body was taken over by the sould of BILL HICKS.
You Christians talk big about your God but when you are challenged you go very evasive. Oooooh you'l find out when you are dead, your standard argument goes.
But I will not find out anything when I'm dead. I'll be dead, end of story.
Until then I will remenber every day the words of the greatest Englishman, Winston S. Churchill who said "Every time I read The Bible I think God, What a shit God is."
I have challenged God many times, "Hey God, you cruel old bastard, come and have a go if you think you're hard." He wimps out every time. I'm still here.
QED I think.
As you think being a Christian gives you bragging rights but obviously lack the wit and intelligence to challenge me, I think that is game, set and match to the atheists.
That is far too intelligent an argument for so far down a thread. Why not use it as a post, explaining it is a Catholic response to my article.
The one thing you disappointed me in is not mentioning Thomas Aquinas who concluded that anything resembling what we think is God must exist outside time and space and is therefore so far beyond our understanding he cannot be said to exist within any recognised meaning of the word exist.
But then we are back to quantum physics.
But I will explore this topic in a less provocative way. The world domination strategy has not progresed to that point yet.
Yeah, I'm off to the link Aniko gave us as soon as I can. People keep throwing me these teasers.
The Stevie Wonder one is really funny.
I too do not have a problem with people holding to a religion, it is when they tell lies and misrepresent facts to try to bully us into believing in their version of God I get tectchy.
In the true sriptures (the Zoroastrian Avesta and Hindu Rig Veda, God only ever communicaed with humans to utter two short words, "I am."
The allegory is clear, humans became aware.
But anyway that is getting deeply philosophical and is source material for many articles.
Post that blasphemous poem soon and please let me know when you do ;-)
They are adept at using boredom as a weapon aren't they.
But if you are God and therfore have nothing to measure yourself against, how do you know you exist.
We'll take your word for that, but can he plait sawdust?
Are you sure you are not confusing God with Gordon Ramsey and his campaign for real gravy (no granules)?
At least you know you are wasting your time. Christians thing they are collecting brownie points for the next life.
You'll take credit for anything? Now I know you are truly God.
You will have to try much, much, much harder to get my attention.
I have heard your inane ramblings, from much better-equipped wordsmiths I might add, a thousand times before.
None of it changes my faith. That's right, faith. That which cannot be seen, felt, heard, nor smelled. That which must simply be believed. That's faith.
I have it, you don't. Mores the pity.
Well Bert, I too was going to suggest that in order NOT to pollute the peaceful Pacific that you create that island in the Atlantic ... but in retrospect, living here in a "red" state and knowing that those people here are the ones that you will be moving, I think they should go into the "Red Sea" ... forget an island.
Jerry Kays, Feb 23, 2008, 2:56am EST
Spend some time reading in this link and get a better picture of it all ...
http://www.illuminati-news.com/site-map.htm
(then read my book) ... :-)
Nemo me impune lascitur.
Heard my inane ramblings? You do talk bollocks, you have heard or read nothing of my philosophical writing, you have seen but been incapable of undertanding one short, ironic article and your response to it showed you to be a person of inferior intellect. But the fact you are an evangelical Christian is enough to ell us that .
You do not have an intelligent argument against me so you just turn my taunts back at me. That is exactly what kindergarden kids do when they argue. e.g.
"you smell,"
"no, you smell."
I decided to do this article after seeing someone explainging what it means to be an atheist get thoroughly insulted and patronised by very ignorant people.
I decided in response I should burst the bubble of unreality you people surround yourselves with and deconstruct the fairy tales on which your version of the faith is built.
But I ain't started yet, I'm just losening up.
BTW the latin line means : Nobody impugns me without consequences. I suggest you and your buddies brush up you Latin as I will be exposing many of the half-witted mistranslations on which rest the main structure of the protestant faith.
Where I come from that would be considered fighting talk. Let's see what you can do.
There is not one evangelical Christian in the world who actually understands the core philosophy of the faith.
Nice to see The Illuminati getting a mention in the thread. I have that site in my favourites already thanks.
You're right, I have not read your particular brand of inane ramblings. I didn't have to. You're no different than every other atheist I have ever sparred with.
I'm just not interested in batting you about anymore. Tis not Christian of me.
I leave you to your delusions of grandeur, and wish you well.
Coward. The truth is CA you are not capable of mounting an argument against my logic, so you wimp out in a way that you think makes you look clever but actually just shows you are a moron. I tell the truth, but in my experience Christians have never liked the truth.
You should have accpted defeat when I said Game, set and match.
My argument to you is no different to what other have offered because it is the truth. Facts. Unlike Chistians us atheists respect facts and do not try to change them to suit our purpose.
But as a punishment for your being incredibly boring and dishonest and repeating yourself because you have nothing interesting to say, I'm going to crucify you.
See what a good and caring Ian I am, you always wanted to be like Jesus and I am going to make it happen for you.
Now because your pathetic attempts to effect sneering superiority