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'god' and the horrible tragedy that just happened in Connecticut.

A cousin-in-law on Facebook (I know, I know) put up something that a friend of hers said about the tragedy happening because everyone does not put wonderful, loving 'god' first in their lives, blah, blah, blah. I, of course, couldn't keep my mouth shut and said it had nothing to do with religion, moral people are moral people, and this guy was obviously insane. Then the cousin-in-law said she believes 'god' has something to do with EVERYTHING.

WHAT THE FUCK do you say to that? REALLY? Her 'god' had something to do with that? And WHY would you worship something that had the power, but didn't do anything to save those babies?????

I know, we talk about this all the time. I really just want to be a hermit. I hate dumb people, and there are WAY too many of them.

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Permalink Reply by Humble Pie on December 18, 2012 at 8:36pm

I very much like the idea of reclaiming the word Atheist. Place a positive spin on it. Our spin. My spin. Make it what I want it to be, and give it back to the world as something new. That's clever right there. No time like the present. I think I'll start today! :)

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Permalink Reply by Patrick F on December 16, 2012 at 4:54pm

It has to do with the historical context... there was a time that Democrats were the conservatives and Republicans were the progressives... (southern Democrats... the guys like Strom Thurmond in the 1940s before he left the party). purely semantics as far as the name of the party... I think he was just grasping at any straw he could to try to "put me in my place"...kind of like a dog that gets cornered and the only way out is to try to fight dirty.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on December 16, 2012 at 5:09pm

That's right Patrick. When he had no place else to go, he had to resort to immaturity.

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Permalink Reply by Humble Pie on December 18, 2012 at 8:34pm

I would have called that one out as a "No True Scotsman" argument. 10 to 1 the reference would have meant nothing to them. But on the 9% chance that it did, well, it could be just the ah-ha moment to "save their soul" from theism.

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Permalink Reply by James Kz on December 16, 2012 at 5:38am

a) A true Christian cannot imagine that horror exists in the world that is not driven by Satan, because they believe it to be so.

b) Therefore, if a horror happens, they seek an answer through their religious belief, as God would not leave the helpless without a plan.

c) Therefore God's plan must have been to allow such horror. But since God as they imagine him (not having read the Bible) is about love and caring (after all, what parent wouldn't punish their child forever in horrible torment for a transgression?) it must be something someone else did, like "ban him from schools," even though they hold he is omnipresent and therefore always in the schools. By extension, that means that if mere humans can ban God from schools, then he is not omnipotent. That will not parse through their religious filters.

d) Because they cannot imagine either:

1) their god does not exist

2) their god if he does exist does not care

3) their god would not allow evil (though Isaiah has it that God creates both good and evil)

So it must be our fault.

While such heinous actions are in fact the fault of human behaviour, since God has a plan for the world, it must be a punishment. Therefore, they look to the godless (as Satan's allies) as the reason.

Nevermind the vast majority of the adults were likely Christian, and the children were, well, children.

God is really Satan's best ally.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on December 16, 2012 at 9:55am

YouTube vlogger DarkMatter2525 gave excellent expression to this whole business in a video he created earlier this year:

I think that about says it all.

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on December 16, 2012 at 10:25am

thanks for posting this Loren. i had a conversation about this very topic the other day with my mother, so i sent this to her. i'm guessing she won't watch it but it's worth a shot.

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Permalink Reply by Tammy S on December 16, 2012 at 4:54pm

Losing Our Religion - CBS Sunday Morning

My husband and I felt a little better this morning after seeing this on CBS Sunday Morning, I take a little hope from it that it made network television and I thought about your petition (which I signed btw) and this thread and the last several days on Facebook that I've spent pointing out that if god were so omnipotent he'd have stopped someone from murdering his babies... it's just been one of those really emotional roller coaster weekends and this was something of a salve. I thought I should share.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on December 16, 2012 at 5:13pm

Thanks for that link Tammy! I was glad to read that.~ Melinda

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Permalink Reply by Tammy S on December 16, 2012 at 5:36pm

I so enjoyed that, I think we both cheered out loud when we heard they were going to do the story this morning! We all need a little cheer around here these days.... I despise the silly season...

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on December 17, 2012 at 8:11am

DRAT! I was going to post up the CBS Sunday Morning piece, but they waited to publish the video and I missed my window of opportunity.

Still, this is good news in that it brings out the growing disillusionment that many people feel about religion, as well as the growing presence of atheists in American society. I think an interesting metric for consideration and study would be to see where the "nones" trend over time.

My bet is that they WILL trend to atheism.