In my latter days as a Christian, I would have been embarrassed by this posting. It certainly did not represent my view of God.
However, now I am embarrassed by it as a fellow human being. So many of our educated, 21st century humans still wallow in this filth. It is like being invited to a formal dinner party with all the finery modern age has to offer - while wearing a loin cloth, covered in muck, and carrying a club.
We are better than this.
It was a slice of dark humor to go though and read some of the thousands of comments on the original post. Most of what was reflected by the religious voices was a desire to be vindicated. They salivate at the thought of an afterlife where they will finally be proven right! I sense in these folks an insecurity or some deep seeded wound that drives these desires. Like the church fathers Tertullian and Aquinas they look forward to watching the suffering of the damned.
Many of the other believers took the time to reiterate Pascal's wager. As stated by one commenter:
"If a person lives their entire life as a believer in God .... loves and cares for their fellow man, and if upon their death, there is No God. They have still lived an incredible life, touched many other lives and improved the world from which they have now departed. On the other hand, if a person lives their entire life as a non-believer in God. Lives only for the moment, no cares for their fellow man.... and most important, no relationship with God.... and at the moment of their death, they find that God does truly exist. Think of the cost.... Both the waste of a earthy life and and a eternal life away from God. A huge price for human arrogance....."It is apparent to me that this writer lives in a Christian bubble. He presumes that if a person is a believer they "lived an incredible life, touched many other lives and improved the world" whereas if one is an unbeliever, one " Lives only for the moment, no cares for their fellow man" and is full of "human arrogance". I wonder if this Christian would take umbrage to a Mormon believing he was immoral by default for not believing in Joseph Smith. Is he displaying his human arrogance by rejecting the Hindu Pantheon?
The picture above does no more than reflect the dark recesses of the heart of many religious believers. Threats and darkness and rejection and suffering - while they proclaim a God of Light.
Do they really need this Atheist to point out their bad theology?
5 comments:
Some of the very same petty believers who salivate at the thought of watching the damned in hell are the fools who say accepting Christ is a profound experience that totally transforms us. Really? Well, if it transforms them, how come they're still petty little people who take cruel delight in other people's suffering?
I'm seeing "belief" through different eyes. I think there a lot of people who don't have Christ on their lips per se but will be welcomed as "believers" into His Kingdom. Likewise I think there are a lot of people with Jesus on their lips...that may be surprised by what their "belief" really amounted to
I remember telling Church members we would praise God in heaven some day for the justness of God throwing our lost loved ones in the Lake of Fire. Praise Jesus. Catholic Uncle Bob is in hell, tormented day and night.
I weary of the threats I receive from Christians. Threats of judgment and hell. Can they not see the arrogance and folly of such things?
This kind of thinking drives me crazy. In addition to the mean-spiritedness (to say the least), it implies that you can choose what you believe. "Okay, I'm scared of hell, I believe in Jesus." Why would this please a deity?
It saddens me to think this is how I thought for so many (more than 50 years).
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