By now you’ve read about the latest Islamic Andy Warhol, looking for his 15 minutes and 72 virgins, who tried to set off a car bomb in Portland, Oregon during a public tree lighting ceremony, while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” – Arabic for “God is great!”. What’s with this Allahu Akbar!” shit?
Notwithstanding the fact that Christians are really, really going to 
be annoyed (“How dare he attack a sacred Christian ceremony like the lighting of the pagan Christmas Tree?”), what kind of god shows he’s great by sending a skinny teenager to set off a car bomb? Here’s a kid who clearly has spent far too much time in front of the TV playing video games (quote: “It’s gonna be a fireworks show … a spectacular show.”) . Yet God needs to recruit kids like that to blow up infidels? Why doesn’t he just do it himself, if he’s so great?
For that matter, if he’s so great, why does he want to blow up anyone, much less infidels? If he’s the greatest, what challenge does a few tree lighting Christians pose to him? SuperGod would let unbelievers like them blow themselves up, or live in peace. It’s all water off a duck to a god that’s great, one who’s comfortable in his skin of greatness. He has his true believers drilling for oil and riding camels and bowing to Mecca 5 times a day, so what does he need a few unbelievers to be blown to smithereens for?
It’s all so perplexing.
It seems to me that a truly great god would do something that smacks of, you know… greatness. Like
- getting people to actually get along with each other. I’m sure he’s heard of world peace, that concept that all of the Earth’s leaders, including a few religious ones, seem to be constantly talking about and striving for.
- getting rid of disease, hunger and poverty. It seems a bit of a coincidence that these Muslims shouting Allahu Akbar! are the same bunch of people that are afflicted by disease, hunger and poverty. God should be taking care of his own, first, if you get my drift, before he starts blowing up people in first world countries.
- striking Pat Robertson dead, or otherwise muzzling him (though, I will give him credit for the demise of Jerry Falwell). Pat is really one insidious, warped motherfucker, an embarrassment to humanity. The world would be better off without him.
If god got his act together, and actually accomplished two out of three of these, I’d seriously re-think my atheism. But a skinny kid with an internet connection, a van, and a box of would-be bombs doesn’t really impress me.
SPANISH INQUISITOR 
“If god got his act together, and actually accomplished two out of three of these, I’d seriously re-think my atheism.”
Well, get ready to convert, John, I think I can give you three out of three on this one, actually in two points… assuming, of course, your promise is truthful and not just more hot air.
For one thing, the world’s true leaders are not interested in peace, so you can forget about using that as criteria for God getting His “act” together. And, as God has shown in His accommodation of sinners since the Fall, He doesn’t force them (or you, for that matter) to bend the knee to Him. Therein lays the rub… you cannot force people to do anything against their will and still call it a free agency. Making machines out of people, ensuring that they will always do as they’re told, is not “perfection” in the way that many infidels have defined the word. Perfection IS giving free moral agents the right to obey or be total fuck-ups. As for God “getting” people to get along, that is yet future… but, certain…
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21:1-5. (My emphasis supplied)
Now, you being a father, John… did you give in to your kids every time they harped about wanting something, or, did you in your greater experience and wisdom make them wait knowing it was in their best interest? Do you claim divine insight in solving the world’s problems? Maybe God BEING divine, knows when to intervene and when not to, do you think? After all, people were putting their trust in Him long before you or I happened along and it seemed to work for them.
Secondly, God will take care of all of the troublemakers, pagans, murderers, homosexuals, extremists, perverts, international bankers, Jesuits, Illuminati, Mullahs and anti-theists in due time, as explained above. Whether or not Pat Robertson falls in with those is not yours or my decision. All you need to worry about is YOU.
Until that day comes, you’re going to have all of this shit in the world, because, it seems, most want it that way. Rome wasn’t built in a day and God still took six days to create the world. Quality work takes time, even by infidel standards. Your beloved hoax evolution supposedly took zillions of years to produce all of this crap we enjoy, why are you harping about God only taking what you estimate to be a few thousand years?
You’d best be thankful for the time you DO have left to get your own act together to meet Him, mio hombre!
😉
Seriously Giddy, don’t preach. Reading your apologetics is like listening to my 3 year old tell me exactly how Santa Claus gets down the chimney. When she was 3. She’s an adult now, and I haven’t had to listen to that cute, charming but ultimately delusional crap for quite some time.
Oh, don’t worry, John, I know you’d never accept any proof from me or anyone else, biblical or not, that would make you change your mind on being the ardent anti-theist that you are. That was just for the benefit of thinking people that might inadvertently stumble through here, as rare an occurrence as that is.
You’re happy with your new religion and that’s fine. Myself, I just love being with my infidel buddies and listening to all of their upbeat, optimistic banter about their fellow man, politics, and life in general.
Don’t set any precedents or anything… you know, like giving any notice to anything I say?
😉
Oh… and who was it, specifically, that told your daughter about that “delusional crap” she forced back on you, John?
Just curious…
🙂
The same one that eventually confirmed the innocent, child-centric delusion for her when she got older.
And we keep trying to tell you…
I don’t think what something does has anything to do with accepting that it exists.
C’mon, Philly. If god parted the heavens, like in a Monty Python animated skit, and grabbed Pat Robertson by the teeth, swung him around his ahead a couple of times for show, then threw him into the sun, you’d rethink your atheism, too. 8)
My point was if it demonstrates its existence, what it chooses to do is irrelevant.
I know. But humor me. I’m in a frivolous mood.
Dear John
“The lady (in your case, the man) doth protest too much, methinks.”
I normally don’t read blogs, as for the most part they are written by people with an over-inflated opinion of themselves, but, as I only know you from what I have read here, I can’t confirm, or deny, whether this description fits you.
Somehow, unintentionally by me, I arrived at your blog, though I don’t believe it was accidental.
I think ‘delusional’ may be a favourite word of yours, so it would be amusing if indeed you were the delusional one. Of course atheism and evolutionism are belief structures and therefore “faiths”, and your denial of that doesn’t change the fact.
There is a huge difference between intelligence and wisdom, and, from what I read, I am sure you consider you possess the first. There is plenty of proof in the world that some of the most intelligent people possess little, if any, wisdom. True wisdom begins with the “fear of the Lord”, put another way, with reverence and awe for the Creator.
As this God has said, through one of the most learned, intelligent and wise men that has lived, “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God…
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles…
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done… ”
One area you clearly lack widom in is not knowing that Allah is not the God of Creation and the Bible, who has revealed Himself generally through nature and specifically through the Bible.
This God won’t force you (as you suggest He should) to trust and obey Him, but He is graciously and mercifully delaying His judgment so that many more might come into a living and loving relationship with Him by choice before it is too late for them.
Your silly analogy of Santa Claus shows your lack of wisdom, and maybe even intelligence.
The God who is there, the only true and living God, is the God of Peace; it is man who, in his wilful disobedience and wickedness, wars against peace in our world and is the cause of disease, hunger and poverty, mostly because of his pride and greed.
The muslim suicide bomber is not acting on behalf of the Creator God but on behalf of Allah, a god made up by man’s own imaginings, and he is prompted to do so by the god of this world, God’s adversary here on earth, Satan, the devil.
The God worshipped by both Jews and Christians is the same self-revealed Creator God, but the god worshipped by muslims, Allah, is no real god at all.
There are, of course, those who call themselves Christians who in reality worship a god of their own imaginings, and not the One who has revealed Himself in Biblical Scripture.
I was tempted to head this: Spanish Inquisitor is NOT great… but God is!
I don’t expect to ‘convert’ you by my words, I can’t convert anyone, but God’s Holy Spirit can, as He has done to me and millions of othe people, and I pray that He will to you.
God bless you.
Let me guess. God sent you here. How predictable for an omniscient being!
Well, your use of the word “evolutionism” gives you away as the delusional one. Evolution does not give rise to a belief system. It is a scientific fact.
To the contrary, don’t be so sure.
Don’t you have a biblical cite for that?
Oooops. Spoke…er…typed too soon.
Yawn.
You talking about the same god I learned about? The one who created disease, war, pestilence, and Oh, Original sin? Then killed himself to save us from this sin he created, but wait, he didn’t really kill himself, and forsooth, the damned sin is still with us. That god?
No? So who is this Allah guy that billions think is the cat’s pajamas? You know my answer. The same guy you think is the cat’s pajamas. Which is a non-existent being.
yada, yada,yada. That’s a nice way of rationalizing bullshit, but it still smells like bullshit. But hey, if it makes you happy, have at it.
Santa is just as fictional as god. God doesn’t slide down chimneys, but he makes the same kind of promises, in order to induce goodness in child-like adults, so I stand by the analogy.
OK. Whatever you say. It’s all our fault, god had nothing to do with it. Real powerful god you believe in there.
“…a god made up by man’s own imaginings…” Read that again. A couple of hundred times
Oh, it’s so darned complicated. How do you keep all these fictional gods straight?
So. Where is he? I’m waiting.
I really doubt that. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Dear Mark,
I normally don’t read the long winded ramblings of believers, as for the most part they are written by mean spirited, self absorbed trolls with overly inflated opinions of themselves and their beliefs and thus hold nothing of value, yet occasionally one touches on a thing or two which warrants a response, or I should say a correction, and today you hold that dubious honor.
First off, not all belief structures are faith based. In fact, most aren’t. For instance, I doubt your belief of what would happen to you if you jumped off the tallest building is a faith based belief, nor would be your belief that your light switch controls your lights, that sticking a needle in your eye is bad, or a host of other things. You form those beliefs based on knowledge and experience, which are sound methods of understanding and navigating one’s way through the world. In contrast, faith is not. Try deciding when its safe to cross the street on faith alone.
Second, atheism is not a belief, its a position or more appropriately, a response to a claim. What prompts one to not accept the claim that a god exists varies, but behind that would be your belief system. As an example, if you’re a Christian you take it on faith that others’ claims of a god existing are wrong, and thus you don’t accept them. Your atheism towards every other god but your own would be a position prompted by your Christian belief. An atheist might be so prompted by faith (ie – Buddhists), but in my experience atheists are mostly prompted by a belief in demonstrable evidence which can be corroborated. Call it the scientific method if you like. Like I showed before, this is how we make sense of the world and navigate through it everyday, the religious and non-religious alike. The difference between us and someone like you is we don’t make special exceptions. In other words, we don’t say this method which is proven effective doesn’t apply or should be suspended for such things as gods, ghosts, or whatever else one can dream up.
I won’t go into it at great length, but evolution is not a belief system either. It’s both a fact and a theory; fact that it is, theory as to how exactly it works. You can claim materialism is a belief I suppose, and that belief prompts relying upon the scientific method which in turn prompts accepting evolution if you must, but again, no faith present in there.
Now as for your belief and its assertions, I’m struck by the comical contradiction you made that, “[t]his God won’t force you (as you suggest He should) to trust and obey Him, but He is graciously and mercifully delaying His judgment so that many more might come into a living and loving relationship with Him by choice before it is too late for them.” If someone or something threatens to harm me if I don’t do what they want, then that’s forcing me to obey them, right? Oh let me guess, it’s different when we’re talking about your god, just like evidence for existence is different for it too, right?
I was tempted to head this: Faith is NOT great. I don’t expect to open your eyes by my words, I can’t do that to a religious believer, but you can choose to open them, as millions of others have opened theirs, and I can only hope that you will eventually.
Mark, another favorite byword with this crowd and others of their ilk is “empirical”, as in the type of evidence they demand of Christians and God before they say they could or would accept His existence or His offer of salvation. In other words, God, aside from the blatant evidences of His workmanship in nature and man, himself, would have to stand personally before them and bitch-slap them, before they’d agree that He does, in fact, exist.
Even though they are more than willing to accept any humanist/evolutionist crap “theory” on the flimsiest, most whimsical shred of “scientific” speculation regarding something they think “MUST” or “HAD” to have happened, based upon their limited observations of processes that now occur, (notwithstanding the significant effects that time and a world-wide climate and environmentally-impacting event such as the Noachian Flood would have had upon the Earth and it’s life forms, or even considering modern man’s impact upon it, since) Christians would still need to “prove” their assertions. Infidels just continue to presume that processes that occur today, simply must have always operated in just that way.
However, I can tell you from long experience, that this bunch would still find a way to write off such a blatant event as God slapping them silly, by calling it a simple hallucination, even going so far as to call it a visitation from some little green man from Alpha Centauri, before they’d acknowledge it was God Almighty that had visited them. Denial goes deep with many of the ardent anti-theists, here.
God, Himself, will (of course) in time provide the ultimate proof that even Philly Chief and his disciples, here, won’t be able to slough off or ridicule.
“I normally don’t read the long winded ramblings of believers, as for the most part they are written by mean spirited, self absorbed trolls with overly inflated opinions of themselves and their beliefs and thus hold nothing of value… bla, bla…”
Awww, Chiefy-boy, c’mon, don’t be so hard on yourself! Look, son, you’ve got a real following, here. You could start your own cult-thing, the rate you’re going. I’ll bet your students have a well-adjusted view and outlook on life, too, huh?
John will be thinking about moderating me, about now, so I’ll leave you with that. He looks after those tender feelings of yours like a mother with her papoose.
John… now, you DID clear that last comment of yours with Philly before you wrote it, right? I mean, we got a chain of command, here, and…
😎
Not bad, SI. You got yourself two sermons for the price of one post.