Funny (political, religious) pictures
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
Does this mean that while you were doing that Church stuff you hadn't been reading the Bible?
GasBandit
Staff member
I sure as hell wasn't. You ever try really sitting down and reading that thing? "Greatest story ever told" my ass.
What's the Bible got to do with Churching?
Dave
Staff member
Only the select parts they told us to. Oh, I knew major passages, but not some of the horrific or hilariously bad parts.
Yes, and my reaction was the same as PatrThom's. They gave us Bibles at CCD, so I decided to read it. I think it actually contributed to my lack of religion rather than renewed my faith.
Dave
Staff member
And at the same time people like Trump are rich and get anything they want. And African children? Fuck them. And inner-cities kids? Meh. Poor rural kids? Yawn.
If god is real he's either completely content to let people suffer, in which case he's a dick; he's not able to do anything about it, in which case he's ineffective and not god-like at all; or he's doing it on purpose for some reason, and that makes him loathsome. And don't give me this crap about free will because that's a cop out. The same people who spout that crap follow it up with god's plan. Listen, dick, if he has a plan and that plan is always the way things happen, then there's no free will. Make up your mind.
I don't believe there's a god but if there is he is not even worth the energy it would take to feel loathing toward him.
If god is real he's either completely content to let people suffer, in which case he's a dick; he's not able to do anything about it, in which case he's ineffective and not god-like at all; or he's doing it on purpose for some reason, and that makes him loathsome. And don't give me this crap about free will because that's a cop out. The same people who spout that crap follow it up with god's plan. Listen, dick, if he has a plan and that plan is always the way things happen, then there's no free will. Make up your mind.
I don't believe there's a god but if there is he is not even worth the energy it would take to feel loathing toward him.
I thought in Mike Carey's Lucifer series it was interesting that the more power an entity had, the more fragile reality became if the entity tried to influence things. Like trying to repair a watch with fat fingers instead of fine tools, you'd just break the watch.
Boy this topic got off-topic.
Boy this topic got off-topic.
Is this amount of caring about the hypothetical deity's motives unique to former believers? I had an atheist-by-default upbringing (literally hadn't thought to ask my parents about their religious views until I was 20), and these elaborate "God would have to be a dick" arguments are always amusingly foreign thoughts.
I'm particularly fond of Hitchens' speeches drawing parallels to North Korea.
I'm particularly fond of Hitchens' speeches drawing parallels to North Korea.
Sorry Dave, but God isn't a free-pass handout. No where in the Bible does it state that life will be easy for those that follow, in fact it promises the opposite. As to God's plan, you have the free-will to NOT follow that plan, you aren't forced down that path. You have made your choice, and aren't forced to follow something that you don't believe in, nor is it our job (Christians) to force that on you, but instead to be a light in the dark.
You seem to believe, by many statements you've posted, that if you chose to follow God that nothing bad should ever happen to you. I don't believe that, it's easy to have faith when everything goes your way, the test is what kind of faith do you have when everything seems to be against you. We have a different POV on this, but you are free to feel the way that you do, as I am to feel the way that I do.
Doesn't change how I'll treat you, old man.
I can't find the screenshots, but there's an episode of Seinfeld.
George: God is out to get me.
Person: I thought you didn't believe in God.
George: I do for the bad stuff.
God's kind of a psychopath. It's like, imagine a parent who abandons their 20 kids at birth, then when they're in their 30's, decides he doesn't like how most of them are behaving, so he drowns 18 of them, and makes the other 2 commit incest until there's 20 of them again. That's basically the story behind Noah.
However, since it's all mythology and none of it is real, it doesn't really matter.
However, since it's all mythology and none of it is real, it doesn't really matter.
I'm an atheist (technically agnostic, I can't claim I know as a fact there is no god) but surprisingly I'm not against religion, at least not any more. Sure, when I was 19 and taking college theology classes I was a lot more confident to say things like religion is bad, that bad things happen must be proof that God doesn't exist, etc, but as I've gotten older I've mellowed a lot about that. It doesn't hurt me at all if someone believes in God (in fact I'm a little envious) and I look at things like church sponsored soup kitchens and community outreach programs and can see the benefit that these groups bring to their communities. And yes, you can point to the awful things that people do in the name of religion, but odds are high that they probably would have been pretty shitty people without religion, too.
On the subject of how can a god exist if bad things can happen to you, I'd say that as an outsider looking in, being unable to conceive of a possibility for that just means you lack imagination. If you posit that there is an afterlife, and that we continue to exist there for an eternity after death (as most western religions do) then to judge a deity based on what happens in this life, which would be an infinitesimally small percentage of overall existence, seems short sighted.
On the subject of how can a god exist if bad things can happen to you, I'd say that as an outsider looking in, being unable to conceive of a possibility for that just means you lack imagination. If you posit that there is an afterlife, and that we continue to exist there for an eternity after death (as most western religions do) then to judge a deity based on what happens in this life, which would be an infinitesimally small percentage of overall existence, seems short sighted.
Hey guys, remember when this was the thread about funny political/religious pictures?
How accurate would you say this is?
How accurate would you say this is?
Contrary to popular belief, TNG is not Gasbandit.You're in Texas. You gave up your soul at the state line.
He's JCM's alt.
Well, so's Gasbandit.
I'm a wee bit further north from Texas, pally.You're in Texas. You gave up your soul at the state line.
JCM-Altness does not have transitive properties, as shown in the 32nd issue of the Journal of Chat Mechanics (JCM for short).
You mean I'm not actually Shego? Man, I feel so much better about all those people I didn't kill all of a sudden!
I lost my soul before I ever moved to Texas.
Also the Florida one had me rolling.
Also the Florida one had me rolling.
The only way you leave Florida...is in a box!
...and even then, sometimes you still don't get to leave.
--Patrick
That seemed to be Nick's wondering, too.
I'd guess that one was faked, or at least cherry picked. Cause, I mean, only one person in Florida needs to google how to get out for that question to be eligible, what with everyone outside of Florida already safely outside.
No one in Maryland asks "how to crab;" they already know.
Just dump two cups of old bay on it. Same as with every recipe in this fucking state.
Just dump two cups of old bay on it. Same as with every recipe in this fucking state.
GasBandit
Staff member
Back when I lived in Silver Spring as a kid, one summer we went to Solomons Island. Caught SO much fucking crab. Was ridiculous. Got so tired of crab SO fast. Even caught a horseshoe crab by accident (didn't eat it, we threw it back).
Aw, I missed armchair theology?! Dammit.