Fellow atheists/agnostics with young kids. What’s your play?
- Thread starter General Roman Malaise
- Start date
Why worship a sick **** who has the power to stop it, but instead just watches, and worse lets it happen over and over (so he can watch again?!?)
Oh yeah, you've told us why you worship - because you're scared.
We have free will to do good or evil. Would you rather be a robot?
God could have prevented you from getting hit by a truck this week, but you'll never know.
Think about how the way we live for the next 30, 40 or 50 years and how it will determine what's going to happen to us for the next 100 trillion years afterwards. Next to that, nothing else matters.
That's why I worship, at least partially. I do have fear but only fear from missing out on the most important truth there is.
Last edited:
Some of us have experienced the unexplainable that have no other option.The other myths are no less plausible than your favorite.
Thats a poor example unless you have never lost someone who believes and got hit by that car.
Doesn't have anything to do with it.
Your god is magical, so he could leave the pedo with free will, but then sic a bear on him before he rapes a little girl - again.
Instead he just watches it happen, over and over, and you love him for doing nothing but watching it happen.
Gross.
Option A) I don't understand what just happened.
Option B) There must be a magical being, omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, but preferring to watch sick and twisted stuff happen to innocent people over and over again without stopping it - I think I should worship that thing.
Hard choice for some, I guess.
The pedo has free will. He chooses to do evil. God permits it and enacts eternal justice in the next life. God could have prevented millions of evil acts we don't know about.
God can make up for our sufferings in this life. Our 80 year lifespan is like nothing compared to eternity.
An eternity of bliss would be pretty great.
Thanks for your perspective.
If you could stop someone from raping a child at no harm to yourself, but instead chose to watch it, over and over, you're evil.
An eternity of bliss would be pretty great.
So would pedos eaten by bears in the real world before they rape kids.
In fact, it would be better.
But your god prefers to watch child rape, over and over, and do nothing.
That's evil in my book.
If humans weren't allowed free will to choose between good and evil then we would just be robots.
Free will is a gift. I use it to choose good and Heaven. Many do and some don't.
Godspeed.
Regardless of being part of an “organized religion” I think kids, at a relevant age, should be exposed to the Bible. That will help them make their “own” choice. There are certainly worse books that kids are exposed to these days.
I'm not talking about the pedo exercising his free will to rape children.
I agree he has free will.
I'm talking about the ostensibly all knowing, all powerful being you choose to worship who prefers to watch children be raped rather than sic a bear on the pedo before it happens.
He'd rather watch thousands and thousands and thousands (I could do that many times and not reach the actual number before my post character limit kicked in) kids be raped.
Why worship something that is that sick?
Oh yeah, because you bought into a fear of a punishment from someone who wants 10% of your earnings.
I'm sure human suffering hurts God deeply. He will allow it to happen because He gave us free will.
Why worship God?
Because you get "more!"
I like this quote from Catholic convert and former Harvard marketing professor Roy Schoeman:
"Why should we waste our time working for treasures on Earth, which will not do us any good 100 years from now, when we could be building up treasures in Heaven, which will benefit us 100 million years from now?"
How can you be sure of that, since he has the knowledge and power to stop it, but doesn't?
If you knew an adult let their child abuse their pet, would you conclude that the pet's suffering hurts the adult deeply, but their respect for free will prevents them from intervening?
Or would you conclude they at best don't care, or at worst enjoy watching it?
If the adult intervenes, have they rendered the child a mere robot?
I'm asking you.
Can you think for yourself, or do you need to be told what to think about these questions by others?
Are they hard questions?
A mystic is a man who surrendered his mind at its first encounter with the minds of others. Somewhere in the distant reaches of his childhood, when his own understanding of reality clashed with the assertions of others, with their arbitrary orders and contradictory demands, he gave in to so craven a fear of independence that he renounced his rational faculty. At the crossroads of the choice between “I know” and “They say,” he chose the authority of others, he chose to submit rather than to understand, to believe rather than to think. Faith in the supernatural begins as faith in the superiority of others. His surrender took the form of the feeling that he must hide his lack of understanding, that others possess some mysterious knowledge of which he alone is deprived, that reality is whatever they want it to be, through some means forever denied to him.
There are many things we don't know in this life.
You can check out "Catholic Answers." It's a radio apostolate in San Diego.
They have a daily radio show on YouTube Monday through Friday and thousands of free articles and videos here.
How to Answer the Problem of Evil
The problem of evil is the greatest emotional obstacle to belief in God. It just doesn’t feel like God should let people suffer. If we were God, we think, we wo...
Catholic Answers
A lot of people have misconceptions about the Catholic Church. Catholic Answers is a media company that answers questions about what the Church really teaches with apologetics. We are the largest organization of our kind. Our Mission Catholic Answers is a media ministry that serves Christ by...
youtube.com
I grew up Catholic (more or less) and was quickly turned off by how negative is all seemed. As I became a teen and refused to go to church every Sunday (Mom went, Dad didn't) I asked her...if this is such a great thing why all the fear and negativity? She really didn't have an answer.
But...How do you define "God"?
A bearded human-like creature in a robe?
A consciousness?
Quantum physics and entanglement?
Best guess, we're someone else's experiment... quite possibly a simulation. I guess that entity could be described as "god".
It's not knowable.
But...How do you define "God"?
A bearded human-like creature in a robe?
A consciousness?
Quantum physics and entanglement?
Best guess, we're someone else's experiment... quite possibly a simulation. I guess that entity could be described as "god".
It's not knowable.
Jesus is God.
I never hear fear or negativity at homilies. You could always come back.
www.masstimes.org
The whole priests and little boys thing didn't help either.Jesus is God.
I never hear fear or negativity at homilies. You could always come back.
www.masstimes.org
For every one bad priest, there are hundreds of good priests.
Don't leave Jesus because of Judas.
It's not the bad priests... it's the organization that systematically covered up what was going on and allowed it to continue. I respect your right to hold your beliefs. Let's leave it at that.
Last edited:
The Church reformed in 2002 and since then there have been hardly any abuse cases or coverups.
Separating Facts About Clergy Abuse From Fiction
Quality research and reason need to take precedence over emotion if we truly want to keep children and families safe from sexual abuse in the the Church or anywhere.
Sorry, no precise link. I just finished reading this, and Singer discusses some of Aquinas's morally bankrupt views. To be fair, Aquinas was in line with much of the thinking of his era, but that doesn't make those values acceptable.
Sorry, no precise link. I just finished reading this, and Singer discusses some of Aquinas's morally bankrupt views. To be fair, Aquinas was in line with much of the thinking of his era, but that doesn't make those values acceptable.
What about Aquinas's views on women?
Do you remember them?
Whether you believe or not, I'd say following one of the staple Christian religions in the United States will open up doors and create more positive relationships and opportunities in life than not.
Also, all the mainstay Christian religions offer positive habits and ways to live your life in a healthy manner.
I'd much rather have my kids around a group of Catholic kids or Baptist kids than I would around a bunch of atheist kids.
Also, all the mainstay Christian religions offer positive habits and ways to live your life in a healthy manner.
I'd much rather have my kids around a group of Catholic kids or Baptist kids than I would around a bunch of atheist kids.
Interesting take.
I listen to lots of atheist and Christian radio type shows on YouTube.
In the atheist shows, they're very angry. They scream and curse. Matt Dillahunty of "The Atheist Experience" is like this.
On the Christian shows like "Catholic Answers", they NEVER scream and curse. They would probably get fired for doing so.
The difference is palpable.
Sorry, not in detail. Just the impression that he was unenlightened.
I do recommend reading the Singer book. Pretty sure you would appreciate it. It's mainly about how we treat animals, but the philosophy discussions (mainly toward the end) are also interesting.
That aligning yourself with the dominant superstition is likely to yield benefits? Yeah, probably. But that's an amoral, transactional assessment. Some might even call it a crass, atheistic assessment - although I wouldn't. I thought faith meant more than that to you.
That's the point of Christianity...the Gospel literally means "Good News."
Eternal bliss.
Last edited:
So . . . you're agreeing it's all transactional?
You'll go along with whatever you think will get you into Heaven?
Moreover, anything that doesn't keep you from getting into Heaven is OK?
I'm impressed that you will admit that, but it's nice to have it clearly out in public view.
That's the Gospel message.
God became man to save us for all eternity. That's a big deal.
John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life".
Women are chattel.That's the Gospel message.
God became man to save us for all eternity. That's a big deal.
John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life".
Gays should be killed.
Slavery is fine.
Genocide is OK.
Got it.
Jesus didn't say any of that.
Atheists like Hitler, Mao and Stalin did, though. No offense.
Those are all from the Old Testament.
People like you reliably remind me that unless Jesus specifically repudiated something from the OT, those injunctions are still the Word of God.
Are you denying that now, when the Word of God looks vile and ugly?
I recommend reading the OT through "Jesus glasses", if that makes sense.
