Re: [OT] REVIEW: _Religious_


"Bart Goddard" <goddardbe@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9B1592088D23goddardbenetscapenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Alex W." <ingilt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:6iqfflF1fu1U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Worship is so God can talk to you and give you stuff.

Six million Jews sent prayers to God -- and it is fair to assume that
these were genuinely fervent appeals -- and God gave them gas.

When Katrina hit NO, did God talk to the faithful and give them
lifeboats?

What did God do when Hutus stormed churches in Rwanda and chopped
thousands of Tutsis into hamburger meat?

Did God issue hard hats when the roof collapsed on a church in Uganda
in 2006, killing 21 of 200 worshippers?

You apply secular standards to sacred things. As long as you
maintain this fundamental logical contradiction, you can't
say anything intelligent here. If a kid asks his parents
for a BB-gun and he doesn't get it, he thinks that's bad.
But then his birthday comes and they give him a car. It's not
what he asked for, but he likes it a lot better.

I responded directly to your claim that prayer results in God giving you
"stuff". Maybe it's my weird Limey sense of language, but as far as I can
tell, "stuff" is the sort of word one usually encounters in reference to
material goods.

Not that it matters. Even if "stuff" refers to immaterial benefits such as
salvation and basking for eternity in the sunshine of God's love, you are
merely making an unproven and unprovable claim.

Oh, and if I am guilty of mixing secular and sacred, you might wish to check
the things congregations usually pray for. There's much mention of daily
bread, relief from famine, speedy recovery of fellow parishioners and the
like -- all very here-and-now.



Just because you think death is bad doesn't mean it is. Just
because you think suffering is bad doesn't mean it is. Just
because you think winning the lottery is good doesn't mean
it is. For your assumptions to be valid, God can't exist.
So inside your assumptions, you get logical contradictions
when you hypothesize God's existence.

Hmmm .. positive aspects of death and suffering? I suppose that
manufacturing Zyklon B helped protect jobs and dividends, and I suppose that
culling a million or so fellow citizens solved any unemployment problems
(not to mention unfunded pension obligations) in Rwanda. Otherwise I am
hard-pressed to discover any benefits to be had from violent and very much
premature death, let alone pointless suffering.




.

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