The Diary of A Simple Man

More from the discussion thread for the question "God is more interested in you listening to God, than talking to God. Can you explain this?"

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[A user said that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ had changed many people's lives, and she believe that God had blessed Mel Gibson for that by making the movie an unprecedented success]

Well, [user], I have to admit that you made me snicker with that one.

Mel apparently hates God's chosen people, and after the "Passion" his drunken antisemitic slurs pretty much torpedoed his Hollywood career. He gets a few roles these days, I think, but he's nowhere near the box office god that he was. Mostly he does voice-acting now.

And frankly, the whole idea of the creator of the universe "blessing" somebody because of a movie, well...it's as silly as football teams praying for victory. It's very hard to take that sort of thing seriously.

If God spends all his time dealing with that sort of issue instead of healing children with cancer, for example (which he does not seem to do), then I, for one, would have to question His priorities.

"Forget those 10,000 kids with leukemia, but make sure that Mel's box office is boffo!" - God

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Anyway, given all that, option #4 seems by far the most reasonable explanation to me. But that's just my opinion, and I've already acknowledged that if someone wants to believe that God healed them, I am not going to convince them otherwise. Actually, I don't think I'd want to! Why should I take someone's comfort away from them?

From the discussion thread for the question "Is Atheism a religion?"

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I've been in other discussions with you, [user], so I know that you've been on the receiving end of some pretty nasty remarks due to your New Age inclinations. I didn't know that you'd been down-rated as well, though.

Here's the thing: maybe it's just me, but I make a particular point of not down-rating people for giving opinions that I disagree with. Nor do I give people better ratings because they agree with me. But time and time again I've seen that certain types of answers inevitably get awful ratings - and I'm quite sure that those ratings came from conservative Christians.

There's a degree of pettiness there that appalls me. These people claim to be true followers of what they believe is the ultimate power in the universe, the Creator of all things, the God of Love...and they spend their time screaming online against those who "dare" to disagree with them. They sit there securely anonymous behind their screens and deal out their version of divine vengeance against those whose crime is merely not sharing their belief.

It's kind of pathetic, and at the same time there's a sort of black humor to it, too. Do they think their God is so weak that it's necessary for them to take up a verbal cudgel to defend Him? Perhaps they think that sneering at atheists, quoting a million Bible verses, and down-rating them will somehow open their hearts?

My suspicion is that many of them are so passionate in their hatred of atheists not because they really hate atheists, but because in their minds atheists represent their own doubts and weaknesses. I've noticed that the arguments they make are invariably predicated on the assumption that all atheists share basic Christian belief; why else would they threaten an atheist with Hell when atheists by definition don't BELIEVE in Hell?

I think that all the polemics and rage are really directed at the most important audience of all: themselves. By attacking a "Godless" enemy, they bolster their own feelings of worthiness; a worthiness that they perhaps feel deep down they lack.

From the discussion thread for the question "How can Christians become less judgmental?"

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I have no idea. I suspect that quality isn't amenable to logic or reason, so the only thing I can think of is for Christians to interact more with non-Christians and Christians of differing sects. If they get the chance to see that those "others" are human beings instead of monsters, maybe that would make it less easy to snap to judgment. At least for some of them.

I hope.

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Ah, Christian touches on a point which I've pondered for a long time.

Some Christians "know" that all nonbelievers are surely destined for Hell - and by "nonbelievers", they often mean anyone who doesn't follow the precise same sect of Christianity as their own.

By that logic, it is not only reasonable for Christians to use virtually any means necessary to convert nonbelievers; it is practically a moral duty. The problem is that although these Christians "know" that they're right, nonbelievers disagree.
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From the discussion thread for the question "God is more interested in you listening to God, than talking to God. Can you explain this?"

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Since I consider "God" to be completely imaginary, there is no listening to be done - you can't listen to what doesn't exist, and something that doesn't exist can't listen!

That's not what you wanted to hear, of course, which is why I didn't take an answer slot. But I thought I'd represent the atheist position.

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"Peter, how can you consider something, "GOD" to be nothing?"

EternalOptimist, how can you consider something, "SANTA CLAUS", to be nothing?

Of course I used the words "completely imaginary", not "nothing". Obviously "God" exists as a concept. But Thor, Zeus, and Superman exist in the same way. That doesn't mean you believe in them, do you?

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I just posted this on a "Why do atheists persecute Christians" thread over on Askville. Since I suspect that it may get deleted, I'm saving a copy here.

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Speaking of persecution, the administrators of MySpace recently deleted the largest online Atheist and Agnostic group in the world. Why? Apparently Christians didn't like the fact that it existed.

The group had previously been attacked several times, and in one case was hijacked and renamed "The Jesus Group". Most regular members were banned by the hijacker(s), and many threads were deleted. And now the group has been deleted completely.

I think that for the most part in America, atheists persecute Christians the same way that Rodney King victimized the LAPD - by bruising their fists and damaging their nightsticks with his face and testicles.

Over on an Askville discussion thread, a Christian just said that they viewed attempts by some to mix New Age practices with Christian theology to be the first steps towards the Ant-Christ.

That's Ant-Christ - yes, it was obviously a typo. But I couldn't resist making the following response, in part:

I don't quite see how New Age practices lead to the Ant-Christ. I'd have thought that it would be some sort of celestial picnic that would lead to Him, or rather, that would lead Him to us. But I tremble at the thought of His mighty antennae and exoskeleton. :D

I wonder if anyone will get the joke?

I'm the "Askviller of the Day" over on Askville; kind of amusing that I'm the Halloween AOTD.

If you're looking for something to read, I think that this thread about atheist attitudes towards Christians is extremely interesting. You might want to read the five answers first - mine among them - and I'd really recommend reading all the way through the discussion thread if you feel tempted to take part in it yourself.

It's really not the typical atheist vs. Christian flamewar at all.

I just answered a question on Advicenators which I found highly interesting; a man who discovered that his wife had slept with a lot of men before they got married.

I found it particularly interesting for two reasons: first, this was one of the rare cases where I had to take the questioner to the woodshed. I may get 1'd for it; we'll see.

The second reason I found it interesting was that there was a bit of a religious angle to the question, and I used that in my response. In that sort of situation I always find it interesting as an atheist to make a response that includes a religious element.

Why? Well, to tell you the truth, it amuses me to give a more genuinely "Christian" answer than actual Christians. It also amuses me that I know the Bible better than most of them.

I'm not sure WHY it amuses me, but it does.

I responded to a post in the atheist community from a theist who was perplexed by atheism. My reply was ignored, of course. I'm beginning to believe that I'm invisible. But what the hell, I'll post it here. If only as a record for myself.

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Why is it so difficult?

Because we simply see no evidence that God exists. It's really that simple; you see, or rather feel something that we just don't.

I once saw the noted author and atheist Isaac Asimov giving a lecture at the University of Bridgeport (CT) many years ago. During the question and answer session, several people in the audience stood up and asked him why he didn't believe in God; he'd written a book on the Bible, so they knew that he was aware of it. So why was he chosing to burn in Hell for eternity?

He answered, quite calmly, that religion was a matter of personal emotional experience - an experience that he hadn't had. They, he assumed, had had some sort of personal religious revelation; they had in some way felt touched by God. He had not. That being the case, any profession of religious faith on his part would be not only meaningless, but hypocritical.

The questioners didn't accept that, of course, and got pretty loud about it. They became so disruptive, in fact, that campus Security was called to escort them from the room.

So basically it comes down to this: to you, evidence of God is obvious and everywhere. To us, it's not. We don't see it.

Mind you, some of us have tried to see that evidence; we've tried our best to see some sort of evidence for the existence of God. But in the end we haven't been able to avoid the conclusion that it just isn't there. And ultimately, our loyalty is to the truth. We've chosen it over social pressure and condemnation. We've given up a comforting myth to deal with the inevitability of death and nonexistence in our own individual ways.

I hope you can understand that that takes a kind of integrity and courage.

I'll also say that it's patronizing to suggest that atheists don't believe in anything we can't directly see or experience. That's certainly not the case. I've never been to Tucson, Arizona, but I'm sure that it exists. But that's because there is a huge amount of evidence that it exists, in the form of photographs, maps, references in books, people I know personally who have been there...this is all evidence which I judge to be credible.

In my own judgement, there is no more "evidence" for the existance of the supernatural - including any version of God - than there is for, say, a magical elf who lives inside the Moon and grants wishes. In other words, none. It's silly, and not credible in any way.

Perhaps I'm wrong, and someday that magical elf will toss me into the burning clothesdryer that he maintains beneath Mare Imbrium for the eternal punishment of unbelievers like myself...but I really, really don't think so, and I'm not worrying about it for a second.

Neither, I suspect, are you.

And your reasons for not believing in my magical elf are exactly the same as my reasons for not believing in God or the supernatural.

I just want people to open there minds to the possibility of all things.

But YOU have closed your mind to the existence of the magical elf.

You see, if you believe in EVERYTHING, than you basically believe in nothing. Because "everything" includes every opposite, an infinity of possibilities. Perhaps there's a god who wants you to post in your journal. You don't know there isn't, so you can't disbelieve in him!

But maybe there's a god who DOESN'T want you to post. Again, there's no way for you to know...so you must be open to that possibility, too.

But their Commandments are mutually contradictory. And they're both completely silly and unbelievable. So you do what seems best to you; you post, or you don't post, as you choose.

Keeping an "open mind" in the way that you suggest makes knowledge, decisions, and even thinking both meaningless and impossible. And you, yourself, have clearly rejected that approach, since you have chosen ONE god, rejecting all others.

Sorry, I've gone on much too long here.

Salon has been doing a decent series of articles about Scientology. I know a bit about Scientology, and I view it as a dangerous cult.

Apparently a lot of Scientologists have been writing angry letters to Salon, so I dashed off a letter to them today:

Subject: Scientology Cruise

Just a quick note from a long-time subscriber. Please don't let the Scientologists intimidate you - they're the NRA of the religious-cult world, and you're in line for a million postcards.

It just means you're doing something right. Good work on the Scientology exposes!

We'll see if they publish it.