# Just curious how drowning a bunch of kids can be considered God's will **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 15, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860 "2025-07-15T01:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/181 "2025-07-15T22:34:18Z")
I spent many years of my adolescence obsessed with Jesus, surrounded by believers, reading four different versions of the Bible in parallel, attending church events, on average, twice a week. Currently, one of my best friends is a Presbyterian minister, and we’ve talked plenty about theology. My view is that you can think Christianity is full of shit without being a bigot. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/182 "2025-07-15T22:35:42Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > What about Gay MAGAs? They’ll probably be extra-brutal, in an attempt to “prove” they aren’t gay. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/183 "2025-07-15T22:41:07Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > What about Gay MAGAs? When the mask finally drops and True MAGA rules . . . gay MAGA will be the first in the camps. See also: [The Night of the Long Knives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/184 "2025-07-15T22:41:22Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I venture a guess that when a parent is disowning a child because of sexual preference, I doubt political leanings are even considered. People who disown their children for immutable characteristics are beneath contempt. And really for almost any mutable one. I’ll give my grandmother a pass because my mother is fucking impossible, and maybe the parents of serial killers. But generally speaking, supporting your child is not optional, it is your prime directive. Doesn’t matter how much your church elders are sneering at you - _love your damned kid._ ETA: I’ve rather enjoyed the Presbyterian view of my friend because he has a more narrow view of things and I’ve never seen him try to hand wave away suffering. But I am bemused by the fact that he believes his version of Christianity is the only correct one. I just happen to like his version better. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/185 "2025-07-15T22:44:15Z")
You have just inadvertently pointed out the difference between “simple” and “simplistic”. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/186 "2025-07-15T22:52:18Z")
> [@CC](#): > > So, I presume the folks who ran that camp in Texas are trying to figure out how it was that God saw fit to drown a bunch of little kids. So, no one’s actually said this… you just PRESUMED it, and presumed it often enough and strong enough that you just had to start a thread that implied that someone actually said it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/187 "2025-07-15T23:06:39Z")
Don’t all religions believe _they_ are the only correct one? Large wars have been fought over it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/188 "2025-07-15T23:16:05Z")
Yep, @Czarcasm , _simple is good_. Over thinking and ruminating over “something you can _never_ change” leads to insanity. Say your piece, think your thoughts. Teach your children. Religious-ness is never going away. It predates us by thousands of years. If someone derives any joy from participating in religion, who am I to tell them they can’t? It’s hard enough to stop the crazies like David Koresh or Jim Jones. Regular ol’ Baptist churchs aren’t really harming anyone. Some actually go a long way into community services. The womans shelter I donate to, is affliated with the Methodist outreach program here. I see nothing wrong in it. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/189 "2025-07-15T23:20:48Z")
But but but … they’re religious! It was a religious camp!!! (Does being Christian really matter here?) We don’t need to hear them say it! We can assume it is what these parents and every Christian believer is saying! An idiot who was Christian said something similar when their kid died of measles due to their idiocy, so there it is. That’s what all these parents think too! No other conclusion is possible! Perfect opportunity to mock faith! Some kids died in a religious camp. Ha ha! Nice god you got there! See this here means that “the death of children, being part of God’s plan, is, by definition, good”!! That’ll pwn believers! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/190 "2025-07-15T23:27:35Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Don’t all religions believe _they_ are the only correct one? No, they don’t. Certainly not Buddhism or Hinduism. Not Judaism. Some sects of Christianity do, definitely not all of them. And any individual member of a religion might. Christianity is not monolithic, and its most stupid and intransigent members are not its representatives. ---
**Author:** ![Frilly\_Heck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90ced4/32.png) [@Frilly\_Heck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frilly_Heck)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/191 "2025-07-15T23:31:59Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Don’t all religions believe _they_ are the only correct one? Mine doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/192 "2025-07-15T23:32:16Z")
> And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/193 "2025-07-15T23:39:09Z")
This is why I asked. I do doubt there were many Buddhists or Hindus at this camp, tho’ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/194 "2025-07-15T23:58:37Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > No, they don’t. Certainly not Buddhism or Hinduism. Not Judaism. Some sects of Christianity do, definitely not all of them. That seems… pretty obviously wrong? Certainly, not all religions are _proselytizing_ or _expansionist_, and as such, are not insistent that everyone has to _join_ their religion. But every religion makes factual claims about the nature of reality, and those claims are seldom compatible between faiths. A Christian believes that Jesus was the Son of God. A Jew does not. They can be respectful of each other and recognize that the other faith has something valuable to offer, but at the end of the day, neither of them can assert that Jesus both was and was not the son of God. One of them has to be incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/195 "2025-07-16T00:03:54Z")
C’mon, it’s not like Jesus ever said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/196 "2025-07-16T01:27:44Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > When you find such a quotation, please post it here. Very cute. Isn’t it the logical progression? If the deaths were god’s plan, then everything leading up to the deaths must also be god’s plan. You can’t pick and choose what is and isn’t preordained or the whole scheme falls apart. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/197 "2025-07-16T01:33:05Z")
You are confusing faith and science. With science there is a provable right answer and provable wrong answers, at least theoretically, and you should be on the team with the right answers. With faith, there is no need to prove anything, and there is no requirement to be ‘right’. People simply approach the Divine, or the Ineffable, or the One, from different paths. The Dalai Lama said, “my religion is kindness”. Jesus said that the whole of the law was to love God and love one’s neighbor. By the way, the tension between predestination and free will is one with which theologians have wrestled since the beginning. Only the most conservative sects believe that everything is preordained. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/198 "2025-07-16T01:34:22Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Very cute. Isn’t it the logical progression? If the deaths were god’s plan, then everything leading up to the deaths must also be god’s plan. You can’t pick and choose what is and isn’t preordained or the whole scheme falls apart. I don’t think you are even trying to understand Christian beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/199 "2025-07-16T01:37:21Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Don’t all religions believe _they_ are the only correct one? No. Some religions believe they’re the correct one for some people, and other religions may be the correct one for other people. Or what Ulfreida said; plus, I think, a lot of Native American religions. I don’t know about the African and other Asian ones, but I wouldn’t be surprised. > [@Miller](#): > > A Christian believes that Jesus was the Son of God. A Jew does not. Most Jews believe that almost all the religious commandments were given specifically to the Jews, and aren’t binding on anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/200 "2025-07-16T01:45:09Z")
I believe human nature makes us lowly humans think everything we believe is “right” and “correct”. Whether they promote or proselytize, is as varied as humans with beliefs. Else, they wouldn’t join. If born into it, would leave as soon as they could. Why would a person be a part of something they didn’t ascribe to, or think the _right_ way? Nonsense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860.md?page=11)