# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/101 "2025-07-15T15:45:02Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > But, OTOH, if one is an atheist, it’s easy and cool to make fun of stupid people for believing in sky cake and stuff. You get **extra** cool points if you are making fun of those people in the wake of a tragedy where they lost their children. The cruelty is the point. Where have I heard that phrase before? 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/102 "2025-07-15T15:47:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > _The_ afterlife? > Let me know when there is an agreement as to what it actually consists of, which deity actually created it, and what the actual rules are to get in. FWIW, I am, at best, a deist these days; I have no dog in this fight. And, by this point in your life, you certainly realize that most people who follow a religion grew up in that religion, and believe, without much in the way of questioning, that _their_ religion, _their_ deity, and _their_ understanding of the afterlife is the correct one. ---
**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, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/103 "2025-07-15T15:51:48Z")
People that wallow in the “persecution”, even if they have to manufacture it, astound me sometimes. Despite all that has been said in this thread and so many other places, it is so easy to reduce it all to the extremely simplistic “They just want to mock us and make fun of us!” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/104 "2025-07-15T15:53:52Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > People that wallow in the “persecution”, even if they have to manufacture it, astound me sometimes. I’m not manufacturing anything. I’m responding to the BS in this thread. A thread started, by the way, by a person who took a shit in the punch bowl and walked away satisfied. ---
**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, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/105 "2025-07-15T15:55:17Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > And, by this point in your life, you certainly realize that most people who follow a religion grew up in that religion, and believe, without much in the way of questioning, that _their_ religion, _their_ deity, and _their_ understanding of the afterlife is the correct one. I certainly realize all this, but I dread the unknow number of times “true believers” ask me questions that lead me to believe they _don’t_. ---
**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, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/106 "2025-07-15T16:00:54Z")
That shit has already been floating in the punchbowl for eons, but you seem to want to blame the OP for it instead of trying to do a little ladling yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/107 "2025-07-15T16:04:17Z")
🙄   ---
**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, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/108 "2025-07-15T16:06:30Z")
Your punchbowl, you fix it. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/109 "2025-07-15T16:09:53Z")
I really don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about. You are raving like an imbecile. This thread is mocking people who lost families and children. Why? They’re Christians. Their faith didn’t lead to the tragedy. Their faith isn’t causing anyone to shrug and heartlessly claim that it’s okay that children died, despite the claims in the OP. Nobody from the organization has come out and said any of the things that were completely fabricated in the OP. But yeah, let’s go ahead and poke fingers and laugh about it. And if anyone objects, they have a persecution complex and **they** are the ones with a problem. It’s sad, honestly sad that so many of you are cool with this. I’m muting this thread. I was ignoring it before but people keep pinging me back. I hate the messaging in it and I hate what it makes this community look like. ---
**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, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/110 "2025-07-15T16:11:52Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > This thread is mocking people who lost families and children. Why? They’re Christians. Both question and response are wrong, so fuck you. Or spend two seconds actually reading the responses-your choice. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/111 "2025-07-15T16:12:16Z")
We live in a chaotic universe where entropy is the rule. The fact that we exist at all, for however long, is G-d’s miracle. ---
**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, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/112 "2025-07-15T16:14:19Z")
The fact is we are the smallest of blips in the history of this universe, and the fact that we exist is just another in a very long line of things that has happened in this universe. ---
**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 15, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/113 "2025-07-15T16:19:41Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > let’s go ahead and poke fingers and laugh about it. Not what I was doing. And, I think, not what the OP was doing. I think that OP was fueled by anger at preventable deaths, not by a desire to laugh at anybody. I can see how it could be read that way, though; because they failed in that post to make any clear connection between the presumed beliefs and the lack of preventative measures. And it’s possible that in this specific case there may not have been any such connection; the problem may have been pure profit motive combined with the attitude (all too common among secular people) that “it can’t happen here”. I gather you won’t read this answer, though. ---
**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, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/114 "2025-07-15T16:47:14Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The cruelty is the point. Where have I heard that phrase before? I think that was Mother Theresa, although hers was a little less punchy. “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering.” ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/115 "2025-07-15T17:34:35Z")
This is one of my favorite posts for a long time. ---
**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, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/116 "2025-07-15T17:45:22Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > It just means that they’re really stubborn. And > [@Czarcasm](#): > > why bother with adding the incredible complication of adding an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving deity to the mix At what point in human history was the god concept _added_? As far as we know some sort of god concept has been part of human belief for well a very long time. Minimally one can state that such would only be the case if it at least served some function. Yes some use their god belief to provide themselves comfort in the face of tragic events. Why is that offensive to you that they do? How does that cause you harm that you use the death of kids who happened to be Christian kids at a religious camp as a reason to shit on their beliefs? What the fuck is wrong with you people? > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I think that OP was fueled by anger at preventable deaths, not by a desire to laugh at anybody. I cannot see how it can be read that way. This was not a circumstance like not vaccinated for measles because disease or not is God’s will. I’ve not heard anyone excusing anything not done that should have been done because it is god’s job to protect not ours. This is an OP explicitly using the occasion of kids at a camp with “a powerful religious ethic” being killed in flood as a chance to mock believers with a “Nice God you have there.” It is a vile OP. ---
**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, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/117 "2025-07-15T17:53:11Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > At what point in human history was the god concept _added_? The concept that there must be something else out there has existed for as long as curiosity has existed, but this notion of a singular “god concept” is much newer. The gods worshiped at the beginning of time have no relation to the gods worshiped today, and all gods worshiped today have little relation to each other. The minute you stop equating questioning and doubting with an extremely out of mocking and laughing, the sooner a real conversation can be had. Or you can wallow in your “persecution”-your choice. ---
**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, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/118 "2025-07-15T17:54:50Z")
If you think you fully understand Christianity, do some more thinking. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/119 "2025-07-15T17:55:00Z")
Y’ever notice when high profile televangelists do the same thing, but publicly? Like, they blame LGBTQ+ people, or abortion, when natural disasters happen. Yet, they’re oddly silent on this kind of thing. Seems a bit of a double standard, no? And we’re just randos on some Internet message board. ---
**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, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860/120 "2025-07-15T17:56:40Z")
There is no singular “Christianity” to understand or think about. Which version are you referring to? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-curious-how-drowning-a-bunch-of-kids-can-be-considered-gods-will/1020860.md?page=7)