A few minutes ago I was on Facebook (enough said, I know) and came across the stupidest thing on a relative’s wall of mine.
“Tell them Osama is dead without proof of a body and they celebrate. Tell them Jesus died and rose without proof of a body and they speculate!”
At least it rhymes. That’s the only positive thing I can say. Now if this were a stranger on the street saying this nonsense, I wouldn’t care. I can even see myself laughing at them. But this is a family member whose intelligence I’m supposed to respect.
Let’s see. A terrorist we’ve invested millions of dollars in combing the world for finally, after more than 10 years, is reportedly killed by something as boringly commonplace as a gunshot wound. But for some reason this is…what? Worthy of skepticism or something? People are gullible to believe that this happened? Because no pictures have been released that could easily be the product of Photoshop anyway if someone was that determined to pull one over the masses? Okay, whatever.
But where’s the irony in people being happy about Osama being dead while speculating about the resurrection of an alleged demigod from thousands of years ago? Tell me yall, please. Help me understand the logic here. Is the death of Osama bin Laden equally improbable as a divine miracle?
I just deactivated my FB account. And I feel like a weight has been lifted.
It can be pretty awful to find out how people really think under that veneer of sanity we took at face value…ignorance really can be bliss sometimes. I share your pain.
I know you just deactivated your account, but is there a way to send this person an anonymous message explaining their messed-up logic? Perhaps they are too slow to fully comprehend the stupidity of it and simply need to be informed that they are embarrassing the family.
It sounds like they’re not saying people are gullible for believing Osama is dead, just that they’re being too skeptical about Jesus rising from the dead, which in their view is an uncontrovertible fact.
It’s probably supposed to be a pithy witticism that happens to rhyme, rather than an ironclad logical proof.
I don’t think it’s intended to be a proof, but it’s not a good analogy. It’s comparing Bin Laden’s death with Christ’s death and resurrection. There’s no great difficulty in believing in Christ’s death, since everyone who lived in that era is dead by now: the problem is believing in Christ’s resurrection.
My sister-in-law posted the same thing. I have learned not to respond to anything she posts relating to religion or politics, as anything suggesting that Obama is not the AntiChrist results in an explosion of Right-Wing Frothiness.
If that was the worst thing my relatives ever said, I’d be pretty happy. In fact, I think we can arrange a trade if you’re interested. I’ll give 2 for 1.
At some point, I just started posting reasonable political opinions on Facebook, and defriended anyone who responded with an extremist screed, left OR right.
So far the only side effect has been my mom’s continuing obsession with me “rejecting my family” getting slightly more pronounced. De-friending about half my fraternity and 90% of my extended family is a benefit, not a side effect.
While the drive-by bumper sticker political discourse on Facebook is irritating it’s better in at least one respect. I know my ‘friends’ on Facebook and care about them, in contrast, I personally don’t give a shit about anyone on this board.
Every time I see a new Facebook chain letter decrying the other side of the isle I kinda roll my eyes and then ask the person posting it to explain.
Increasingly its becoming easier to isolate yourself in groupthink, it’s important to challenge silly beliefs, especially in people you care about.