Give me a sling wielded by David or a .22 of the variety ladies used to slip into their stocking, or an obsidian tipped spear like the ones the Neandertal used…and I would have done my best to save those kids in CT. Honestly I give myself a 50/50 chance at success. It’s not like this kid was a pro or anything.
Yet you, God, with all of the power in the universe, stood by idly while kindergartners were gunned down. You could have sent a gold ball sized meteorite to stay in his skull as he left his home. An old lady could have lost control of her car and run him down on the sidewalk. A good old- fashioned aneurism would have done the job.
But no, you let him go. Couldn’t interfere with his free will, I guess. Apparently you love some free will.
We cannot effectively prove you do not exist. But the existence of such evil, while you claim to be all powerful and all good, is a puzzle.
However we consistently see you allowing unspeakable things to happen to the innocent. At every turn, your actions are the same as a god who just…isn’t there.
You’re not there. So who am I really talking to here? I am talking to the religious, the righteous the holy. Those who follow this god and his book and try to influence the lies of others.
This Sunday go to your church’s nursery and look at those sweet children. And know that if a crazed man comes in, your god is not going to protect them any more than he protcted the little one in Connecticut. He moves in strange ways, indeed.
Your god is either impotent or malevolent. But really it’s much more boring than that. He doesn’t exist. He isn’t there.
Ah, newcrasher, where’ve you been? I hope you’re still doing charitable works despite the changes in your beliefs. You’re right, hours wasted praying to that indifferent beast are even less effective after the fact. But maybe the futility will become apparent and spur someone to action. Last we heard from you, you were still improving the lives of impoverished kids. You want to give us godless heathens real hope? Tell us you’re still helping kids.
As long as your wicked society keeps breeding disaffected losers and making it ridiculously easy for them to get their hands on enough firepower to waste a score of young lives with less trouble than peeling a pound of onions, don’t come whining to Me whom you ridicule on a daily basis.
I’ve always been of the opinion that you don’t really get to rage at God, and blame him for every evil manifest, unless you’re also the type that fully believes he’s responsible for everything, from you scoring a touchdown, in the big game, to winning a Grammy, or getting into Yale.
It just seems to me, if you’re not buying into one, you shouldn’t be buying into the other.
Since you are speaking on behalf of god, pleaser allow me to speak on behalf of you on behalf of god, and make your statement a little more accurate…
Dear children in grades K-3,
As long as your wicked society keeps breeding disaffected losers and making it ridiculously easy for them to get their hands on enough firepower to waste a score of young lives with less trouble than peeling a pound of onions, don’t come whining to Me *when one of them comes to school to kill you. *
Yes - I quit my job in finance in October. I am in school to be a Respiratory Therapist. I plan to finish that up and then go to Guatemala. In the highlands there, many women still cook with open air fires in their homes. This causes some real respiratory troubles for them and the kids that live there. I want to help them build vented cooking stoves and also treat the respiratory troubles they have.
And as long as we’re doing such a bang-up job of loving our neighbour like we’re meant to, think how much more compassionate we would be if bad things only happened to people who deserved it!
I’d rather imagine a world where kindergartners are not gunned down. You feel free to rationalize why bad things, like bullets to the brain, happened to those innocent kids.
Either your god was unwilling or unable to help those kids. Either way, fuck him.
Your god did the same thing as every other god in history…nothing…because he belongs to a long line of deities that do not exist.
Of course! It would make much more sense if we could treat our crazies how we like, and even make sure they had access to plenty of weapons, confident in the knowledge that the Almighty would step in and make sure nothing really bad ever happened.
…Meanwhile, of course, supposing this particular gunman had dropped dead of a brain seizure a moment before pulling the trigger, you’d be right in there singing songs of praise to God for his miraculous intervention?
The second…there is no reason to ascribe things, good or bad, to any deity. Now if you there was evidence that god struck down the killer and saved those kids, I’d reconsider. But there won’t be, because your god has the same characteristics as every other god. The world unfolds as if he doesn’t exist, because it is almost certain that he doesn’t.
But I am open to the possibility if he wants to be known.
But you were expecting God to step in, if He existed, and I haven’t heard a counter-argument against the position that it’s our responsibility not to let people go crazy and have access to deadly weapons, so just saying “Straw man” doesn’t make it so.
A standard answer is that all people are mortal. Some people die when they’re five days old, some people die when they’re five years old, and some people die when they’re a hundred and five years old. God’s immortal and human lifetimes are all the same to him. He just judges what you did in your lifetime and sends you to the appropriate afterlife.
God also allows people to have free will, which means some people will make really bad choices - including choosing to murder other people.
Which brings up all sorts of other pesky questions about a reward/punishment afterlife scenario, like why are we punished for an eternity for actions taken during a finite and supposedly flawed/fallen (Christian-POV) life? Seems a bit…harsh.
