The God-forsakin' Blog

  I've sometimes encountered, among more liberal-leaning Christians, the idea that even if the Bible isn't factual, it's a beautiful story that inspires its adherents to be better people. Firstly, you can only call it a beautiful story if you ignore all the ugly parts - and they are legion . But let's say we can ignore those parts (and that post only noted a tiny fraction of them). Let's focus on the best possible interpretation of the most important part of the story: A perfectly moral and loving being sacrifices his own life for the sake of those he loves. Even those who are unaware of his sacrifice. Even those who are ungrateful for his sacrifice. Even those who are ACTIVELY TORTURING HIM TO DEATH. His love is so absolute and so boundless that not even death can overcome it. And it transforms those who are loved, into beings capable of the same kind of love. Truly, that IS a beautiful story, and inspiring. Even without believing it's factual, it points to som...

Unsurprisingly, when people ask the wrong question, they will get the wrong answer. After my last post, the responses were variations on the usual theme of "People suffer because we live in a fallen sinful world, and this is a necessary condition for free will". So, first of all: When that's your response to hearing about the suffering and deaths of innocent people who have never done anything sinful - people who not only have never chosen to harm a fellow being but PHYSICALLY LACK THE CAPACITY to make choices or cause harm - what you're really saying is that the innocent suffer because of the crimes of the guilty. That's not untrue, mind you - the innocent DO suffer for the crimes of the guilty. Happens all the time. But that's not an argument FOR the existence of a just and merciful god; it's an argument AGAINST such a being existing.  Second: Jesus himself refutes the argument that suffering is the result of sin. A man born blind is brought to him, and ...

When you tell someone who believes in a god that you used to believe in a god and now you're an atheist, they might ask why you don't believe any more. And that's the wrong question. I work with people who have developmental disabilities. Today I learned that one of them died, and another is dying, before either of them could reach their 50th birthday. They're dying because their bodies and brains have just deteriorated on them over the course of the past decade. For no fucking reason. No one will ever hear her giggle again. No one will ever see his smile again. For no fucking reason. The best people in the world die young after many years of pain, while the worst people in the world live to be old and never, ever, ever experience any consequences for their shittiness. For no fucking reason. The right question is not why I no longer believe that all this is somehow under the control of a good, loving, just, or merciful god. The right question is why anyone else still DO...

Often, religious people believe that they are incapable of virtue unless their god bestows virtue upon them. They talk about total depravity, about how no good thing can come from them unless their god does good things through them, about relying on their god for strength and wisdom to do the right thing.  For example, I always used to pray the prayer of St. Francis and Saint Patrick's Breastplate on my way to work with people who were physically aggressive. So what I thought I was doing was asking my maker to confer upon me virtues I didn't have - the ability to behave lovingly to people at their most hateful moments, the ability to bring light to people at their darkest moments, the ability to bring joy to people at their saddest moments. And protection so that I would be safe when dealing with people at their most dangerous moments. When I became an atheist, of course, I stopped doing that. But you know something, I'm still just as good at doing all of those things. Bett...