Conversation with a Christian

[Binkie The Clown]

There was an ad for St. Jude's Children's Hospital on TV and I said "If I could wave a magic wand and cure all children of cancer I would do it in a instant."

Christian friend: "Me too."

Me: "I guess that makes both of us morally superior to god."

Christian friend, splutter, gasp, um, ah, "We can't know god's higher purpose."

Me: "So god gives children cancer to serve some higher purpose?"

Christian friend: "We can't understand god's plan."

Me: "So you believe the end justifies the means?"

Christian friend: "Only for god because only god understands his plan."

Me: "So for us the end does not always justify the means?"

Christian friend: "That's right."

Me: "So you and I are morally superior to god, right?"

Click. Dial tone.

[TlalocW]

1. I had a conversation once

Someone was trying to convince me the Bible was the most moral book ever written.

Me: Whatever. I could write a more moral book.
You: You could not.
Me: Sure I can. Take the entire Bible as is, right? Now change Exodus 21 from condoning slavery to, "DON'T OWN ANOTHER HUMAN BEING... EVER!" Done.

Person didn't like that.

TlalocW

[Freelancer]

5. Always amazed me there's no thou shalt not regarding child abuse

Plenty about obeying one's elders, though. Strange.

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. ....

[3catwoman3]

2. I can't wrap my mind around the idea of a supposedly...

...superior being that would have suffering of any kind be part of a "higher purpose."

Complete bullshit.

[thbobby]

3. God is a Darwinist

Survival of the fittest.

[Freelancer]

4. Curing the child would be blasphemy, then... against the plan. Right?

Magic wands are a big No-No too -- part of that not suffering a witch to win on Jeopardy passage, if memory serves.

[Cary]

6. The literal meaning is irrelevant

I'm reading an excellent book: "The Fundamentalists."

I'm not finished yet so I can't finish this post yet.

[mountain grammy]

7. My grandfather was a fundamentalist, a Rabbi.

When my mother married a gentile, my grandfather tore his shirt and declared my mother dead. The rest of the family ignored him. The only way to deal with fundamentalists, according to my mother.

[Freelancer]

8. Similar happened to my Catholic great grandmother

She married a Baptist and her father disowned her. The Catholic Church didn't recognize her marriage and denied her communion. When her husband died, and the church tried to steal her children from her, her father did step up to fight them off by her side. I guess that counts for something.

[Binkie The Clown]

9. I guess my sister is luckier than I realized.

My devout Catholic sister married a devout Jewish man. Both families supported them fully, and they've been happily married for just over 40 years now with kids and grandkids aplenty. (The kids, by the way, grew up to be atheists.)

[mountain grammy]

10. My grandfather relented

because he had too. Nobody was obeying him. Wow, the church trying to take the children, that's scary, but I could definitely see it happening.

[Freelancer]

11. Things have gotten better in a hundred years, thankfully

It feels like an elastic strap is always trying to pull us back, though.

[Act_of_Reparation]

12. Here's a real conversation I had right before I checked out of religion for good:

ME: The trouble with Christianity is we're told time and time again to behave like God, but page after page of Bible describes God as a mass murderer.

BELIEVER: Mass murderer??? What do you mean?

ME: Well, he did kill the firstborn of Egypt. Thousands of children dead in one fell swoop.

BELIEVER: But what if those children all went to heaven?

ME: Don't you have to believe in Jesus to get to heaven?

BELIEVER: ...


And the that was the last time I attended a church function not involving the marriage or funeral of a close friend or family member.

[trotsky]

13. I'm surprised you even got that far.

Most religionists I've engaged that line of reasoning with cut it off immediately because even they know they're more moral than their god is.