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insulting religions

989 replies

IneedAgoldenNickname · 07/01/2013 00:39

Hi, I've never posted on this topic before, I tend to hang out in aibu, but don't want to start a bun fight!

So, I am a liberal Christian. I firmly believe that everyone had to right to believe (or not) whatever they want, provided that belief doesn't hurt anyone else.

Earlier today I posted a lighthearted status on Facebook, which had led to me being called mindless, stupid, stuck up, thinking I'm better than everyone else. I've been told God is a c**t (sorry I hate that word so much I won't type it) and that the Bible is only God for loo roll!

I'm just really angry that people think its ok to insult me/my religion like that, when I haven't once preached or insulted others.

Obviously the easy solution would be to delete them off of Facebook, but they are people I get on with other wise.

Don't really know the point of my post, just hoping id feel better writing it down. Grin

OP posts:
amillionyears · 19/01/2013 12:27

DadOnIce, but what are you going to do if and when there is potential disaster in your family?

EllieArroway · 19/01/2013 12:30

The omni words don't come from the Bible, Amillion - they describe the God that most Christians adamantly believe in. Don't you think your God is all powerful, all knowing, all loving?

That the omnis are logically inconsistent with each other is proven by the fact that Christian apologists answer Dad's conundrum of whether God can create a rock too heavy for him to lift by saying - "Oh, but God can do anything that it is logical to do".

In other words, they change the definition of the term "omnipotent" (can do anything so long as it is logical rather than can just do anything) without realising that they've just proven he's not omnipotent at all - he can either do anything or he can't.

headinhands · 19/01/2013 12:32

I'm hazarding a guess that Dadonice will do pretty much what everyone else will do. He will do what he can depending on what the crisis is.

EllieArroway · 19/01/2013 12:33

God helps people who help themselves = I do all the hard work and God gets the credit anyway.

headinhands · 19/01/2013 12:33

Amillion, can you think of a potential disaster that you would deal with very differently to Dadonice?

sunflowersfollowthesun · 19/01/2013 12:40

DadOnIce, but what are you going to do if and when there is potential disaster in your family?
And this response perfectly demonstrates how Abrahamic religions thrive.
Fear.

MadHairDay · 19/01/2013 12:41

I hate that phrase, Ellie - it's been used through centuries to justify not helping the poor and oppressed, because 'they haven't helped themselves'

MadHairDay · 19/01/2013 12:44

amillion, the omni thing is as Ellie said. They are ways of describing God which are consistent with the biblical texts. Eg, omniscient - try Psalm 139 :)

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 12:47

Psalm 139 is written by David. He was a Christian.

EllieArroway · 19/01/2013 12:48

I wonder where decency and a sense of morality originates Easy. As a species, could we ever have survived without it? Nope. We therefore have an evolutionary reason why morality exists. It also does (in a rudimentary way) in other social mammals.

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 12:48

headinhands post 12.33 I could think of hundreds.

headinhands · 19/01/2013 12:50

The obvious problems with the 'our goodness comes from god' angle is that firstly other species are known to display empathy and secondly, how about the dreadful things humans are equally capable of.

At what point in our evolution did god put his imprint on humans?

headinhands · 19/01/2013 12:51

Give me the best one amillion. Tell me one potential disaster you think you would deal with very differently to Dadonice?

EllieArroway · 19/01/2013 12:56

Did God forget to put his "goodness" into Charles Manson & Hitler?

DadOnIce · 19/01/2013 13:06

amillion - I don't understand your question. Do you mean what would I do being unable to pray?

And it contains an assumption that there hasn't been any already. My family has had its fair share of tragedy. My father died a few years ago after along illness, for example. He had a Christian burial because that's what my family wanted. No amount of invocations to a deity would have helped him get better.

headinhands · 19/01/2013 13:26

Mad while it's commendable that you admit you have no answer for human suffering, how can it not bother you? Wouldn't it bother you if someone you thought to be kind was walking past piles of suffering people if they could do something?

MadHairDay · 19/01/2013 13:53

Lots of posts to reply to here :)

amillion, well, David was a Jew, technically, but not sure why you mentioned he wrote Psalm 139? I was citing it as one source for the word we know as 'omniscient' - trying to show why Christians in general think that about God.

hih, I have no problem with equating evolutionary process with a creator God. My main problem in this, as I've said before is that I am no expert (not even a little bit) on evolutionary theory, and therefore I'd be daft to attempt to answer a question such as 'when did God's image appear in the process'. It would be interesting to hear some answers to this though so I may have a dig.

The whole question about why humans do such bad things if they are made in God's image is another huge one, but for me comes down to the fact that people were made with their own choice. I know the whole free will argument gets tedious because it's been so overused, but perhaps this is because there is truth in it. God made us able to respond to God and able to go away from God. God made us capable of much goodness and the other side of the coin is that we are capable of much evil. Light has a flip side - darkness, a natural consequence, the absence of light. Darkness is not an entity in an of itself - it is where light is not. Sin, wrongdoing, evil, whatever you want to call it, is like that natural consequence of the ability to do good.

Headinhands, yes it bothers me, a lot. It is why I come back again and again to ask myself these questions and further study. While I would say I have no complete answer, I would also say that I firmly believe God has done something about human suffering, in Jesus, and that event in history has changed countless lives for the good and given a sense of peace even through the most painful of circumstances. I also realise this is not an answer to you. That's OK. I want to be able to communicate how God is not merely a nice little hobby, a fantastical story or even a neat little answer to me. God is life changing, God is hope.

AnnieLobeseder · 19/01/2013 14:11

Um, amillion, you are quite worryingly ignorant about your own religion. King David, who wrote most of the psalms, was the Jewish king of Israel and Judea around 1000 years before the birth of Jesus. He was not a Christian, since Christianity didn't exist then. The clue is that the booking of Psalms is in the Old Testament, the bit before Jesus came along.

headinhands · 19/01/2013 14:35

Does God have free will? Could he do evil if he wanted to (if we pretend the OT atrocities didn't happen) I didn't ask to be born. Isn't that a huge breach of my free will? I have been put into a situation I had no say over. What about miracles. Isn't that breaching free will?

You say the free will concept might be overused because there is some truth to it. Something being widespread is not evidence for it's accuracy. It's such a commonly made error in thinking that it has it's own name. Argumentum ad populem I think. Sounds like a Harry Potter spell doesn't it.

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 14:43

Annie, yes now realised I shoulnt have called David a Christian! I should have called him a believer of God.
In fact, he was such a follower, if that is the right word, that the bible says he only did one thing wrong.

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 14:47

headinhands,yes he has free will, the bible says that nothing is impossible for God. So, yes , technically he could do evil, but wouldnt do as that goes against all he is. And He doesnt go against himself.

I realise we didnt all ask to be born. In fact, I thought long and hard before having my own children.

Dont understand the bit about miracles. Whose free will is being breached?
And didnt understand your last paragraph of 14.35pm.

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 14:52

DadOnIce, no, God could not create a rock that he is incapable of moving.

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 14:56

The omni words bother me. If they are not in the bible, where did they come from?

amillionyears · 19/01/2013 14:58

Never had much to do with the omni words before.

I dont add to the words in the bible, or take away words from the bible. So if the omni words are not in the bible,I would have to look into them to see if I believe them. And, from first glance, I do not.

EllieArroway · 19/01/2013 14:59

Amillion Never mind the words, they are just words - please look at what they mean.

Do you, or do you not, believe that your God is all powerful, all knowing or all loving?

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