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« THE END OF MODERN CIVILIZATION | THAT’S WHAT IT SAYS BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT IT MEANS BECAUSE IT MIGHT NOT WORK »

OBSERVING REALITY

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve seen or heard or read about Haiti this past week.  A monumental tragedy brought on by natural forces.  More than likely you’ve heard that paragon of virtue and christian compassion, Pat Robertson, blame the disaster not on nature but on a pact with the devil made back in the seventeen hundreds.  Which he assures us is a true story and even quotes the devil to prove it.  How anyone can take this douche bag seriously is beyond me.

But his lack of compassion should hardly be surprising; his god has shown no compassion whatsoever.  You see human beings giving their money, time, and physical efforts regardless of nationality or religion.  You see countries pouring out all sorts of humanitarian aid.  You even see some churches helping.  What you don’t see is any indication of is a merciful god doing anything to protect or help hundreds of thousands of people who lives have been destroyed.  You sure don’t see him helping to get all that aid to the people who actually need it.

That really isn’t the topic of this post, however.

A person I know is on a 3 state trip due to a family matter.  This person has quite a lot of followers on FaceBook.  He asked them to be praying for “traveling mercies” when he left.  Traveling mercies are sort of a pet peeve of mine.  Considering the appalling lack of godly mercy for the people of Haiti, I find the mere asking for such mercies rather appalling in itself.  The family of an impoverished widow is wiped out by a relentless force of nature and there is no mercy for her.  But the wonderful, loving, christian god will keep his needy followers safe on the freeway or help find their car keys when they’re in a hurry?  What is wrong with this picture?

This person isn’t unique.  I used to be the same way.  No matter what was going on in the world (and there’s always something horrifying going on) I thought my intimate little god was right there with me in the most mundane things of daily life.  It never occurred to me to question how he could help with my stomachache but ignore the guy down the street bleeding to death from a knife wound.  Selective mercy; what a concept.

Except, of course, that is what the bible says plain as day.  “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on who I will have compassion.” That’s Romans 9:15 but read the whole thing.  That’s where god declares some are made for ignoble purposes and he puts up with them in order to display how great he is.  Like he did with Pharaoh and Moses.  Other verses claim he has mercy for all but it doesn’t take much to prove that isn’t true.

Everyone turns a blind eye to the suffering of others at some point in their life or another; you literally couldn’t cope with all the suffering in the world if you didn’t.  But god is supposed to be bigger than all of us, why is it he can’t seem to handle all of it either?  What bugs me is how his followers can so easily ignore reality as well.  These people are suffering horrors I can’t even imagine but please lord help me drive my car safely.  Except that the part about these people are suffering horrors I can’t even imagine does not even enter the equation.  It’s just I need travelling mercies.

No, I’m no great humanitarian myself.  There’s nothing I can do.  In the old days I would offer up a prayer or two or give some pitiful amount to a religious charity and claim I did my share.  I can still give some pitiful amount but there’s nothing to pray to anymore.  The results are the same.

The only help the people are going to get is going to come from other people.

Feel free to keep begging your pathetic little god to watch over you.  I am ashamed of myself for how much of that I did in my life.  These things I rant about seeing christians doing are all things I used to indulge in myself.

It’s disgusting.

This entry was posted on 17. January 2010 at 21:22 and is filed under communication, wild guesses, hearing, emotion, religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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9 Responses to “OBSERVING REALITY”

  1. BenGemini says:
    18. January 2010 at 13:41

    Frank, I have never posted on a blog before. I have just found your site and it makes interesting reading. I am a Christian. I would like to e-mail you. I don’t attend a church anymore and have had issues with churches and seen the legalism and bad attitude that can exist in churches. But I do believe in God - yes out of my own subjective experience ( which could just be a psychological state ) but also because I am a creationist that believes it is more believable that we came from an intelligent Creator rather than just evolved which, stupid as it is when looked at in detail, is still the best current non religious explanation on species origin. My own ultimate intellectual line in the sand is where did matter come from if there is no God. I believe it more credible to believe that if something did just happen to be around from word go then that something is God rather than the material universe. Of course, I acknowledge that believe is a matter of choice and that environmental and social factors help shape and determine those choices. Never heard the term travelling mercies before but IMO nothing wrong with asking for protection. Does it mean we will always get what we ask for? Not necessarily as we think. I would say that the odds are in favour of a few Christians having died in Haiti. The sun and rain falls on everyone. Does asking for something petty for our own lifes mean we are blind to the needs of others? Cannot we be more than one thing? I have given something to the Haiti crisis and intend to give more. The churches you attended obviously let you down. Are all churches equal? Are all Christians equal? Are all people naturally caring? Do we always deal fairly with people - no, of course not. I have been treated wrongly, IMO, by Christians. Does that mean that what they believe is wrong? No. You certainly are undergoing a Job type experience. I really would like to get into a few involved e-mail exchanges with you on some matters that God taught me when I left church. I don’t want to discuss with you on your blog because this is your mark on the landscape and it could easily turn into a battle of ego and ridicule rather than a serious attempt to discuss matters of truth. I sympathise with you Frank - on many levels. I too, for my own reasons tried to knock holes in my faith. I belief stuff that would get me shunned at many churches if I tried saying. Whether you decide to e-mail me or not I wish you well, Frank . Best regards, Ben

  2. Frank DN says:
    18. January 2010 at 23:42

    Hi, Ben,
    Welcome. If you are really interesting in discussing these matters, I am more than happy to correspond. I just have one simple request; don’t try to convert me, it’s a waste of time. By the same token I won’t try to convert you to my way of thinking. If religion works for you, good. It doesn’t work for me anymore for many varied and complex reasons. I’m more than happy to talk it. You can use this email address: frankdn@priorperceptions.com
    Thanks for your interest.
    frankdn

  3. BenGemini says:
    19. January 2010 at 01:02

    Cheers Frank. I won’t try to convert you. Iron sharpens iron they say. I will be in touch soon. Best regards, Ben

  4. TinaFCD says:
    19. January 2010 at 14:54

    I always wondered why a god would choose to help some people but not others.

    Seriously, I was wondering what there is to discuss about matters of truth?

    There is no proof of a god(s).
    Only someone’s belief. Just because someone says they had an experience in their lives and say it was a god, isn’t proof to me. It seems it would be almost like me telling someone I know for a fact, the Flying Spaghetti Monster spoke to me and performed a miracle and cured me of a disease. Now, if I really believed that, why wouldn’t anyone else believe it too?
    Frank, I’d be curious to see how this pans out. :)

  5. BenGemini says:
    26. January 2010 at 00:16

    “Just because someone says they had an experience in their lives and say it was a god, isn’t proof to me.” Good - say so isn’t proof! Matter of fact, you cannot prove God exists or does not exist. The best position one could adopt from an empirical point of view is agnosticism, since atheism reaches a conclusion based upon the same set of facts.

    Since the Christian God is a God of love there exists a paradox as to why He allows and, in the Old Testament, sanctioned suffering. Thus the atheist concludes from the paradox and any supporting data they can obtain that God does not exist.

    I will not discuss this fully here as I wish to privately e-mail Frank. However, I will give you a couple of links to check out that offer intelligent challenges to the open minded. I have no axe to grind on this blog or with Frank. Consider it a submission of information that you or others may not have considered before.

    The first link deals with something that is checkable for yourself. This does not deal with “The Bible Code” but it is based upon mathematical data.

    http://www.symf.org.uk/teaching-articles/the-miracle-of-septenary-design-in-the-hebrew-scriptures/

    Biblical prophecies fulfilled :

    http://www.100prophecies.org/

    There should be enough food for thought there, but if you wished to go deeper then this provides a nourishing snack too :

    http://philologos.org/__eb-tws/intro.htm

    Thanks for your input. I’m sure Frank will keep you posted. Regards, Ben

  6. TinaFCD says:
    27. January 2010 at 21:42

    Thank you for the links, I think I have been to a couple of those before or something similar.

  7. the chaplain says:
    1. February 2010 at 00:59

    The best position one could adopt from an empirical point of view is agnosticism, since atheism reaches a conclusion based upon the same set of facts.

    Oh, joy. Another Christian starting out a “conversation” with an atheist by tossing out a wrong definition of atheism. I’m glad this is your discussion and not mine, Frank.

  8. BenGemini says:
    13. February 2010 at 23:03

    I did not define atheism. I said empirically you have the same set of facts to reach a conclusion as does the theist. You see suffering and so does the theist, you see the life forms on the planet and the material universe and formulate a conclusion based on your interpretation of the evidence you see before you, just as a theist does. If I begin a conversation with an atheist of course we will exchange counter view points. I already said that I have no axe to grind here or with Frank. I will share what I have already said to Frank in that I believe in Universalism ( all will be ultimately saved ). I believe that belief is supported in the Bible. Of course, a non Christian does not accept the Bible as anything than a collection of non inspired books so evidences from the Bible are derided. Frank differs in that he comes from a Christian experience and he is open to evidence. If he can be convinced of Christianity and then, through his trials, challenge his belief system then isn’t it possible that he is able to challenge his current belief system if the evidence is compelling enough? Of course my conversations with Frank would involve asking questions in order to see if I have any answers just as Frank’s exchanges would be the same. There are intellectual arguments on both sides and, in my opinion, it is what the facts lead a person to conclude not necessarily out of intellectual elitism but personal experience. We all believe in things we cannot see or necessarily prove ( atoms, electricity, sub atomic particles ) but whose presence is felt or observed and a theory drawn up. I feel God’s presence but am aware enough to know that alternative explanations exist for my subjective experience. Arguments against God usually result from questioning God’s goodness / preventative power and then lead to criticism of the Bible. Not that I am trying to define atheism ( a disbelief in God ) by that analysis but it is just something I have observed to be true when talking to non Christians. Atheism IS a belief system that uses the same set of facts to dispute God’s existence. The only real difference between an atheist or a Christian being the personal “take” on the matter. Most people do not have an opinion, one way or another. An active atheist is therefore a person that has explored theism and concluded against it and who thinks he/she has reached the correct conclusion and advocates that conclusion to others. I’m not your usual Christian and believe things that many Christians do not as a result of my own search for the truth. I began by saying that I would prefer to e-mail Frank and am currently awaiting further correspondence but I am quite happy to mix it with others on the blog as long as the input is open minded and amicable. If you feel I had tried to define atheism in an incorrect manner then elucidate by all means. As said, my former input gave no “definitions” but an accurate appraisal from an empirical point of view.

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