Posted by Shirlee | Posted in Discussion | Posted on 19-01-2010
Tags: atheist4life
Dear Latecomers:
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Thanks!
-Blessing
February 2010
Poster Atheist 4 Life asked a few questions. Here we go:
When you have a moment, could you please pray for a cure for my porn addiction?
Certainly. Shall I pray for you to go blind, for your hands to fall off, or for you to find Jesus and quit your unending heathen lust after pleasures of (your own, mister grabby-hands) flesh?
Also could you explain the existence of dinosaurs millions of years ago when many christians claim that the earth is only a few thousand years old. Also, if you claim that dinosaur fossils are mearly a way of God testing your faith, do you really want to to worship a God that tests your faith by playing such pranks on you?
I’m glad you could spell “atheist” properly, even if “merely” was too much for you.
EDIT: OK, I admit it, that was a cheap shot. I was a bit cranky, having just cleaned up after a DDoS attack. Consider it retracted.
God didn’t play any pranks on us. Dinosaurs were killed in the Flood buried under many layers of sediment in a matter of days and compressed under water deep enough to cover all the mountains of the Earth. That’s MILES of water. Incredible pressure. That’s how they became fossilized.
And why is it that the high church does not come out and condemn looney religious fanatics like Pat Robertson for his obscene comments about Haiti being punished for signing a contract with the devil to remove the French from their country.
High Church? What, the Catholic Cult?
Do you mean the people who worship “Mary” and actually believe that crackers and wine turn into the flesh and blood of Jesus?
Tell me, if Haitians didn’t make a pact with Satan to remove the French from Haiti, why did God allow the earthquake to happen?
I apologize for going off topic here, have nothing personal against Trig but for your Gods sake please concentrate on actually accomplishing something that will really do somebody some good in this world instead of chanting voodoo prayers for someone who really doesn’t need them.
Well, you did ask me to pray for a cure for your porn addiction. Do you think that’s more important than Trig being able to live a normal life, with all the joys and opportunities it offers?
Shirlee, it appears, that you believe that the earthquake that struck Haiti was the wrath of god in response to a pact that the Haitian people made with the devil. The question you asked seems to imply that you do in fact believe this. Is this correct? Are you aware that this is legend, and we have no factual evidence that supports this? Are you aware when the supposed pact with the devil took place? Do you know when the revolt to overthrow the French took place?
After you have answered the questions I just asked, I’ll ask you to answer teo more, and I’d like you to attempt to reconcile the answers to these questions with your belief that this tragedy is justice in action.
How many of the people currently living in Haiti were alive when the pact with the devil was made? How many grandparents of the people alive in Haiti today were alive when the pact with the devil was made?
Thanks.
GF, the fact remains that the earthquake happened. God could have caused it not to happen. He allowed it to proceed. Whether there was a pact with Satan (as Pat Robertson AND the American Family Association both assert, and they’re both respected Christian leaders) or not, God could have stopped the earthquake. He could have slowed it to be a slight tremor. HE DIDN’T. Why?
As regards the “logic” of the pact with the devil, if it happened, I suggest you check here: http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147491158
Short version: 200-year pact with Satan, begins 1804 (when French are expelled); ends 2004, but in 2003 Aristide establishes devil-worship (voodoo) as an official religion, thus re-establishing the pact.
Voodoo is devil worship? Clearly, you don’t understand your own religion let alone Voodoo. I guess all of the children who are dying, homeless, orphans, or having limbs amputated are at fault as well, right? I’m sure you’ll quote an Old Testament scripture that called for the killing of innocent children that applies to modern day Haiti now.
Worship of anything that is not God is worship of Satan. He has many disguises.
I should think that would be obvious!
As for things that happen . . . If God allows it to happen, it must be part of His Plan. After all, He IS all-powerful and could stop anything NOT part of His Plan.
These are really unsatisfactory answers, mostly rhetoric and poor logic.
Attacking someone’s spelling to respond to a point about fossils is an example of ad hominem; if you’re not familiar with this logical fallacy, please acquaint yourself so at least next time you engage in debate you avoid such rhetoric and focus on the question.
The Catholic Cult, eh? As an unreligious person I find it incredibly ironic that you (presumably Protestants?) point at the Catholics as a cult yet fail to see the immensely cultlike behavior present in your own denominations.
As for the agreeably ridiculous belief that crackers and wine turn into flesh and blood, have you taken the time to examine equally ridiculous claims which are at the base of your faith? — Starting with, e.g., the existence of some unquantifiable supernatural being that created the universe and interferes daily with its course? Or that a man changed water into wine?
“Tell me, if Haitians didn’t make a pact with Satan to remove the French from Haiti, why did God allow the earthquake to happen?”
This is like asking “have you stopped beating your wife” to a man without a wife. Atheists — and hopefully a lot of reasonable religious people — don’t believe that God allowed the earthquake to happen. That belief is not required to understand why an earthquake happened, only plate tectonics.
If I throw a rock off the roof of the Sears tower, and it hits somebody on the head and kills them, are you saying that it only happened because God allowed it (presumably for some unprovable theory like a pact with the devil?). What about the millions of innocents dying every day?
I can’t find an answer on this website — what happens if after your day of prayer, Trig is still stuck with downs syndrome? Will you finally accept that you are, quite simply, living in a natural world with no deities? I hope you be reasonable enough to accept this conclusion, and live your life to its fullest, enjoying every moment and not holding back for an afterlife.
Tell me, Mark . . . if God doesn’t allow things to happen, how exactly is it that they happen?
You wrote your comment before our name change. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now . . . all is explained in the FAQ.
I hope you’ll help us find an appropriate miracle for which to pray, Mark! Will you come to Jesus when the miracle happens?
If you will agree to come to Jesus when God follows through, I’ll agree to publicly deny God on this very site if He doesn’t.
Shirlee,
This might make a good new topic, but I’ll ask it here for now…..
I am an atheist. I have been convinced of the absence of God by the vast preponderance of the evidence. I have no desire for the world to be one way or the other, but I do think it is important (very) to know how things are.
That said, if you were to succeed and Trig is cured of Down’s syndrome, I will immediately become a believer. This is precisely the kind of thing that should be possible if the Bible is true and the word of God. So far, in every place I’ve looked, the world does not work in the way put forth by the Bible.
Now my question for you: If/when Trig is not healed; can we get a commitment about how this will impact your beliefs? I’ve seen time and again that no failure is spectacular enough for a true believer to question his/her beliefs. I could rifle off a long list of events that would change my mind about the existence of God. Trig being cured would certainly make that list. What, if anything, can you think of that would make you think you have been wrong?
All the best,
Scott
Shirlee, I suggest you read http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ – it’s a list of logical fallacies. Since you committed several in your response to that message (ad hominem, appeal to authority, appeal to belief, genetic fallacy, just to name a few), most of which did little but weaken your own arguments. You also picked one of the more ridiculous examples to ridicule, instead of choosing any of the more reasonable posts and questions presented by atheists. For that is what this post was — attempted ridicule, not argument.
Unfortunately, once you remove the appeal to authority and appeal to belief logical fallacies, you don’t have anything else to stand on as far as most atheists are concerned regarding believing in God. And we do not hate God, because we cannot hate something that does not exist. We’re consistently disappointed and often angered at the awful things people do in the name of religious belief, but that is quite different from hating something that does not exist.
it’s pretty funny how bad you people are letting this site troll you
Shirlee,
So what did Sarah Pallin do that God let Trig be born with his illness or was it his fathers fault? Also I like the part where killing the president is funny your sense of wit is inspiring.
Stay Classy,
Anthony
“I will proudly change my mind and recant my atheism if the impossible happens after a day of prayer. Only if you are ready to accept the opposite.” – This kind of ultimatum is a pointless attempt to change someone’s belief, those who are religious, you should know that God should not be tempted to prove himself, so this prayer day is futile for anything except improving something. In which case it’s not worth your time arguing.
Atheists, lay off, this website isn’t designed for you. I say this as an impartial by-stander.
[...] note: Shirlee, for all her piety, is (like many fundamentalists / evangelicals) virulently anti-Catholic. “High Church? What, the Catholic Cult? Do you mean the people who worship [...]
Yes, I have returned.
Hey Shirley, Since Haiti had an earthquake for their pact with the devil, does Chile also have a pact with the devil after their earthquake the other day? Could you please elaborate on the details?
I have decided that I want to pray for something myself. The Rapture. If it happens then you and all of your friends can go home and we can finally experience peace on Earth. Lets face it more people have died and been mutilated in Gods name than have been saved or healed.
Feel free to take more cheap shots at my spelling. I love it when the loving faithful show their petty sides. It tends to make them seem more like human beings than the self righteous that claim “to love everyone as long as you think like we (Meaning you) do” cultists that you are.
Hey Girlfriend,
Shirley, can you hook me up with some of those communion wafers? They go great with Easy Cheese and Grape soda. Mmmm….Yum!