The title is so obvious that you can already guess what I am going to say. I will not disappoint you.
I have to wonder what an Intelligent Divine Designer would have been up to, if He really wanted – or even allowed – Aids and Alzheimer’s to exist. What possible meaning can one give to such divine indifference or cruelty ? Atheists are at war with windmills. We are the modern Don Quixote’s, though, I hope, less demented than the Spanish knight. Today’s windmills, the fervent believers and preachers full of hot air, want us to continue to believe their nonsense, when they talk about God acting in “mysterious ways” or inflicting these horrors “to try us”. We, Don Quixote redivivus, will do our best to discredit the mills that crank out credulity.
But if you take five – or even less, just a single moment, to think – do you seriously believe that a good God would want us to suffer from diseases like these ? It is tragically true that some Christian maniacs actually suggest that Aids is a divine punishment for our immorality, if not homosexuality.
I just hope that some far-seeing international editor will publish my final opus, combining my book “From Illusions to Illumination” and this blog (“blindfaithblindfolly”), before I succumb to the Alzheimer’s that killed my brother Mick at age 67. I may very well one day lose my marbles, as he did. But I would love to share the Reflections these marbles have allowed me to write, and which I modestly suggest deserve a wide readership, before this disease, or another, kills me. It is the last item on my Bucket List.
RIDENDA RELIGIO
Blind Faith: Blind Folly 
Ha! And this is not to even mention all the millions ( I saw a list of actual commandments to kill men, women and children by date and books/verses in the Bible and it was upwards of 22 million) ordered killed. And think of the millions of animal sacrifices too. Oh but such a loving god.
Oh and all those childhood cancers that kill children… tornadoes, hurricanes that kill and ruin lives and livelihoods….gee but those mysterious ways.
And to me, the proof that these so called religious nuts deep down do doubt, is their constant prayers asking this god to change what he already had planned in his all infinite knowingness. And then thanking him profusely with more prayers when they survive some natural disaster or cancer, but their neighbor doesn’t…like they are special and better.
It’s all so absurd.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is, to say the least, frustrating not to be able to get believers to see just how absurd their beliefs are. I have found through long experience that it is pointless to presume we can convince the gung-ho believer. S/he has an answer, provided by centuries of Christian and notably Catholic Apologetics, to every one of our examples. That’s why this Blog sets its target-readership on BOTBs, Believers on the Brink, who have already jettisoned one or two major beliefs but often hang on to the hope for life after death. I believe that this post provides some of the best reasons for rejecting a so-called God of Love.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You might like this article…it’s a whole series.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2019/03/the-beast-in-the-shadows-behind-religion/
LikeLiked by 1 person
This one too
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2015/10/the-problem-with-faith-11-ways-religion-is-destroying-humanity/
LikeLiked by 1 person
For seven years I lived in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the shadow of Oral Roberts University, but I never heard about God writing the Constitution. It is, of course, no more outrageous than the Talmud’s, the New Testament’s and the Koran’s claims for their supposed divine inspiration. First prize however goes to Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon. No one has yet recognized the divine authorship of this Blog, but I do have a plan of slipping its address (blindfaithblindfolly.wordpress.com) into those Bibles you find in a drawer in your hotel. Readers have been known to get giddy on my 886 posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you just remember 3 things, original sin, redemption and eternal life, you should be able to sort things out, better understand evil, appreciate blessings and comprehend a God of perfect goodness,
Hint: Evil is the deprivation of goodness.
Most of the deep worries that torment you will dissolve and you will be free from the bond of atheism; no more need to repeat 886 times your worries. .
LikeLike
I’d suggest that “evil” is the distortion of truth. Jim might want to reflect on that and better understand the baleful role he plays in the corruption of innocent minds.
LikeLike
Now why didn’t I think of that ! Of course ! The Six Steps reduced to one sentence. It would seem I forgot all about original sin, redemption and eternal life. With them in mind I will be able to sort things out, better understand Aids and Alzheimer’s and babies dying of cancer and pedophile predatory priests, appreciate my good luck and above all comprehend a God of perfect goodness who punishes people who miss Sunday Mass just once, by sticking them on the barbie in Hell for all eternity.
LikeLike
It is unclear whether Jim was being mildly ironic with his latest comment. He is of course being far from original in dragging the rotting corpse of “original sin” into the blog. Nobody ” with any semblance of rationality can seriously accept the nonsense that is trotted out from time to time about Adam and Eve and (OMG!!) “ORIGINAL SIN”. I fear that Jim peddles this nonsense to the kids who attend his “religious studies” classes in our State schools here in Sydney.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suspect, Thom, that you are being too kind to Jim in suggesting that he may be practising even a mild tongue-in-cheek irony here. His track-record over the years would indicate that he is incapable of joking about doctrines he considers as (eternal) life and death issues. I can see him smiling with self-satisfaction that he has us bothering to wonder about what he really meant. Whether he is serious or not, it is clear that we both pity him – and especially the kids he brainwashes.
LikeLike
Correction!
I do not brain wash kids in vague “religious studies” but in Catholic faith.
I do not repeat 886 times “There is no god, and the god who is-not is cruel”.
After a good scrubbing, the students have the crystal clear vision of Blaise Pascal.
I am ticking Frank’s box with “like “as Tom never reciprocates Frank’s generous gesture.
LikeLike
I am impressed and honoured that Frank remembers in precise detail, minor remarks that I made many years ago. Are they bothering him? Keep reflecting on them,mate.
LikeLike
Thom and I have humored Jim, hoping that he would say something about Aids and Alzheimer’s. As usual, he avoided the issue. In his diversionary ramblings he did however admit that he does in fact “brainwash kids”, not in religious studies, but “in Catholic faith”. Poor kids. Poor Jim.
LikeLike
What I will say more specifically about aids is that it is/was Catholic nuns in Catholic hospitals, as usual, through Christian love and inspired by Christ’s love , who were of the most visible and practical assistance. As usual, atheists were conspicuous by their absence.
My 3 word response-original sin, redemption, eternal life- would have satisfied an intellect like that of renowned Canadian psychologist, Jordan Petersen, who is not yet Christian but he would have filled in the dots. Perhaps I can add “free will” to help you work it out.
Atheists deny belief in eternal life and consequently can not explain apparent unfairness. Of course there is apparent unfairness if all justice has to be achieved in our very brief ,earthly life span.
Would atheists be happier if God had not given them the gift of free will, so they would not misuse it? Much human misery results from misuse of free will.
I am sure that Frank appreciates his free will.
Through the supremely loving act of redemption by Christ’s passion, we are able to enter eternal life, where justice is completed.
I have forgotten what I wanted to say about alzheimer’s!!
LikeLike
1. Counting Catholic and atheist noses never proved anything. One Catholic nun, Mother Teresa, famously, like the Pope, added to the Aids epidemic by condemning the use of condoms.
2. Jim, you seem to think that listing three Christian myths – original sin, redemption and eternal life – is an argument in itself. (I can hear Petersen saying to himself : “Why didn’t I think of that ?”). Adding free-will – denied by many philosophers and scientists – is no help at all.
3. What justifies your claim that life should be fair, that because manifestly “justice” is not achieved during our earthly life, there must be reward for the good and punishment for people like me in a supposed after-life ? Excrement occurs.
4. I don’t know whether to congratulate you or not on your clever cop-out conclusion. It’s the closest you have even been to revealing a sense of humor, one that I will never, myself . . . forget.
LikeLike
I too rejoiced that Jim appeared finally to be sending himself up.
Perhaps also I thought that Jim might have finally realised that his comments on the blog might very likely have the opposite of the intended effect. I thought he is either a glutton for punishment or he is seriously deluded. Either way I wish him no harm. But I would be happier if he retired from his role indoctrinating kids in the incredible beliefs of Catholicism. They would be much more profitably occupied on a properly structured course in “ethics” – with an appropriate strand devoted to comparative religion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thom deserves to have the last word on this too typical exchange, or rather dialogue of the deaf, with our ineffable antagonist, Jim. Charles Darwin himself, in his Autobiography, lamented the almost irreparable damage done by brainwashing children in religious myth : “Let us not underestimate the probability that constant education in believing in God in the mind of children produces an effect so powerful, which can be hereditary in their as yet not fully developed brains. It would be as difficult for them to reject belief in God as for a monkey to abandon its hate and instinctive fear of snakes.”
LikeLike