So my family knows some people connected to the church in San Antonio that just had the mass shooting. They are bible literalists and always talk about prayer and they are interacting via group text asking everybody to pray for the families in the hospitals.
I'm not responding in these texts because Im the only atheist in my family and I don't know anyone in their church groups.
It pisses me off so much that they express such concern and desire for everyone to pray for the victims and they don't stop to think for even 1 second that THEY WERE KILLED IN A CHURCH!!!
This whole group text conversation just reeks of intellectual dishonesty from all sides and I just want to call it out so bad and say "Do ya'll never stop to think why your god could not protect people in a place where they come to worship him but you think he is going to do something after the fact in the hospital?" I hate dishonesty and wishful thinking so much and its on display in an extraordinary way right now!!!
Is it wrong for me to feel this way?
I mean I am sympathetic for the families affected by this tragedy but I can't participate in this nonsense.
9
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7 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Believing in divine intervention of any kind takes incredible cognitive dissonance. God is supposedly all-powerful, yet is not powerful enough to prevent mass homicides... but he will selectively save certain individuals during or after those homicides... based on no criteria that can be discerned by mere mortals. It seems to be a contest between the devil and god, in which the devil tempts us to go around killing people, and god apparently can't talk us into not killing people.
I feel truly sorry for believers who pray and worship yet nevertheless see a friend or loved one die tragically. There must be a sense of wondering why their loved one wasn't worthy of a miracle, while others were.
Paul4747
Level 8
Nov 13, 2017
2
It's a difficult balancing act to get the right balance of sympathy and rejection of the BS. On the whole it is probably best to say as little as possible. You are right in your feelings, but it's sometimes best to say as little as possible.
Squirrellglider
Level 7
Nov 13, 2017
1
I get it perfectly, why can't they (the believers)? Seems like either it's them or us. But we have logic on our side and they have god.
Penultimate
Level 6
Nov 13, 2017
2
My brother-in-law was a marine, one of the sixteen killed in the C-130 accident over Mississippi. Out of the blue my sister started getting mail from people she didn't even know telling her about Jesus and how she needed to pray and giver her life over to him so that she could live forever. It was disgusting and gut-wrenching, and it pissed me off to now end.
And when we let our friends know, mostly through social media, many of our Christian friends responded by saying, without any sense of irony at all, "We're praying for your protection..." My sister and I both talked about it wondering how they didn't get that the reason all this happened was that we "weren't" protected in the first place. How could they no know that?
Benthoven
Level 8
Nov 12, 2017
3
Wow man that's crazy, I would be pissed too. I feel sorry for ya'll having to go through that I couldn't imagine. But if I deal with something like that in my future it won't surprise me. It's shocking to see how religious peoples brains work.
If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate. Figuring out a prudent balance takes wisdom. -Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
MichaelBaribeau
Level 5
Nov 12, 2017
4
One of my favorite books! I've read it twice! Great quote
Here's my favorite from that book...
"There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed, no sacred truths. That openness to new ideas, combined with the most rigorous scrutiny of all ideas, sifts the wheat from the chaff. It makes no difference how smart, august, or beloved you are. You must prove your case in the face of determined, expert criticism. Diversity and debate are valued. Opinions are encouraged to contend - substantively and in depth."
Gotta love Sagan!!!
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Thousands of years of prayer, yet all the "bad" things continue to happen. Either god does not care or she has a bad case of selective listening. Well, in her defense, she did waste a miracle on me and helped me find my keys the other day.
CaptainAwesome
Level 4
Nov 12, 2017
5
Lol. She needs to get her priorities straight.
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