There is a lot of suffering in the world, but not to worry, they are just punishments from God for all the things particular Christians don’t like. We bring all this suffering and death on ourselves by allowing evil sinners to do things we claim God doesn’t like. That’s what some Christians are still telling me.
Tag atheism
Rabbi David Wolpe was named the most influential Rabbi in the country by Newsweek Magazine in 2012. He is also no stranger to high profile debates with atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. Recently he posted an interesting meme on his Facebook page which inspired me to make a comment. Wolpe responded and I want to share our brief exchange and my thoughts about it in more detail. Here is the meme:
So here is the situation. My local representative on the School Board was a Republican and was caught stealing money from a charity. He was kicked off the School Board and so there was a vacancy. The current Board issued a call for people to replace him. There would be an interview with the Board and then the Board would vote. Since my son will be starting public school in this district, I decided to throw my hat in the ring.
The interview was on Monday night. Most of the questions were standard questions asked of all the candidates until the Republican Vice-President asked me about my atheism.
Atheism is on the rise in America and yet we are constantly discriminated against and marginalized because of our lack of belief in imaginary friends. For atheists who value reason, logic, and the scientific method, it sometimes seems like the inmates have taken over the asylum. But it shouldn’t have to be like this. Atheists make up a larger percentage of the American population than Jews, Muslims, and every other non-Christian religion in America combines. If we want to be less marginalized, there are things we can and should be doing.
On Saturday, I got to have a conversation with Sanderson Jones. He is the co-founder of Sunday Assembly. That’s the group that the media has labeled, “The Atheist Church.” And on Sunday, I attended the Sunday Assembly and got to see first-hand what it is all about.
I recently received a comment from a Christian pointing out that the Bible supports fasting for health reasons and that a scientific study has shown that fasting can be beneficial to cancer patients on Chemotherapy. The commenter then added that “this was another case of science catching up with God’s advice.”
Picture this, you are walking on a beach and all you see for miles is sand. Then, out of nowhere you find a perfectly formed rock. How do you suppose it got there? How could a rock have formed naturally?
When we think about religious believers, we tend to think that they all actually believe in the belief system that they identify with, however that might not always be the case. Many religious believers are brought up in the traditions of religion but might not really believe in the actual beliefs – and really, who can blame them. Many of those beliefs are pretty ridiculous.
The argument goes like this:
The universe is made up of matter and energy.
We are made up of matter and energy.
Therefore, we are the universe trying to understand itself.
Therefore, we are God.
Fundamentalist Christians have been putting out films for a while and not that God’s Not Dead has been successful, we can expect to see more of these super heavy handed religious films from the batshit crazy sector of society.