Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
A God moment
Recently the whole family got together for a nice dinner and a show. We ate at an Italian joint in Little Italy (Baltimore) and went to see Wicked. We always have a good time when we get together but my family often amazes me. Before the appetizer course came out my sister came out of the blue with a report from church. She relayed a story of someone who had a "God moment" during the ice storm we'd had earlier that week. One of the folks from their church, a slightly older gentleman, had fallen in the ice and broken his leg. His cell phone had been out of batteries but he still managed to call his wife to get help. That was what my sister gave god credit for. Allowing a previously out of charge cell phone to call for help...
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What's most frustrating to me is that my family is full of smart people. My sister is has a masters in math, my father an ET nuke in the Navy who later got a business degree and my mother a degree in psychology. All of them seemed to take it for granted that this simple chemical reaction that allowed the churchie to make a phone call was an act of God. They didn't even seem to consider a simpler explanation. I've run my cell phone out of juice plenty of times. If I then leave it off for even a short period of time I can then turn it on and make a short phone call. No sky fairy cell phone charging service necessary.
What makes otherwise intelligent people take stories like this and credit them to a god? My sister looked at me as soon as she finished telling the story. I'm sure she could see how incredulous I looked. She just looked away and our conversation then returned to our normal banter. It pains me to see this sort of behavior out of people I otherwise love and respect.
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Been there, done that.
I feel your pain. My sister is an ex-Navy Med Tech, and is now studying pharmacology, but she becomes incensed when she feels her children are being taught that they evolved from apes. The kicker is, though, that she isn't even in the slightest bit religious in her habits or actions (she never goes to church, or even prays, that I know of), but has just absorbed this attitude from my mother. My mom and dad taught me to believe in God, and to think for myself. I chose to think for myself.
"One man's theology is another man's belly laugh."--Robert A Heinlien
God's weird and limitted power...
If GOd is so powerful, why couldn't he blow a little dirt to cover up the ice, giving enough grit to prevent the man from breaking his leg?
Can you say "criminal neglect?"
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If religion was based on facts, it would be called science. And no one would believe it. -- Stephen Colbert
Yeah, because...
Yeah, because God is behind all those chemical reactions, see? He makes sure each and every one works, and that the surface charge in that nice old man's phone was able to save the day.
Of course, trying to blame God for all the times that someone's cell phone didn't work and they died...or even when the batteries in the smoke detector failed and that church burned down, killing all those orphans...well, that just wouldn't be fair to God, now would it?
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Exactly!
This is precisely what knocks me off balance. Some in my family are just not that smart and I cut them a lot of slack, but many are too intelligent to believe what they believe.
Exactly! But it pains me even more that they are passing this nonsense on to their children. Innocent, unsuspecting children will have their brains contorted like a pretzel before they even have a chance to think for themselves.