I was walking inside an assisted living facility the other day. There was an elderly woman in a wheelchair who had no legs (amputated, most likely, perhaps diabetes, I don't know). Coming from the opposite direction I was walking was a middle-aged woman and three small children. As they were passing the amputee, one little girl (she might have been 5 years old) said to the middle-aged woman, "That lady doesn't have any legs." To which the middle-aged woman replied, "Well that's the way God made her."

I didn't hear if the little girl said anything more, but I would have loved to hear her say, "Why is God such a bastard?" because that would be what I would have asked. Why didn't the woman just say nothing, or "Well that happens sometimes." instead of filling a child's head with nonsense, and wondering what the lady did to piss off god.

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Three mountain climbers on Mt Hood were missing for several days here recently. The body of one was found, the other two were not found after 5 days of searching, then the weather forced the search and rescue teams to stop their searches.

The mother of the one who's body was found was on television afterwards, talking about her son to the rescuers, apparently trying to cheer on the search parties. She said things like "Luke loved to hike, he loved the outdoors, and he loved Jesus."

Well, apparently Jesus hated him, having skipped him off the side of Mt Hood like a flat stone on a pond.

I always find it amusing when biblical apologists try to explain what was really meant by a particular story of the "bible". If god was so all-powerful and all-knowing, wouldn't he had written his book so all could understand it, as is, for all eternity, instead of leaving things open to interpretation?

Here's an example. The test of Abraham. Here, god tells Abraham to prove his faith by killing his first born son. But when Abe finally is ready to actually do it, after agonizing for who knows how long, god stops him at the last second.

To the apologist, this is god's way of testing his subjects to make sure they're really faithful (so much for being all-knowing). In a modern context, this is called psychological terror. We arrest people and put them away for doing stuff like that.

The apologist says that such tests were a normal part of life during that time. So that somehow makes it right. There are reasons we don't do those things any more.

Revenant

BBC Article: http://bit.ly/3wYMjt

Now, before you click on the link, try to think of the most annoying thing you can. Fingernails on a blackboard? People talking at the movies? Obnoxious assholes on their phones at the grocery store?

Ok click the link. I'll wait....

How would you like to get stuck on THAT flight?

Apart from the extremely annoying atmosphere, what are the odds that what they're trying to accomplish will actually work? And people say we're supposed to respect their religious beliefs.

I got yer respect right here, fucktards.

Revenant

I've been watching a lot of old UFC and Pride fights lately, and am still amazed at the level of stupidity displayed by the vast majority of the contestants.

Don't get me wrong, I love MMA fights. But, like most sports, the players so often thank god for a win, but never blame god for a loss. How's that work exactly? The cognitive dissonance is simply astounding.

I'm going to single out one fighter who isn't normally so "god-overt", Rich Franklin.

Rich is billed as an intelligent guy, a former high school math teacher from Ohio. He's very literate, speaks very well, seems intelligent. But when he won the Middleweight title belt from Evan Tanner back in UFC 50-something, he made this statement after the fight:

I'd like to thank god for protecting me in the ring.

So let's look at this innocuous-sounding statement.

If god was protecting Franklin, we have to assume he wasn't protecting Tanner. Does that mean god had a vendetta against Tanner? What did Tanner ever do to god?

And where was god when Franklin later lost his belt to Anderson Silva? Was Silva more pious than Franklin, therefore Franklin was stripped of his belt by god? Did Silva sacrifice more unblemished rams to god than Franklin that month? And where was god when Franklin lost to Lyoto Machida before Franklin was a champion? Was Machida more pious than Franklin then?

Franklin lost twice to Silva. God must REALLY like Silva, except when Silva lost to a Japanese fighter in a Pride fight before he became UFC Middleweight champ. I guess the Japanese guy was more pious than Silva that day.

In a later UFC event, Franklin gave his opinion on who would win the big fight (not a fight he was in) coming up. At no time did he mention god protection as a determining factor, but discussed the skills of the two opponents. Strange.

I know, I'm talking about people who get punched repeatedly in the face for a living. But you'd think after all that time they'd have some sense knocked into them and realize it's skill and chance, not the protection of the big sky daddy that wins fights.

Idiots

Revenant

I often hear the phrase that someone has "strange religious beliefs".

Are there any religious beliefs which aren't strange??