very timely.

If it kills me, by gawd they are going to save my soul!

A lot of Christians do anyway.

I can honestly say followers of other religions have never assumed I was also a believer of their religion.

You express a thought that so-and-so is never going to be held accountable and some well meaning, albeit bubble-living, person says to not worry. That one day god will hold them accountable.

Because, you know, everyone lives in your bubble and everyone believes in a celestial judgment day, where all wrongs are righted, and justice finally prevails.

Where bad people finally get theirs and said judgment is the only type of real justice people can ever know for sure. Because someone tweets from above to give progress reports on all that justice. So much justice you will get tired of justice.

Kind of like telling people in misery and poverty that their suffering on earth merely brings them closer to heaven.

I guess thoughts of an empty stomach or justice being filled on some unknown day in the future can keep a person feeling good about their pain and suffering, because when their starving or beaten bodies finally give up the fight, heaven will open its gate.

It's merely the price they are paying for a great reward. How noble is that!

I mean, we could help people now and right as many wrongs as we come across in life to improve the lives of all humans....or we could tell people to just wait...heaven is a gift awaiting the meek, the hungry, the suffering, and the broken - etc..

What's a little justice on earth compared to the everlasting justice of the unknown? (and I ain't seen no tweets)

I'm still cranky it seems.

Religion was used to keep slaves from revolting and women docile for thousands of years. If they believed they only get one life then they would be more likely to rebel against their owners/husbands. Keep your head down, do as you're told, don't fight it, your suffering will end and your reward will come in the next life.

Nailed it!

Do not tell us to shut up or stop fighting. Don't like the AA group? Don't read it.

The rules are very clear about using certain terms and scolding atheists who post here. This is a safe haven.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."

It's an oral history. It was passed down, word-of-mouth, father to son, from Adam to Seth, from Seth to Enos, from Enos to Cainan, for 40 generations, a growing, changing, story, it was handed down, word-of-mouth, father to son. Until Moses finally gets it down on lambskin. But lambskins wear out, and need to be recopied. Copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of an oral history passed down through 40 generations.

From Hebrew it's translated into Arabic, from Arabic to Latin, from Latin to Greek, from Greek to Russian, from Russian to German, from German to an old form of English that you could not read. Through 400 years of evolution of the English language to the book we have today, which is: a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of an oral history passed down through 40 generations.

You can't put a grocery list through that many translations, copies, and re-telling, and not expect to have some big changes in the dinner menu when the kids make it back from Kroger's.

And yet people are killing each other over this written word.

Here's a tip: If you're killing (or torturing, beating, or raping...or mis-educating, restricting the rights of),someone in the name of God — you're missing the message.

Thanks for the post, bmus.

...expect to have some big changes.

Exactly. I grit my teeth in silent frustration when I hear people say that they are absolutely certain that the version of "the" bible they read is the literal word of god.

We have a friend who is the ex-wife of a Methodist minister (he got caught having an affair with a parishioner. She once told us of a member of the congregation who did not believe that foreign lang ages should be taught in American schools. His rationale - "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me."

I have no clue how to combat such flagrant ignorance.

the rights of), someone in the name of God," then be honest--you're just using God's name to do what you really want to do for your own nasty purposes.

The thing is 'killing (or torturing, beating, or raping...or mis-educating, restricting the rights of),someone' is in the bible - it is the word of God.

I refer to it as Schrödinger's bible - it can be used to support kindness and generosity and it can be used to support slavery and genocide. All of its followers pick and choose which parts to focus on.

So what good is it as a moral guide?

Just scrap the whole thing and follow the golden rule.

through countless hands, eras, and places. A piece of literature. No more, no less.

i have often described myself as a devout atheist. i am also a hospice volunteer. i take my bulldog to the in patient unit, and sometimes to homes.

i am good at dodging random comments from family about where their loved ones are going, but the visiting clergy sometimes make me nuts.
it wouldnt be so bad if some of them werent so bossy. i had one lady preacher who hated dogs who keep the family corralled in the room to protect them from my obviously dangerous dog. he is a big guy, but a bigger cupcake you will never find.
sad thing is most of the family wanted to visit w the dog. every time one escaped the room, they came over to say hi.

i ended up just sorta hovering in a strategic spot so i could catch them on the way to the family room, or on their way out the door.

next time neither of us will roll over at the sight of that magic collar.

His fundy mother had been trying to indoctrinate him for years so she enlisted their help and they ganged up on him until he agreed to become born again. They used guilt and the threat of damnation to brainwash a scared desperate kid. It was awful. Of course when he got out and backslid that made him feel even worse.

It's one thing for clergy to make themselves available to comfort people and quite another to prey on them.