Monday, January 4, 2010

Guns Don’t Kill People, God Kills People

I came across this news story the other day while searching CNN.com to find out if Rush Limbaugh was dead yet.

4-Year-Old Hit By Bullet At Church Dies - Atlanta News Story - WGCL Atlanta

littleboy

In, essence.  A little boy and his mother were a some sort of midnight mass celebration at their church and out of nowhere a bullet pierced her son’s chest, he screamed, lost consciousness and died.  Wow. Seriously?  I thought “god” was supposed to be a “loving and forgiving god”.  At least, that’s what the bible thumpers tell me when I say I don’t believe in it.  Is this the same “god” that would let a little baby be born with AIDS?  Or addicted to crack?  Or with its heart outside of its chest?  That “god”? Or is this the same “god” that commanded Abraham to kill his son Isaac as proof of how devoted he was to him?  The same “god” that allowed Lot to offer up his daughters as sexual slaves and then lets him get drunk and impregnate them?  Or is this the same “god” that won’t heal amputees?  Or the same one that lets good people fester and die from diseases like Cancer, Lymphoma, Parkinson’s Disease, and such?

I’m just wondering.  Really I am.  I am wondering how anyone could actually believe that if there is some sort of omnipotent cloud fairy up in the sky, pulling the strings, how could he possibly think it is ok to let a 4 year old get shot in the fucking chest and die in his mother’s arms?  And I don’t want to hear any of the “oh it was his time” crap  or “god works in mysterious ways” or “an angel needed to be called home”.  Fuck that bullshit.  A child is DEAD because of human idiocy.  If indeed there is a puppet master, how about ending the suffering of the mother and bringing the child back to life?  How about eradicating famine, and poverty, and genocide?  No, no.  Don’t tell me.  It’s that great loophole to explain it all: Free Will.  “God” gave us all free will and he doesn’t interfere because that would be baaaaad.

Sorry, but doesn’t he do a shitload of interfering in the bible?  Especially when he doesn’t get its way and behaves likes a spoiled brat?  “I’m going to kill all these people because they don’t worship me properly”, or “I don’t like how things are being run in Sodom and Gomorrah.  To much focusing on happiness and enjoyment and not enough kissing my ass.”

The most disgusting part of all of this are those who think this little boy is floating about somewhere in the sky with wings and a harp.  Are you kidding me?  Does the loss of a child not make this woman sit back and say, “Hang on a sec.  My son was an innocent little boy he was killed in a horrible freak accident.  There is no way that this “god” that I’ve been kowtowing to my whole life is real”.  For me, that’s the biggest mindfuck of all.  Your kid is dead.  Shot in a church nonetheless, and yet, you’re still going to sing “his” praises next Sunday, and have some priest do a blessing over his coffin at his funeral.  Really?  REALLY?

I know what you’re saying.  “Alessia, you’re just angry with “god” and that’s why you don’t believe in him. You blame “god” for all the bad things in the world.”  Um, not quite.  Human beings are to blame for bad things in the world.  Human beings and that wonderful thing I like to call “chance”.  It’s all a crap shoot.  Look at the people who for some reason or another did not get to work on time on 9/11 and thus were spared from being turned into dust.  Sure, the believers will sit there and say things like “God was looking out for them” or “God spared them”.  But here’s the question, what about the other 3000 people who died? What about them?  Did “god” suddenly have to step out and check the mail?  Were they just not worthy enough in his eyes to have a full life? Where was “god” when the jumpers took to the skies to escape the burning holocaust inside?  Could he at least given them a net?  Maybe let them sprout wings so they didn’t turn to soup as they hit the ground? 

As a matter of fact?  Which “god” was working on 9/11?  If you were to ask Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, “god” did a great job that day.  He fulfilled all of their wishes.  He answered their prayers and helped them carry out their plan.  Is god a flip-flopper?  Does he say, “Today, I’m going to help terrorists blow up buildings, but tomorrow I’m going to let a good Christian sniper off an abortion doctor”.  Help me out here, because I don’t get it.

I know, I know, it’s another “Angry Atheist” post from Alessia, but honestly, can anyone not tell me that they don’t ask themselves these questions from time to time?  Or is faith really that blind that it just accepts everything as “god’s will” and moves on?  I know that it is important to be tolerant of all different beliefs and I understand that most, if not all, of the people I surround myself with are religious and that my rantings may offend them, but I can’t help but to express my frustration and confusion as to the reasoning and the “logic” that goes with this whole “god” business.  Carl Sagan said, “Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.”  The death of this little boy is a testament as to how fragile our lives are.  The chances of you becoming a you and a me becoming me are so miniscule, that it is a privilege to even be here as part of the Universe. 

I’ve run out of steam.  I don’t know how to end this.  Possibly because I’ve got Sid the Science Kid in the background and a 3 year old asking me if he can have hot dogs for breakfast.  So I don’t know how to finish up this New Year’s tirade.  If I’ve made you think, good.  If I’ve pissed you off, sorry, but you know I don’t mince words.  If you don’t care either way, that’s fine too.  Now go have a nice day in the minute we are allotted here in the Universe.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Did you hear about the pastor who killed his son on Christmas Day?

It's a crazy world...

Alessia L. said...

Nice to meet you Ginx. And ugh on that story.

Carla said...

all good points and i agree with you on all of them. most people are stupid! read all your posts....don't comment alot though. Happy New Year.

Alessia L. said...

Hi Carla! I checked out your blog, and I LOVE the rooms you have done. My decorating style is "put it there". Thanks for visiting my blog and Happy New Year to you as well.

cookiemonstersnipe said...

Sounds about right... But you know the religious always cling to their faith... otherwise they'd have little else going on there

inkelywinkely said...

Yeah, I think it is crap, and it is literally painful for me sometimes to try and figure out why things happen..but I can try to explain to you why I believe there is something. someone bigger than me at work..LOL..try being the keyword, as long as you aren't too hard on me?

I think that there is pain and suffering in the world, but that is co-exists with God/Gods/Goddesses, and at the same time, exists whether he/she/they/it does or not. I think that it is a by product of free will. God cannot stop our free will, sort of like the whole genie in a bottle thing, you know? We can decide to do good or evil, but there is no one making us do either..as it would exists whether we made a omnipotent, omnipresent being or it is a reality.

I do think that sometimes, that suffering can be molded through God's hands, even if he cannot stop it or make it happen. For instance, this child dying. It sucks really bad, and God can't stop it, but because he is a loving God, he wouldn't allow this child or his parents to suffer for no reason. Maybe SOMEONE needed some wake up call, and this was a situation that was going to happen anyway, so he/she/it used this situation to teach said lesson. Like, a silver lining in the rain cloud? Maybe these parents are to have another child, and that child is going to be very hard to parent, and the parents learn to be patient and to always stay by that child side no matter what the child does because they lost this one? And, that child that isn't born yet could save the world, could be someone great..someone that wouldn't have been if they hadn't had those parents.

Does that make any kind of sense to you? I have no idea if it makes sense to even me, but I like to think that trying to see the good in things is part of being in the hands of some loving idea/though/being....

I also think that somethings we are no supposed to understand...that as I said, sometimes, shit just happens because we are people, and we have free will.

I hope that helps...then again, I am not your average believer..LOL..I don't have the slightest idea what religion I would be considered and I don't care for religions as I feel they are just the impressions one person has of the world that other people who don't have the guts to figure out life for themselves follow blindly. I have been ousted by many people because I fit nowhere, and maybe that is why I don't allow crap to get in the way of my judgments of these situations and can actually say, with all certainty, "I don't know..and maybe I am not supposed to", and "Sometimes, shit just happens because we suck"..

inkelywinkely said...

BTW, I have NO IDEA who God is, whether it is one being, may, a woman, a man, a feeling, or just Mother Nature...so don't even ask. LOL...It's just another of those things that I feel like I maybe am not supposed to know.

My religion is my own impression of the world..I just try to be a good person, be full of love and understanding, though I fail horribly at times. I feel like, if there is something else, I will be doing what is right, even if there is no label for it. Not because I want to be rewarded, but because I feel like it is the right thing.

I look at this life as an educational experience...Why are we here? It is an answer unique to each person. You may be here to open people's eyes to the injustices done and accepted by people in the name of religion or some "God"...or maybe to nurture the spirit of some great future leader, who will secure all of out liberties as our own..maybe to start a revolution.

Or, maybe, in some other time, somewhere else, you were a spirit that existed..an idea, and you deserve happiness and that is why you are here. Just to take it all in and be rewarded and be happy.

Maybe you were a child that went through hard times, being judged by looks, and unfair parents who followed the crowd, so you could grow up and show through example how to be a caring person who doesn't judge, someone who teaches that just because we do it doesn't make it right.

I don't know.

I just wanted to elaborate. Not all of us are raving idiots, trying to "save" people from themselves, and being evil for the sake of good. Some of us LIKE to coexist with unbelievers because it gives us a chance to see things from another angle, and we appreciate that that person is on their own personal journey that their own personal savior, be it some invisible being, the Earth, their significant other, their child, or themselves have inspired them to be on..some learning experience that may or may not teach them anything.

I find it funny sometimes to see people that act so enlightened through their religion and yet their eyes are shut to some very obvious truths. It is people like you, Alessia, that teach those people those truths just by existing.

That is why, I as a believer, love you as a nonbeliever..because you still believe in something greater than yourself, whether you see it our not, and you are a great teacher, a healer of sorts, to those blinded by their own labels...you never know who many people you have touched, how many you have healed, how many you have taught.

And, maybe that is why some of us believe. Because we can see you...and there has to be something greater, something full of love if people like you exist. You can't who you are, the way some of us see you, just be spontaneously existing.

I hope that wasn't too long and I am sorry for going on and on, but this is a subject dear to my heart, and I felt you deserved the best answer I could give.

Unknown said...

Alessia,

That's my prime frustration with theists who want to talk about the world being "intelligently designed" and about everything "happening for a reason."

I think it's simply sheer ignorance. Ignorance of the bitter fight for survival that is this cosmos.... but when you're a bourgeois person sitting in air-conditioning with food 5 minutes away at a local grocery store - it's easy to forget the 20,000 something children that die every day of hunger.

As for "happening for a reason" - this is where I call bullshit. This is why I can't be a theist. 6 million Jews didn't die for a higher purpose - they died because of their fellow human beings.

20,000 children die every day of hunger - not for a higher purpose - but because we allow an unjust system of economic distribution to exist.

I suppose what atheism, existentialism, and Buddhism have always meant to me is to take responsibility for one's choices and one's being.

Great post.

Alessia L. said...

Inkely: I think you summed it up best when you said "Sometimes shit happens coz we suck". I think that should be a new school of philosophy. I really enjoyed reading your post and welcome you to the chaos that is my blog.

Samuel: Welcome as well and thanks for your comments. I hope we can kick ass together when that Zombie Apocalypse comes. I've already got a plasma gun and BFG on order.

inkelywinkely said...

Great, I hoped it wouldn't be over the top in it's "believer-ness". LOL.. and, hell to the no, you have to come here when the zombie Apocalypse comes. Seriously, my hubby has that handbook and seriously has taken precautions to prepare! hahaha.. We do love our zombies. :)

Jaque said...

This is not my first time reading your blog, but it is my first time commenting. I couldn't help it. It's as if I was reading my own thoughts.

Very sad the things that happen to children. It makes me go home and hug my son even tighter.

Thank you for your honesty.

inkelywinkely said...

I just have to say...I have so many typos, misspellings and wrong words used in my responses..LOL..I sound like an idiot. Sorry. I guess I was typing too fast and not checking what I was posting?

You'd never guess I used to write speeches and actually went to college on scholarships from it.

Eleanor said...

hiya Alessia, I've been keeping a low profile over the 'festive' season - it has been fairly hot here weatherwise and my energy levels have been low.

The little boy story was in the press here in Oz too - poor little fellow. I guess it was the extraordinary way it all happened - and I also guess a lot of people thought, "that could've been me/my kid". Divine intervention in any way, shape or form? Nah. Shit happens. We grieve, of course, but in the greater scheme of things, children suffer, people suffer and die, and life carries on - or not.

Anyway, I hope 2010 is a good year for you and yours.

Eleanor

Anonymous said...

(ProudSingleMum again)

I think you said it best when you used these words: "human idiocy". It answers your question quite well.
I also know that as a Christian I question the same things as you...I don't blindly just say "oh well this just must be it, I can't question". I do what I can to figure things out. I don't know all of the answers, that is for sure...but I don't think human hate and idiocy is a reason in and of itself to dismiss God as being real. If it were that easy, I could say that any good thing proves there is a God.