cslewissucks Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 edit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelinabee Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 I would have asked her if she'd strap a bomb to herself, walk into a building full of "sinners," and detonate the bomb killing herself and the people in the building if she saw gawd himself drop from the heavens and tell her to do so. Cause, you know, it sounds like god's love is far more important to her than any actual living, breathing human being. If she said no I'd brush off her incredibly disturbing acceptance of a god that would torture people forever for not believing something that there is no evidence to believe as a symptom of her indoctrination into the cult. If she said yes, well, I'd be scared... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Just imagine the mind-bending mental gymnastics the poor girl must put into maintaining that mental state of contradiction. Oh, I certainly know the feeling.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightflight Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Yes, she is insane. I've no doubt that she believes that said child will go to "heaven" upon death; so her outrage is nothing more than an abstraction based on Christian doctrine, not rooted in any thing that has to do with human concern or values. She is on the level of a woman who rationalizes a spouse's physical abuse. Christians are fucking lunatics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsurdFreedom Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 It's because 'billions of people being tortured forever in Hell' is a concept totally divorced from reality -- even to Xians. This idea is so totally inconcievable* that the mind simply refuses to take it to its logical conclusion. I know when I was a Xian I could be unphased by Hell yet be disturbed by the 6 o'clock news broadcast for exactly this reason; the mind just does not consent to accept infinite torture as real. The only exception to this rule I found was when actually thinking about Hell, and even then I had to imagine one of my loved ones there before I felt any semblance of horror. On the other hand, a book is a tangible, undeniably real object, that, when read, is meant to give a person a experiential window into the life of another person, fictious or not. Regardless of the fact that both things are totally make-believe, ultimately it is the book that her mind could relate to more, because a five year old child being sexually abused and killing himself can actually be concieved of. * It is, after all, in a place that we go to only after death, is spiritual yet burns physically, lasts for a literally unthinkable time, and otherwise exists solely in one's imagination as no real information is given about it even in the Bible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraphicsGuy Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Most Xians have a problem with reality and thusly have issues with comprehending and dealing with the ugly side of existence. Fiction or not, fucked up shit like she read can and does happen. Probably less than novels, TV, and movies would lead us to believe, but more than we would care to actually know... For them, God is a way of bringing absolutes into their existence: "It's this way because God says so." Let go of one of those absolutes (hell, for instance) and their little world crumbles apart. Most of us know how that feels. It's how we felt when we first deconverted. Your life is in shambles and you can't figure out which way to turn for a little while. So she's not insane nor being hypocritical (in her mind). She's afraid of having her worldview smashed to bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shion Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 It's because 'billions of people being tortured forever in Hell' is a concept totally divorced from reality -- even to Xians. This idea is so totally inconceivable* that the mind simply refuses to take it to its logical conclusion. I know when I was a Xian I could be unphased by Hell yet be disturbed by the 6 o'clock news broadcast for exactly this reason; the mind just does not consent to accept infinite torture as real. The only exception to this rule I found was when actually thinking about Hell, and even then I had to imagine one of my loved ones there before I felt any semblance of horror. On the other hand, a book is a tangible, undeniably real object, that, when read, is meant to give a person a experiential window into the life of another person, fictitious or not. Regardless of the fact that both things are totally make-believe, ultimately it is the book that her mind could relate to more, because a five year old child being sexually abused and killing himself can actually be conceived of. * It is, after all, in a place that we go to only after death, is spiritual yet burns physically, lasts for a literally unthinkable time, and otherwise exists solely in one's imagination as no real information is given about it even in the Bible. I agree, and also, she assumes God=Good. So no matter how bad hell is, it must be necessary because God said it is. But a sexually abused kid who commits suicide brings up several dilemmas: 1.) If he was abused, as a child, made deformed and depressed by other humans would he go to hell, because he denied God's gift of life? 2.) There is always why fashion a child to be born into an abusive home, ect. if God=Good. Their not technically insane, just poorly programmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Gift? Hah! I call it more of a burden. And she couldn't just put the book down? It's like calling 911 because you see two guys fighting in a movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabula Rasa Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Another reason she might defend the horrible concept of hell , is because she's afraid if she doesn't, if she questions Yahweh's authority, she'll be damned to hell herself. This is THE WORST FUCKING THING. So many are kept prisoner in the horrible worldview of christianity because they're told to question is to invite damnation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKR Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 This is like my mother, who, when I was younger, didn't want me watching violent cartoons like Batman and GI Joe, but had no problem with me reading about people raping and murdering each other in the Bible. No problem with a powerful creature that drowned everyone on the planet or sent an assassin to kill all first born children. No problem with a being who sent bears to eat children alive because they made fun of a bald guy. Oh, but don't watch that crime fighting cartoon where he punches guys in the face for hurting INNOCENT PEOPLE. Christians have so many double standards, it's ridiculous. Pretty much every argument for Christianity is a double standard because they fail to apply the same reasoning to other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PitterPatter Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 I am really glad that I don't have to do the daunting mental back flips anymore, that Christianity demands for its own survival. And these people that believe in hell and sleep at night just fine "knowing" that tons of people are experiencing unimaginable torture...think that it's just so bad it can't be fathomed, so no need to waste time actually fathoming it. I think if they really sat down and thought (without fear of being sent to hell for it) they'd see how unjust the concept of hell is and that it's existence would be contradictary to an all-loving god. Listening to Christians talk at all can be infuriating to me lately. I've found it's easiest though to just sit and wait for them to stop. I know that sometimes they hope to convince me that if I "return to Christ" all my problems will just get solved. It's ridiculous and these people should be ashamed of how often they fleetingly condemn people to hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorpion Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 "I like your Christ. I do not like your christians. They are so unlike your Christ." - Mahatma Ghandi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cslewissucks Posted March 15, 2009 Author Share Posted March 15, 2009 edit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Genesis Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Your friend reminds me of this quote by Robert Ingersoll. If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine. It has covered the cheeks of this world with tears. It has polluted the hearts of children, and poisoned the imaginations of men.... What right have you, sir, Mr. clergyman, you, minister of the gospel to stand at the portals of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future with horror and with fear? I do not believe this doctrine, neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake and the conscience of a hyena.If your friend can feel pain that keeps her up over reading a fiction but she doesn't feel the same for the bible and hell, then she must not really believe it and only says she believes it because she's told to because God said so. But this reminds me of another quote of his The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men.One thing that I find strange about hell is how can you feel pain if you're already dead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Broke Free Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 War, slavery and Hell have a lot in common. You have to dehumanize “the other” before you can justify any of them. In the process of justifying them you lose your own humanity. My two cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twincats Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Yeah, and, like the fiction they do come up with is any better! "Left Behind" anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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