To the Creator of Earthquakes

It is the weirdest thing about humans. Thousands of them have died in an instant or will suffer terrible injuries and yet the survivors will still crowd into mosques and churches to sing God is Great or the equivalent. I find it always so hard to see a rational explanation for such irrational behavior.

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Rational implies doing something for good reasons.

Its the ā€˜good reasonsā€™ part that religion hasnā€™t quite ever gotten a handle on, in my observation.

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They too frequently thank their gawd for not killing them and instead killing their neighbors.

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There but for the grace of god go I, or as the Hitch paraphrased it ā€œthere by godā€™s grace goes somebody else.ā€

Does anyone else see it as a whisker away from celebrating the demise of others, a kind of murderous schadenfreude? My deity saved me and mine, but not you and yours. How about my deity with limitless time, power and knowledge, saved me (an insignificant enough achievement for a deity that transcends time and has limitless power and knowledge) while not ā€œbotheringā€ to save your child from dying horribly from cancer? It sounds less pious this way obviously, but is nonetheless what is being suggested.

A deity created a tornado, and planned to kill innocent people even children, but not me because I am prepared to believe it exists without any objective evidence. Again with the piety and platitudes removed, it carries less gravitas and the deity looks a bit of a cunt.

Aristotle has some insights into what we perceive as lucky.

CITATION

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Ever notice that when a plane goes down resulting in 300 dead with a single survivor the religious types all declare a miracle? Screw the 300 deadā€“the lone survivor proves godā€™s infinite mercy.

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I love it whenever a professional sports team thanks god after they win their particular championship. YEAH, God likes our team better than yours.

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If was a coach or a player, Iā€™d be pretty pissed off at dismissing my contributions in favour of divine prejudice.

Incidentally I donā€™t know if anyone here can get Channel 4 from the UK, but thereā€™s a new sitcom called Everyone Else Burns, Iā€™ve only watched two episodes, but itā€™s pretty funny, and pokes fun at religious extremism. I donā€™t know why there arenā€™t more like this, as such extremism is pretty low hanging fruit for satirists.

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Thanks for the tip Sheldon. I will try to catch next episode. (Iā€™m a Brit).

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Itā€™s getting worse than that. Now teams are congregating in the middle of the field and praying as a group, like when that NFL player had a heart attack during a game and the high school coach in Washington state that did the same after every game (this last one was the subject of a recent supreme court case).

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Serving on the crew of a full time auto racing team during a somewhat successful season, our team owner/ driver was occasionally interviewed by TV crew just after winning a race.

The first, and often only, thing he said in appreciation was some version of, ā€œAll glory goes to god for this one.ā€

So your grease-stained, red eyed crew that drove through the night to get to the track, set up, then easily work 14-16 hour days for three days on end get passed over for some imaginary fuck stick in the clouds.

What the ever loving shit??

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On BBC1 news report this morning ā€¦"ā€¦death toll is now over 16000", pictures of a baby being pulled out alive after 62 hours to shouts of God is Greatā€¦

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ā€¦(groooooanā€¦ banging forehead on wall)ā€¦ Somebody stop the world, please. I donā€™t want to ride anymoreā€¦

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Yes, Jesus as the one true God (1 Timothy 2:5) creates earthquakes as punishment towards His creation when they do wrong:

*Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger."

Jesus being such a wonderful loving (Romans 5:8) and forgiving God (1. John 1:9), NOT!

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Tell that to all the people in Turkey and Syria.

This is an atheist forum. Hatred/anger at God (known as misotheism) can only ever be the preserve of those who believe or are agnostic. It quite amazes me just how much misotheism is in evidence on forums that claim to be purely atheist concerns.

On the subject of earthquakes and God, earthquakes are a natural feature of life on Earth, and while I have no expertise in geology I suspect they serve some sort of function akin to a safety valve perhaps?

Best wishes,
Padster

Howdy, Padster.

This is actually a debate forum hosted on a site that supports atheists.
I completely agree that one cannot hate or be angry at any gods they donā€™t believe in. However, folks sure can be angry at or hate religion and/or the religious for their transgressions. Youā€™ll also frequently find atheists who would say that if a particular god did exist, they would hate or be angry with it.

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Iā€™m not angry at any god. Itā€™s impossible to be angry at something I donā€™t believe in. Itā€™s like being angry at hobgoblins, unicorns, or cyclops. What can anger me is having theistic crap or religiously motivated antiscience shoved down my throat. My preferred method of countering such shit is to reply with science and evidence based arguments, but sometimes that just isnā€™t enough, or not appropriate. For such cases I reserve the right to reply by pushing any and all buttons I suspect can annoy superstitionists and ridicule their beliefs. Including, but not limited to, what religionists refer to as blasphemy ā€“ an imaginary offense committed against an imaginary entity. If you present ridiculous shit, be prepared to be ridiculed.

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Indeed, but the title of this post was ā€˜To the Creator of Earthquakesā€™, which suggests misotheism. If one is an atheist one doesnt believe in a ā€˜Creatorā€™.

I am unable to see any angriness towards a god in the posting. Any angriness present is directed at human behaviour.

Edit: the title is surely meant rhetorically. Although I fail to see the connection between the title and the posting.

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I direct you to the post made by 21stcenturyIconoclas of Feb 10 as an example of misotheism, not atheism. I do agree though that other posts were directed at religion and belief, so perhaps we have reached a consensus?

Best wishes,
Padster