And Now It's Time for Silly Things from Fundies...The Part of the Show Where Fundies Come Out and Say... Silly Things...

So I'm going to take point by point the three comments I received yesterday from some fundies. Actually, my Mom was one of those who commented, and although I personally don't consider her a fundie of the typical mold, she is a conservative, and therefore has a conservative Christian viewpoint on things, but not a fundamentalist one, of which there is a key difference: She's not what one would call a "militant Christian" of any sort, although she does feel strongly about her beliefs and will share them if asked. Perhaps some of my readers view her differently, I wouldn't know. You'd think with between 50-80 hits per day, some of you would feel more prone to sharing, but I'll digress... :D

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My first comment came from Mom, and she wrote:

hello Jason! Hello, Mom! (waves)

i don't know if you are writing this stuff to vent or to get people to respond A little bit of both. It alleviates my boredom at times, but at other times thoughts simply cross my mind and I throw them out there to see what others think. Of course, it seems I only attract a certain type of crowd... LOL!

but i read it and my heart hurts when i read this but i do understand that its your blog. I understand that it hurts you as I don't believe what you believe, and what you raised me to believe, but you also raised us to think for ourselves. I'd rather think and share my own thoughts than spit out pre-fed and pre-digested religious mantras. I know you can respect that, and although I'm sorry it does hurt you, I know you aren't a light-weight and can handle it. You are a strong woman, Mom, and I hold a ton of respect for you, but you know as well as I do what happens when people just hold things in: it destroys families and lives.

well, anyway, i thought of something while reading this and thought i would ask you what harm does it do for people to follow God and His teaching if its not real It does a lot of harm, depending on who the follower is! Ask the poor women burned at the Salem Witch Trials. Ask the doctor's who's clinics have been blown up. Ask the people of the Middle East who fight daily due to who believes what and when. Some people can hold their faith, and use it for their own personal well being, but most--most people cannot. They wield their faith as a shield against reality, and as a weapon to destroy individuals on a personal level. I could go deeper into this, but I think you know what I mean. Some people--they use their faith in their way to enhance their own lives for the good of themselves and those around them (i.e., shelters, youth programs to keep kids off the streets and out of gangs, etc., etc.) while others use it to promote a mindset to destroy individuality and diversity. That's what harm religion can do...

and if it is real and God created a heaven without sin which is His right to keep people out since He created it in the first place?
It isn't good PR, though, wouldn't you agree?

its like if i go to your home you created and started telling you how you should plan your layout and who you can have over and not have over and whatnot. Not exactly. I didn't claim my home was a place where people can rest eternally and worship me as long as they live their lives outside of my home a certain way. See the difference?

i think you know what i mean. I know what you mean, but I think your logic is a bit off...

i just don't understand what God is asking anyone to do that is so awful that people get so balled up over.
Eternal gratitude for something we never asked for, and for a situation he created... if you hold to a biblical interpretation of reality, that is. If you're going to say "The Bible is the truth!", you need to accept the reality of the situation as god presented it: he created this mess, he is ultimately responsible for all of it, we never asked for it, but the onus is suddenly upon us to do something about it? That would be like if you are the CEO of a company: You make a decision that not only costs the company millions, but steals away the employees benefits and health plans, and then you tell them it's their fault that this happened, and they need to work harder to make it right and earn back their benefits even though they had nothing to do with it, and had no control over the decision the CEO made in the first place...

i feel when you are a believer you have more freedom then without the belief.
A lot of slaves felt that way about being servants of white man in the young days of our country... But that's just my take on it...

well, i am sure you will have a lawyers way of answering this whole thing.
Perhaps I should have gone into law, but oh well... :)

but believing in God to me didn't ever really hurt me and i don't think it hurt anyone else That's because you don't use faith as a weapon...

unless you forget you are a sinner saved by grace. i still say if you are around any child or baby you never have to teach them to do bad things but you have to teach them to do the good things.
What you teach them are the socially responsible ways of behaving. Children follow the evolutionary programming instilled in us all when we are born: survival of the fittest. Not too long ago, we learned that sharing things and herding ourselves together offered the best chance of species survival, and I think you would also be able to tell some stories of children who share even though they haven't been taught--it depends on the child's personality. What does a child ever do that's so wrong that they should spend an eternity in hell? Not share their Bobo the Clown doll?

sometimes but i had 5 and you all had to be taught to be good.
Like? Kids need to be taught the mores of their society. Most kids you don't have to teach not to kill--they know that, although there are some that do need taught that, it is relatively few. Most people don't engage in this sort of thing until their much older and do know it is wrong as such... Lets' take sharing: we do teach kids that sharing is important, and not to grab and such, because we have learned throughout the years that sharing leads to a better social situation, so we have labeled it wrong. It s our perception of what is socially okay and not okay which determines right and wrong...

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Then we heard from someone who is ashamed of sky god. Apparently, they can share a thought as long as they can't be personally held responsible for it! Anon wrote:

Go ahead and keep telling yourself those lies and you will eventually believe them. Where did I lie? I simply presented another point of view about the whole sky god myth...

Man, you can talk until you are blue in the face, but you cant change the fact that god is real.
Interesting use of the word "fact." You should really learn what a fact is before throwing it around like that--this is how people hurt others with their religion.

Denying god is an easy way to keep on living in sin--it will work for now, but in the long run it will be your downfall.
Didn't we cover this? Threatening someone with something they don't believe in is about the silliest thing in the known universe!

The Bible says "Blessed are those who believe yet have not seen". Blind faith is what you begin with as a Christian, but after you accept Christ and turn your life around to live for Him, He will give you concrete evidence of His existence by setting up residence in your heart.
Said the raving lunatic... Dude, take a moment and listen to yourself! Do you see what you have written? Self-delusion is not a way to live your life! I could say, "Pigs fly." I could believe this with all my heart. I take it on blind faith as I've never seen a pig fly! But then I hear stories of people who have seen pigs fly. I hear on the radio about "UFO's" and other unidentified fly objects. Other people don't believe me when tell them that this is evidence of a pig in flight, but because you don't believe, you can't see the truth staring at you in the face! UFO's ARE FLYING PIGS! Your unbelief will be your downfall, cause when the pigs come back, they only take the believers. The rest of you will spend eternity in Mud Hell, suffocating slowly for eternity, never being clean...

You will never be the same. Why do you think there are so many followers of Jesus anyway? Why are there so many worshippers of Hinduism? Buddhism? Jehovah's Witnesses? You keep getting sillier...

Do you think we all just sit around and hope for the Rapture? (We do that too) Way to answer your own stupid statement, dude.

But, we live in a different way when we are saved because we have the Holy Spirit living in us--why else would anyone remain a Christian? We ask ourselves that all the time, don't we?

If there wasn't 'something' to it, we would all eventually say "this was a load of crap" and do what we want. Yeah, the evidence is all around you. A butt-load of people don't believe the way you do. But you won't look at that, will you? You won't study any other religion because you are blinded by your own. You won't conceive of the alternative because you find it scary. But others do. Lots of people step back and leave because it is a load of crap. But you won't see that either, will you?

But we press on in our faith, because God reveals more and more of Himself to us each day.
More self delusion. The Flying Pigs told me you would say things like this, and they are not happy with you...

God shows goodness to His people like you cannot understand because you don't know Him.
LOL! Okay...

You have to truly give yourself to Him - all of yourself. Obviously you haven't done that, so I suppose I can understand your hostility toward God.
What hostility? Oh, that's right, if someone won't believe, they obviously must be angry, or why else would they not believe? Silly, silly man...

People who are ignorant of something cannot understand it.
THAT'S WHAT THE FLYING PIGS SAID TOO! UNCANNY!

It would be a large sacrifice for you to follow Jesus - you would have to give up your gay lifestyle, your filthy language, and probably many other things,
I guess that depends on your take on scripture, doesn't it? I know plenty of gay Christians, I know plenty of Christians who swear... But of course you would dismiss them as not real followers, because they won't fit into your little "Box of Christians," now would they? Way to play Holy Spirit there buddy... I could easily make my life and any type of religious belief mesh like syrup and pancakes, much like you do, but that doesn't make it so. I don't believe because it's illogical, irrational, and above all silly.

but if you gained peace that is beyond all understanding, eternal life in heaven, and a personal relationship with the God of the universe, wouldn't it be worth it? For you, perhaps. I have peace and contentment in my life, although you seem to have deluded yourself into thinking I do not, simply because I don't worship sky god, but whatever you need to tell yourself to get through the day...

Seems like a simple choice to me. Somehow, I thought you'd say that.

Oh yeah, all of us 'fundies' are not blind and stupid--many of us are well-educated. What is a good education these days?

AND...not all of us were taught to follow Jesus from the time we were born - some of us had to find Him the hard way - looking up from the bottom. I'm so sorry you feel that you had a rough life before you found sky god. If it makes you feel your life is better, I say have at it. It's just this hateful way you people have of trying to force everyone else into your box, your "jail cell," as it were, that makes living with people like you so hateful. Learn to let others express an opinion or a thought, dude! Why all the hate and anger at someone who doesn't believe?

You were blessed to have been raised in a Christian home --too bad you are too blind to see that!
I had a great childhood--too bad you're too blinded by faith to see that! Yeah, the myths of sky god were a part of that, but so was the tooth fairy--but I guess you expect me to still believe in her as well, don't you? Silly man...

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Then there was Steve. I have a great amount of respect for Steve as an individual, and although he can at times be militant in his faith, he holds himself with dignity, and speaks his piece with clarity. And even though we disagree on a great many things, we are a type of Internet buddy. Steve wrote:

I'm with your Mom on this one. I wouldn't have expected anything less. :D

I really have a lot of trouble understanding how you can be so full of anger and hate
I'm not, though. I think you know that, though.

that you can go on day after day using double talk and convoluted arguments to try to convince people that there is no God,
I'm just throwing things out there for people to think about. If one comes away questioning, fine. If not, also fine. As long as they think about what they believe and why. I'm not saying they have to draw the same conclusions I do, although I personally don't see how that's a bad thing... Only you who fear eternal retribution could read that into it...

when there is so much evidence that there is a God. Steve, you know as well as I do that there's only inferred evidence to a person who look sat things in only one way. Evidence must be examined objectively from all angles and then must be replicated to uphold the facts you think the evidence points to. No one can ever have any evidence of god--that's would imply a lack of faith, and without faith, god has left the building...

It makes me sad for you, Jason.
Don't be--despite what you guys read into my posts, I'm quite happy with life and what it has to offer.

You are missing out on so many wonderful things by rejecting God.
Like... Eternity feeding god bon-bons? I'd rather not, thanks. I'd be missing out on a lot if I did follow the prescribed life of sky god, mostly my wonderful husband and our gorgeous house! Not to mention my many wonderful friends, both Christian and non alike!

Reading your blog for some time now, I am not seeing a happy person.
I think that's because you don't think it possible for a person to be happy not believing in sky god. Which isn't true. Most people used to hold that the sun revolved around the earth, and couldn't even conceive that the opposite was the case. But there it is! Go figure, huh?

Your blog tells me and most everyone else that you are a very angry and unhappy person.
Um, no it doesn't. At least, that's not most of the feedback I get, except form you fundies. I wonder why...

Like your Mom, I pray for you daily. That's cool. If it makes you feel like you're doing something positive, have at it. Even though science has shown that intercessory prayer has no effect on the outcome of events, it's also shown that taking time for yourself in meditation, prayer, or whatever you find to be a great stress reliever is beneficial for the individual, and I wouldn't want you to stress about it.

Thanks for your thoughts and comments, no matter how off topic and ill-thought-out (hello, Anon!), and hope you all have (had) great weekend.