The Blog for WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com

The following comment appeared on this thread (#55) and offers a Christian’s perspective:

Hi im a 13 year old and I am a follower of Christ.

First off, don’t think I’ve been fed all of this from my family. I have been researching for a long time over this subject.
Secondly, I’ll be honest that this comment will have nothing to do with the text taken from the pamphlet that “proves” God is not real.

Also as I already told you I am a Christian. You may think Im poisoning your blog but just hear me out for this just once and read it. I wrote this to show you that a lot of your “proven” points disproving God cannot be scientifically proven and in my opinion, they are false. In the website connected to this blog, there are 50 points that “disprove” God. the first basically says that God lies about answering prayers. I firmly believe that this is false. My example goes like this: suppose you are in your 30’s to 40’s and either of your parents is dying or will die soon. First: where will they go after they die? Will they just go blank, their personality, mind, memories, and consiousness gone, popped into thin air? Never to be seen again? Well that sucks, doesn’t it? Think about it: You will go through the same thing. Maybe it will hurt. A lot. More pain than anyone has ever experienced. Then you pop out of existence. Doesn’t that scare you? It sure did to me. Believing in God and at least having what your mind tells you is a loving relationship with Him at least gives you hope. I’d rather have false hope than no hope at all. But back to praying, the results of praying are more often than not very gradual and are sometimes hard to notice. If you pray for your almost to the point of dying parent to become a christian, they may never accept Christ until they are about to die or they may never accept Christ. It’s their decision, ultimately. Abraham, in Genesis, was told by God he would have an heir from his own body with Sarah when he was about 75. He had to wait until he was about 99 for Sarah to give birth to Isaac. It’s a test of faith; thats another reason for prayer. It either builds up your trust in God or if you don’t see results immediately, you just pack your bags and leave. Also, in “Proof” #1, your example was asking God ONCE to cure everyone of cancer is absurd: first off, its putting God to the test; something Jesus direclty told us NOT to do after he fasted for 40 days in the desert and was being challenged into sinning by Satan, and also I don’t believe it really is God’s will that directly influences EVERYTHING. Look at the fall of man, which is the first sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Gardden of Eden: after Eve and Adam ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they caused the entire world to be cursed: the ground was hard to work, thorns and diseases came into being, and disasters actually began to strike. It looks like God is punishing them, but He isn’t. You have to remember, before the first sin, Adam and Eve were like very young children, they did not know between good and evil. God told them they could do anything they wanted as long as they didn’t eat from one tree. Pretty simple right? Well they allowed themselves to be tricked into eating the fruit by Satan, and yes, it was their fault. they started the curses, including cancer. God doesn’t like us being sick with cancer, but he allows it because we did it to ourselves. He is not punishing us. He created a perfect world that we made imperfect, and he does not control the flow of diseases, like he does not control the orbit of the earth. Back to my example of you praying for a parent to become a christian, it istheir choice to accept Jesus, not God’s. God allows us to have choices: just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Een. He does not want us to be mindless robots; He understands we value fairness so much and respects that. He gives us a choice between right and wrong no matter what. Maybe that dying family member will accept Jesus. In fact, Charles Darwin, the man famous for “discovering” evolution, on his deathbed rejected his entire work on the subject. What does this mean???? Anyway, I believe that in most cases God’s will is irrelevent to most situations. This is coming from a Christian! Also you said there is no scientific evidence. You are right. You probably think that my faith is kinda like believing in alternate universes. There is no scientific proof. Maybe black holes, but since no one can go to a black hole, you will never know. With God, the closest thing to evidence is how much Christianity has influenced the world. a 7th of the world’s population says that they are Christians and just because one man died from a common Roman execution for criminals, the course of history has been changed many times. Not bad for a guy that died around age 30, is it? The closest thing to scientific evidence is Christianity’s influence. Once again, look at history. Yeah.

Sorry that this was so long, but God IS REAL!!! Its not about just praying and following the rules; its about a loving relationship with someone like no other that you get to spend the rest of your life with. Its not about escaping hell, its about loving Jesus because of who he is, what he did, and his unending love for us!!!

Please, take the time to at least watch the movie The Passion of the Christ. At least a five minute clip on youtube when he’s on the cross. And if you want to continue, pray to Him. ask him if you can be in a relationship with him. Trust me: he never leaves anyone out! Then, read a gospel and join a church! (I prefer non-denominational) Thank you for reading this entire thing and sorry that its so long just think about what I said please.

Thanks so much! God bless you all! Jesus loves you

Does anyone have comments for or against this point of view?

Certainly not

Further evidence

A great essay from Paul Krugman that zeros in on the insanity of religion:

Krugman: Rubio denies reality

The quotes in this article are priceless:

Like striated rock beds that speak of deep time, [Rubio's] inability to acknowledge scientific evidence speaks of the anti-rational mindset that has taken over his political party.

What was Rubio’s complaint about science teaching? That it might undermine children’s faith in what their parents told them to believe. And right there you have the modern GOP’s attitude, not just toward biology, but toward everything: If evidence seems to contradict faith, suppress the evidence.

The most obvious example other than evolution is man-made climate change. As the evidence for a warming planet becomes ever stronger — and ever scarier — the GOP has buried deeper into denial, into assertions that the whole thing is a hoax concocted by a vast conspiracy of scientists. And this denial has been accompanied by frantic efforts to silence and punish anyone reporting the inconvenient facts.

Coming into the recent election, state-level polling clearly pointed to an Obama victory — yet more or less the whole Republican Party refused to acknowledge this reality. Instead, pundits and politicians alike fiercely denied the numbers and personally attacked anyone pointing out the obvious; the demonizing of The Times’ Nate Silver, in particular, was remarkable to behold.

His article closes with an indictment of Republicans and Christians:

We are, after all, living in an era when science plays a crucial economic role. How are we going to search effectively for natural resources if schools trying to teach modern geology must give equal time to claims that the world is only 6,000 years old? How are we going to stay competitive in biotechnology if biology classes avoid any material that might offend creationists?

And then there’s the matter of using evidence to shape economic policy. You may have read about the recent study from the Congressional Research Service finding no empirical support for the dogma that cutting taxes on the wealthy leads to higher economic growth. How did Republicans respond? By suppressing the report.

On economics, as in hard science, modern conservatives don’t want to hear anything challenging their preconceptions — and they don’t want anyone else to hear about it, either.

So don’t shrug off Rubio’s awkward moment. His inability to deal with geological evidence was symptomatic of a much broader problem — one that may, in the end, set America on a path of inexorable decline.

Republicans and Christians have become a national embarrassment to the United States and they “set America on a path of inexorable decline” both scientifically and economically. This article demonstrates how badly Republican economic policies have hit all working Americans:

Why you shouldn’t shop at Wal-mart on Friday

A half century ago America’s largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today’s dollars, including health and pension benefits.

Today, America’s largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart’s employees work less than 28 hours per week and don’t qualify for benefits.

Republicans, which is to say Christians, are willfully destroying the lives of American workers.

Yes, it is time for religion to start paying its taxes because preachers, ministers, rabbis, preists, etc. frequently break the law when it comes to their tax exempt status:

After Campaigning from the Pulpit, Right Wing Churches Must Lose their Tax Exempt Status

Religious organizations are given consent to declare themselves non-profit charitable organizations by simply signing and filing 501 (c)(3) papers with the Internal Revenue Service. They, unlike other non-profits, are exempt from keeping accounting records, and the only requirement to be exempt from paying taxes is that they refrain from endorsing, preaching against, or supporting any candidate from the pulpit. However, religious groups around the country break their agreement with the IRS with impunity, and it has prompted a group in Wisconsin to say enough.

The group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the IRS for failing to audit thousands of churches that violated federal tax law by engaging in partisan advocacy. The lawsuit alleges, “The Internal Revenue Service, under the direction of the Defendant Shulman, has followed and continues to follow a policy of non-enforcement of the electioneering restrictions of §501(c)(3) against churches and other religious organizations. As a result, in recent years, churches and religious organizations have been blatantly and deliberately flaunting the electioneering restrictions of §501(c)(3), including during the presidential election year of 2012.” Back in October, in a flagrant violation of 501(c)(3) rules, over 1,600 preachers engaged in Pulpit Freedom Sunday and actively campaigned from the pulpit to challenge the IRS rules that allow them to leach money from taxpayers.

Here’s what Pulpit Freedom Sunday is all about:

The future of religious freedom depends on a free pulpit to communicate fundamental, biblical principles to congregations across America. Join a growing movement of bold pastors preaching biblical Truth about candidates and elections from their pulpits on October 7, 2012.

It seems to be a clear cut violation – so make churches pay.

What would happen if churches had to pay taxes like everyone else? According to this article:

Pulpit Freedom Sunday — Should the Church Be Tax-Exempt?

the church in America saves roughly 71 billion dollars annually by being tax-exempt. Imagine how much food that could buy to feed the hungry, or how it could help those less fortunate. This might be acceptable if the church was actually encouraging strategies to reduce human suffering, irresponsible behavior that harms others, ending violence in our neighborhoods and other critical issues. Churches do not serve the common good; they propagate ancient supernatural mythology that brainwashes people into believing the unbelievable and impedes social and scientific progress.

$71 billion! Yes, churches should start paying taxes.

What is it like living side by side with Christians in the United States? Oftimes it means having Christianity rammed down your throat:

Afghanistan War Hero Sues City Over Christian Symbols at Veteran’s Memorial

Like this:

When Hewett spoke with King City Manager John Cater at the time, Cater responded to the veteran by telling him he would have to answer “to God and Jesus Christ upon [his] death” for complaining.

How should religion be treated in public? The phrase that sums it up: “freedom of religion also means freedom from religion”. Those of us who know that Christians are completely delusional in worshipping their imaginary, powerless God should not have to constantly have Christianity rammed down our throats.

And every “moderate” Christian who thinks “well, I don’t act that way” should ask themselves why they want to be associated with the millions of other Christians who do. Start thinking – turn away from delusion:

If God really existed, then this story would reflect reality rather than being in The Onion:

God Distances Self From Christian Right

THE HEAVENS—Responding to inflammatory remarks made by Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock during a debate Tuesday night, Our Lord God the Almighty Father sought today to distance Himself from both Mourdock and the entire right-wing fundamentalist Christian movement, sources confirmed.

“I want to make one thing absolutely clear: Mr. Mourdock’s comments from last night in no way reflect my position on this or any other issue,” said the Divine Creator, speaking at a press conference this afternoon to address Mourdock’s remarks that rape-induced pregnancies were God’s intent. “And furthermore, I would like to take this opportunity to say definitively that I, God, do not officially sanction or condone the words or actions of anyone involved in the fanatical, conservative Christian faction that Mr. Mourdock represents.”

The fact that God is silent, despite the fact that people like Mourdock claim to speak on his behalf, proves that God is imaginary.

No further comment is necessary, but if you would like to see some comments, check here.

Where does this level of delusion come from?

When you think about how insane religion can be, there are few examples better than the tendency for religious people to blame natural disasters on some group of people. Case in point:

Fear the almighty wrath: Five natural disasters “caused” by gays

Look at what the gays have done now.

Hurricane Sandy is just the latest weather calamity being blamed on gay people. Who is doing the finger-pointing? This time, it’s self-appointed biblical scholar John McTernan of Defend and Proclaim the Faith ministries in Pennsylvania, who made the connection between gays and Sandy, writing this week the hurricane is “a huge bucket of vomit in America’s face during the election,” forcing us to choose between “a pro-homosexual Mormon along with a pro-abortion/homosexual, Muslim Brotherhood promoter, Hard Left Fascist.”

Here are five other natural disasters mankind suffers because of the gay agenda…

Imagine this: 1) a large group of people who 2) believe in a loving God in heaven and this God 3) sends huge natural disasters that kill innocent people and destroy billions of dollars in property because 4) why? Explain that again – why would a loving God do this?

Didn’t Rick Warren say that “Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan in creating you.” Why yes he did. God had a plan in creating everyone, according to Rick Warren. Therefore, the idea that God would throw a hurricane at NY/NJ, disrupting the lives of millions, in retribution for the acts of people that God created is beyond insane.

Of course Rick Warren’s logic is also insane, as discussed here.

Let’s imagine that you believe in God. You believe God is up in heaven, watching us, answering our prayers, punishing people who do evil, etc. If this is what you believe, then you have to explain what God is doing in this situation:

Deeply Religious Newburgh Man Crushed By Falling Crucifix, Loses Leg

David Jimenez believed his devotion to a crucifix was responsible for his wife being cured of cancer. Well, the crucifix fell on him, crushing one of his legs.

And as CBS 2’s John Slattery reported Friday, the leg had to be amputated.

Jimenez sees tragic irony in losing his leg to a crucifix he had prayed to. The crucifix had been outside the Church of St. Patrick in Newburgh. For months, the 45-year-old pizza worker would stop and pray at the crucifix, that his wife would be cured of ovarian cancer.

And she was.

“David attributed the cure to his devotion to that cross,” Jimenez attorney Kevin Kitson said.

Because of that, Jimenez said, he got permission to clean the crucifix, which was long-neglected. But in doing so, the statue dislodged and toppled onto him.

The religious person has to explain first why God would allow the statue to topple on a devoted Christian who was cleaning the statue. Then the religious person has to explain why God won’t heal amputees. The whole situation is like an anti-God movie trailer.

What does an intelligent, rational person understand? That God is imaginary and the cancer cure, the toppling statue and the amputated limb are all random events. Why would anyone want to believe in a God who intentionally damages people? Or a God who selectively ignores the prayers of all amputees? It is so easy to see that there is no God. Even if there were to be one, the only thing we could conclude is that he is an insane monster.

Every intelligent, rational person understands that God is imaginary – God is as imaginary as Rudolf the red nose reindeer or Jack’s beanstalk. And yet, here in the most powerful nation on earth, we still include “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Now there is a new challenge to this long-standing practice:

Massachusetts Supreme Court Will Hear Case to Stop Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools

This one is so simple to understand. If the Pledge was changed to say “under Allah”, the Christians would all be howling with rage. They would instantly understand the problem that intelligent people have with being forced to say “under God”.

This situation demonstrates one of the big problems with religion: Religious people want to force their bizarre, delusional beliefs upon everyone else. Why do they feel this compulsive need?

The insanity of religion is on display in full force in this hidden camera footage from inside a Mormon temple:

Why does any sane person participate in these insane rituals?

This is a speech in front of the Springfield City Council, where they are debating a gay rights bill (Council Bill 2012-226)

Good evening, my name is the Reverend Dr. Phil Snider. I was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. And I stand before you this evening in support of this ordinance.

I worry about the future of our city. Any accurate reading of the bible should make it clear that gay rights goes against the plain truth of the word of god. As one preacher warns, man and overstepping the boundary lines god has drawn by making special rights for gays and lesbians has taken another step in the direction of inviting the judgment of god upon our land.

This step of gay rights is but another stepping stone toward the immorality and lawlessness that will be characteristic of the last days.

This ordinance represents a denial of all that we believe in and no one should force it on us. It’s not that we don’t care about homosexuals. But it’s that our rights will be taken away, and unchristian views will be forced on us and our children. For we would be forced to go against our personal morals. Outside government agents are endeavoring to disturb god’s established order. It is not in line with the bible – do not let people lead you astray.

The liberals leading this movement do not believe in the bible any longer. But every good, substantial, bible believing, intelligent, orthodox christian can read the word of god and know what is happening is not of god. When you run into conflict with god’s established order you have trouble. You do not produce harmony. You produce destruction and trouble and our city is in the greatest danger that it has have ever been in, in its history. The reason is that we have gotten away from the bible of our forefathers.

You see the right of segregation I’m sorry, hold on.

The right of segregation… is clearly established by the holy scriptures, both by precept and example.

I’m sorry I brought the wrong notes with me this evening. I borrowed my argument from the wrong century. It turns out what I’ve been reading to you this whole time are direct quotes from white preachers from the 1950′s and 1960′s, all in support of racial segregation. All I have done is simply taken out the phrase racial integration and substituted with the phrase gay rights.

I guess the arguments I’ve been hearing around Springfield lately sounded so similar to these that I got them confused. I hope you will not make the same mistake. I hope you will stand on the right side of history. Thank you.

The quotes he uses are amazing in their ignorance and bigotry. This is how religion, and the belief in an imaginary God, is used to crush the civil rights of other people.

The description of the video:

City council heard from the public as they debated a new rule adding LGBT people to the list of minorities protected from discrimination.

This other link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnuwFx0mpns) has 45 minutes of people who are actually arguing against the bill and comparing gay people to rapists and pedophiles.

This second video contains a parade of insanity.

An American doctor named Eben Alexander (described as a “Harvard-educated neurosurgeon”) went into a coma, went to heaven and then came back to earth so that he can write a book and promote it. The title of his book is “Proof of Heaven”, as described here:

Afterlife exists says top brain surgeon

Dr. Alexander says:

I’ve spent decades as a neurosurgeon at some of the most prestigous medical institutions in our country. I know that many of my peers hold as I myself did to the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us.

So the universe has unconditional love for us? This is the same universe that presents us with hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, monsoons, tornadoes, forest fires, etc.? What a strange sort of love. Billions of people arrive on this planet only to experience utter misery – where is the love?

And strangely, this misery is overcome by what? By human science and human engineering, not by the universe. Science and engineering give us food, housing and medical care that take away the misery to some degree, at least in the developed world. If it were not for human science and human engineering, we would still be living in dark, wet caves and dying at age 30, like any other animal.

Is one man’s hallucination a “proof of heaven”? Not to an intelligent person. Why was the doctor supplied with nothing in heaven that acts as actual proof? Why did he not return to earth with the cure for cancer or the ability to predict events in the future – something that would act as actual proof? Because his experience was a hallucination. The fact that he cannot accept this simple explanation, and is instead making money from a book about his hallucination, is telling.

To any intelligent person, this article and video are so depressing…

Tea Party Rep. Paul Broun: Evolution and Big Bang Are “Lies Straight From the Pit Of Hell.” Why Yes, He Serves On the House Science Committee With Todd Akin

At a speech delivered recently to the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman’s Banquet (for those of you calculating at home: Liberty + Baptist + Church + Sportsman = Quadruple Conservative), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), a member of the House Committee on Science and Technology and a freaking medical doctor, went on a rant about how science is the work of the devil. Which makes his House committee appointment the work of the devil, too? Is he like a secret agent from God sent to spy on the House Committee on Hedonism and Satan-Worship? We’re not sure.

“All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”

You can see Broun make the statement in this video:

How can this incredible level of ignorance exist in any human being, much less in an important elected official?

A great essay

Bible Teaching and Religious Practice

It makes a great point

During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after doing its duty in but a lazy and indolent way for eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumbscrews, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood.

Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. Who discovered that there was no such thing as a witch – the priest, the parson? No, these never discover anything. At Salem, the parson clung pathetically to his witch text after the laity had abandoned it in remorse and tears for the crimes and cruelties it has persuaded them to do. The parson wanted more blood, more shame, more brutalities; it was the unconsecrated laity that stayed his hand. In Scotland the parson killed the witch after the magistrate had pronounced her innocent; and when the merciful legislature proposed to sweep the hideous laws against witches from the statute book, it was the parson who came imploring, with tears and imprecations, that they be suffered to stand.

There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.

Why would any intelligent person join an organization that is this appalling?