Either God is all-powerful or he is not. If God is all-powerful, there is nothing he can’t do. Everything is on the table. But if God is not all-powerful, then Christians should live scared. We should also live with a lot of anxiety and depression.
This is what happens when we stop believing God is all-powerful. We must rely on ourselves. That’s a scary proposition. American Jesus would understand. Don’t operate outside of logic. Don’t dream big. Never make decisions that involve God showing up.
Most churches in America are glorified clubs. If God were taken out of the equation, NOTHING would change from week to week. Why? Nothing most Christians do requires the power of God.
The world doesn’t need to see good, moral people living good, moral lives. The world needs to see men and women living beyond their own abilities. The world needs to see Christians making decisions that depend on God showing up. And if He doesn’t show, we are going to look foolish.
32 comments
"And if He doesn’t show, we are going to look foolish"
Y'all already look foolish, just like every wave of your faith devotees who God didn't show up for and making excuses, or turning on weaker church members for lacking faith. or perhaps counting natural coincedences and disasters after the fact as miracles.
Funny cause that would actually be a pretty major thing for converting people, like maybe the opposite of the catholic sex abuse scandel?
The God described here i see as being very limited, only acting (maybe) in reaction to our actions. Massively frustrating and altogether unfufilling and underwelming.
But if God is not all-powerful, then Christians should live scared. We should also live with a lot of anxiety and depression.
Why? If that god is not all powerful (which means it simply does not exist since being all powerful is supposed to be one of its key traits), what prevents people from leaving good lives and deciding for themselves what is good and what is not? Let us enjoy what we have and not look at an hypothetic afterlife with yearning, because that line of thinking means we are simply ready to throw everything away for pipedreams.
This is what happens when we stop believing God is all-powerful. We must rely on ourselves. That’s a scary proposition.
Argument from adverse consequences.
The world doesn’t need to see good, moral people living good, moral lives.
Actually, it does. We already have a surfeit of arseholes taking pretext of the support of their god to f*ck this world up for the rest of us.
And if He doesn’t show, we are going to look foolish.
1) Any day now.
Also, if he doesn't exist, he's not all-powerful.
As God hasn't intervened since (supposedly) Biblical times, you have to rely on yourselves. It ought to be the default since birth, not a new and scary proposition.
American Jesus? Jesus was a Jewish Palestinian.
So, God is neither necessary nor useful?
You have been depending on God showing up for 2000 years. He showed up at Mohammad's place. You are already looking foolish.
@Malingspann
Yeah, this obsession with linking Jesus and America is an historic fail of epic proportions. The mere existence of Jesus is historically doubtful, but if he did exist, his fishing zond didn't extend beyond the modern near-east. 5000NM or so from America.
Either God is all-powerful or he is not. If God is all-powerful, there is nothing he can’t do. Everything is on the table. But if God is not all-powerful, then Christians should live scared.
Judges 1:19.
He didn't know of the construction of those Iron Chariots in advance. Which means he isn't 'Omniscient '.
He couldn't see those Iron Chariots approaching. Thus Iron is Stealth material to him: he isn't 'Omnipresent '.
He couldn't do anything about those Iron Chariots: Iron is to your 'God' what Kryptonite is to Superman. Therefore he isn't 'Omnipotent '. Ergo, he isn't God.
WWI: The introduction of the modern-day Iron Chariot. To what exists today. Example; as Britain invented the modern-day Iron Chariot, today, the Challenger II:
image
You being scared is the least of your problems. If he knows what's good for him, he'll have buggered off: never to return. Thus leaving you fundie Christains right in the clarts. All on your Tod Sloane. Fucked .
Jim Bakker. Jimmy Swaggart. Ted Faggard. Tony Alamo.
The lack of morals among your own kind. The source of those 'Morals'?
Where is your 'God' now , indeed.
Fools. They are to be pitied. [/Mr. T]
American Jesus would understand.
We've often joked about Republican Jesus, but now we have American Jesus.
The world doesn’t need to see good, moral people living good, moral lives.
So that's why Christians act the way they do.
The world needs to see Christians making decisions that depend on God showing up. And if He doesn’t show, we are going to look foolish.
Guess who's going to look foolish like Harold Camping on May 22, 2011?
A scary proposition to rely on oneself? Whatever happened to "God helps those that help themselves"? I know it isn't in the Book, but it's at least more sound than "God will do it for me."
I'm reminded of this old bit. During a massive flood, a guy is stranded on his roof. Somebody in a boat comes by and says "Hey, need a hand?" The guy smiles and says, "Nope, God will rescue me". Later, a National Guard chopper comes by. "Hey! We're here to rescue you!" The guy smiles and answers "Nope, God's got this one." Eventually, the stranded guy dies. Upon reaching Heaven, he asks God "Why didn't you rescue me?" Incredulous, God answers, "I tried. I sent a boat, a helicopter..."
Also, love how the last paragraph basically says "Don't worry about living right like the Book says, live like an idiot expecting to get bailed out." And people wonder why we have economic problems...
"And if He doesn’t show, we are going to look foolish."
Yeah, and you look foolish all the time. Because your god never shows up. Your god has never showed up. You seeing the connection, Frank, or do I need to draw you a diagram?
I do believe in god or gods that is,but not the that they do. I don't know if gods or a god exist(hence the word agnostic), but I do believe that they might exist. They might have been not all great and powerful beings that lived in another dimension,world and universe. Maybe the gods were just actually nature of forces. People in ancient times did mistake natural disasters for gods,but they weren't actually gods at all.
American Jesus would understand.
The "American Jesus" thing is followed by a bunch of (presumably) bad things that he *would* understand, if he existed. I could interpret this in two ways, and I'm not sure which is true:
* "American Jesus" is accompanied with an eye roll. That is, if Jesus were like most Americans, he would be very un-Jesus-like, strictly operating within logic, not dreaming big, and not making decisions that rely on God showing up.
* If Jesus were in America, he would understand what made Frank Powell so upset. It's all this stuff about logic and not dreaming big or relying on God.
It's the word "would" that convinces me it's a hypothetical Jesus either way.
I think Sasha nailed it. Fundies are nothing but junkies who refuse to admit they have a problem.
And while I never thought it would happen, I actually agree with this idiot on a couple of points. Churches are nothing but clubs; meeting places to share gossip, compare clothes & try to flaunt your piety.
Either gawd exists or he doesn't; there's no in-between. So far not a single Jesus Junkie has been able to produce a single shred of evidence that he does, so the logical conclusion is that he does not exist. Never did & never will.
American jeebus is just plain stupid. Their savior would be a curly haired, swarthy Middle Eastern man, not a surfer dude who looks like the maintenance man in an Alabama trailer park.
And finally, the bible sniffers already look quite foolish, & that's being generous. They would probably feel even worse if they accepted that their dream date has stood them up, but that's just too painful to consider, hence the ceaseless delusion that he's coming any day now. In another time, I would be a bit sympathetic. But after living with these miscreants for nearly 4 decades, I'm all outta sympathy.
@The Crimson Ghost
I think Sasha nailed it. Fundies are nothing but junkies who refuse to admit they have a problem.
@Sasha
Fundies seem to be afraid that if they ever let go of their crippling dependence on their god, they might discover that they never needed him to begin with. That they were wrong--about everything--from the very beginning. And that's too frightening to even think about.
Long-time Christian Jonathan Edwards decided to think about it one day.
So what's the fundies' excuse?
He's still here.
Thinking. It can be utterly lethal for fundies.
"I said father Washington, you're all mixed up,
Well, hey there;
But Reverend Ebeneezer,
Supertramp
Whine us another tragedy Frank.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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