Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Don't tell me there is a loving, all-powerful "intelligent designer" who sits back allows this

Ed addition for alternative caption suggested by tommy: ""Because God Never Gives You More Than You Can Handle"

This image has been left imprinted in my mind for some time. A vulture stands there on the sidelines waiting for this innocent child to die so the bird of prey can swoop in and devour her. She is struggling to crawl to a foot station.


Yes, nature is quite cruel in the way of the survival of the fittest. It bothers me much though that god believers think that their god is good, and not a sadistic bastard for sitting back after creating a world which is set up in such cruelty, suffering and heartache. The suffering of innocent babies, and children come to my mind first, for they suffer the very most because they are so naive, helpless and dependent on others for their mere survival. No god is going to come rescue them if another human being is not around or does not care.

To say that there is an "intelligent designer" who invented the grand scheme of things would make this designer highly incompetent and unable to control his creations or to correct his errors at best, or at the worst, he is a sick, sadistic bastard who is all powerful but set up the world as a puppet stage to play who suffers, who doesn't, who dies, who doesn't...etc. The strong devour the weak. One living creature must kill and eat another for its own survival. While there is much beauty and awesomeness in the world, it is also a very violent, chaotic and cruel world and to say that this is all an all-knowing, all-powerful entity could think up is absurd. It is NATURE and life can be very good, or very cruel. Outside of natural happenings and disasters, it is totally up to other humans to help other humans. Not some sky genie.

While I was in the hospital with this serious illness, I saw firsthand how the religious take advantage of a sick person's vulnerability and sit on the sidelines and wait, and wait for the right moment to pounce. Most likely, their intentions are good ones based on their own worldview, and they believe they are showing loving concern that the atheist who is sick doesn't have that "afterlife insurance just in case" thing and their "just" god is going to send a very good person to eternal suffering in the pits of their mythical hell. I am sure that my relatives who are fundamentalists are indeed concerned about me, however they seem to be far more concerned about me AFTER I die! This is frightening and I am glad that there aren't many in the family or in my immediate family who think this way. The ones who bother me the most about it are only a few and they live out of town and I rarely talk to them.

The other morning I was calm and happy to be recovering. I am glad to be back home and on the mend. I still have medical problems I will have to deal with my whole life, but I can do it. I have a whole team of doctors who I trust and access to some of the best medical facilities in the world and insurance to pay for it. While I was happily checking my emails, there was one from one of those distant Baptist relative who after saying she would never, ever bring up "being saved" and religion to me again...LIED and brought it up again in a most disturbing and disrespectful way. She sent me a very "deep" email with emotional examples of sick people being sick because they reject god, and some Bible passages she told me to really focus on and consider. (cherry-picked just for me and I resisted the urge to cherry-pick some counter-passages back to her. This person forgets that I WAS an active and believing xian for a long time and a leader in several churches.) She implied that all of my problems are because I didn't trust god! (She just proved the "sadistic bastard" point to me again). She said my ulcers are from "anger" I am holding back towards her god! My ulcers are most likely from trying to spice up my food with jalapenos and other spicy stuff after I was not allowed salt anymore a few months ago ! They are clearing up with Protonix medication and staying away from spicy crap, praise Jeebus. ;)

I am not supposed to get upset or stressed out. But I was furious with this email because this person had lied to me....AGAIN FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME. I want very much to stay in communication with her, and don't want to ban her from communication like I have been banned from communicating with a certain other fundamentalist twig of the family tree, so I will just not open anything that starts out with "I know I said I wouldn't bring this up again" and not read past that.

Most people in my family respect my beliefs or lack thereof. My parents are great. They offer physical help and my mom was so worried about me but she was there, and never once mentioned godly crap to me...she asked a lot about doctors and if they knew what they were doing though! That's what matters...if the doctor is an idiot or incompetent or not.

The Lutherans and the Catholics in the family don't do that preachy, cry-baby crap to me. (The Baptists cry and seemed to want to make it somehow morbid, like they expected death to come any minute and I MUST be saved and trust their version of this god being.) This person who sent me the email said that I was on the huge prayer list at her church and is why it was found that I didn't have LUPUS after all...however, she doesn't know everything except bits and pieces of what my folks told her via brief short telephone conversations, and I do have several other problems that are serious that she doesn't know about and won't. I don't want to be on any more oogie boogie prayer lists and it is insulting and maddening that I am on one at all. If it makes them happy to bring attention to themselves with it or makes them feel better in some way to put me on it DON'T TELL ME ABOUT IT. IT ONLY PISSES ME OFF.

I wrote this person back and said that I appreciate her concern and am glad that she is thinking of me in whatever way makes her feel better. But I told her I am a pretty upbeat person and have endured a lifetime of illnesses, from being born premature in the 50s, to suffering with severe asthma and other ailments as a child, to difficult and unusual pregnancies, the death of a newborn in delivery, a miscarriage, the loss of our middle son's twin during pregnancy, hysterectomy, benign liver tumors removed, Rheumatoid Arthritis, gout, pulmonary edema, abnormal water metabolic deficiency, irregular heartbeat, and the list goes on and on as it does for many people as they age. If these people believe god made us, then their god made me and many others "defective" and sits back and does nothing but let the doctors struggle to figure out how to fix his mess. Of course, that is not what I believe. I believe this crap happens in nature...survival of the fittest and the individual resilience and desire to keep on going for as long as we can. Believer or non, it's up to individual attitude. Look at all the studies that say patients who are prayed for do worse when they start feeling pity for themselves.

I also told this person that most of my roommates were god believers as were probably most of the people in the hospital I was in and many are far worse off than I am, and many younger, and many of them KIDS. Their families pray, they chant, they cry, they beg.....their loved ones are still sick and dying. Praying is pointless. They say so themselves..."god's will" which means to me, "that's life"...and we have to deal with it.

Back to the "vulture" example, it is sad that they must take advantage of the non-believer at stressful and difficult times of illness or distress. But for me, I believe being respectful and loving does not include telling me that a bad god is doing this to me because I cannot believe in something for which there is zero evidence or logic for.

10 comments:

Robguy said...

Jesus would have helped that child, but he was busy helping Kathy Griffin win an Emmy.

Stardust said...

robguy, and don't forget about all the various sports teams that won this past weekend.

Also, guess god is busy getting Uncle Ned that new Mercedes he wants, all those new furnishings at the megachurches, and all the fun activities that go along with that for "believers" and their "churchertainment". My relative believes her god prayers saved me from LUPUS while little children died in the pediatric intensive care ward.

Tommykey said...

Stardust, how about this for a caption or alternate title for this post?

"Because God Never Gives You More Than You Can Handle"

Stardust said...

Good one tommy, I am making an edit with a subtitle

Andrea said...

Star, I for one appreciate your honesty and for sharing with us while you're in pain. It sounds really sucky and I am so unbelievably grateful that me and my family are healthy.

Anyway, I'm in agreement with this post. Believing in a creator is one thing, but claiming that this being is benevolent is so insulting to people like that poor little baby in the picture. If I had a magic wand, no baby would ever starve to death in the dirt like that. For fuck's sake. Epicurus said it best, about evil and this lovey-dovey deity..."able but not willing..."

Poodles said...

Well, that was uplifting. How people can justify that a god would let this happen for any reason is beyond me.

Tom said...

Stardust,

The Bible teaches we are borne with a sinful nature.

God does nothing wrong in allowing this. He demonstrates His Holiness.

Babies do go to heaven when they die.

Stardust said...

cole, that's just it...your fellow god believers interpret a very old ancient text in the most horrible way. You are being programmed with a victim mentality. If a god existed, why would he create sin when he knows he is going to have to use that same "evilness" against his creations for not doing what he wants them to do...while at the same time believe that he has set some kind of plan in motion, knowing that his creations will be bad because he is all-knowing...but makes them that way anyway.

What this demonstrates is that your god is abusive, and sits back and allows suffering...he would then be a dick.

As for babies going to heaven when they die...then why create life when heaven is the goal. What possible good is going to come of creating this little child in the photo, allow her to suffer great agony...alone..an orphan only to be come vulture food when the goal is heaven? Why not just plant baby souls in heaven for himself.

You are making stuff up as you go along. The more you try to explain this kind of thing, the more and more bizarre it sounds.

No more of this "wrathful god" reasoning on my blog. You have made your statement of your preprogrammed beliefs...

If you want to live believing these things, you are free to do so.

Tom said...

Stardust,

what do you mean I'm being programed with a victim mentality?

Stardust said...

cole, you are following a herd religion that teaches you to hate yourself and to think that a god is out to get you if you don't be good, and that people who don't share your god beliefs are bad and out to get you somehow. You cannot simply accept the beauty of life, and also acknowledge that things happen in nature we have no control over and that there are no magical beings to stop the "bad" stuff. Humans create gods as a way to cope with what we cannot control or fix.
Most humans want instant answers, and when there aren't any...they create gods for themselves. There isn't even one christian god...every christian makes this god of Abraham any way they want him to be according to their own needs, what they have been taught to think, and for their own hopes and desires.

You want to see a wrathful god because you can't explain these horrible things in any good way. There is no good in a little child suffering and starving a slow and agonizing death...then being eaten by a big bird. You can try to explain it away, but it's NATURE...shit happens.

The fact is that in nature, some areas experience drought and famine, disease...and creatures die off. We live in a land of plenty, so most of us thrive. There is no god pulling puppet strings for billions upon billions of human beings and animals. It's just too absurd to even consider to be reality.