The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

As regular readers should know by now, while I personally don't care what one's religious beliefs are, I myself am not religious. I'm fascinated by religion, have read about and studied several from around the world, but in the end, there hasn't been one which has convinced me it's more valid than all the others. Given that, I got into a discussion with a rather religious individual over the weekend and, while I know she meant well with her words, they still kind of rubbed me the wrong way. We were discussing health ordeals, and when I informed her I was once riddled with a brain tumor and underwent surgery to remove it, she kept repeating the line, "God's looking out for you" and "God's got plans for you!" I know people mean well when they say such things, yet whenever I hear these lines, an array of questions come to mind, such as: "Does this mean God wasn't looking out for the 3-year-old that was shot and killed the other d...

What is it with the sports media's seeming obsession to take athletes' comments out of context recently? I already wrote about how this occurred with Washington Redskins starting quarterback Robert Griffin III last week, when a solid majority of the sports media focused on a small percentage of his quote, only drawing attention to the words, "RG III thinks he's the best quarterback in the league," and completely missing his intent and point with the full quote. This week, it's Detroit Lions safety Glover Quin's turn. When being asked about Green Bay Packers receiver Jordy Nelson's season-ending injury, a majority of headlines from the sports media only quoted Quin as saying, "God meant for Jordy to get hurt." His full quote is as follows: "I hated Jordy got hurt, but in my beliefs, and the way I believe, it was - God meant for Jordy to get hurt. So if he wouldn't have got hurt today, if he wouldn't have played in that game,...

Whenever something horrifically bad occurs in this country, it seems as if die-hard evangelicals join in unison with one another across the nation and tell people, "Well, you know why this happened, right? It's because we've turned our backs on God." Yes, whether it be Hurricane Sandy, the Newtown shooting, or a devastating tornado, many evangelicals won't point their fingers toward reason or common sense, but toward a religious conspiracy. I often times hear and read them attempt to reason with people by saying something such as this: "What would you expect? We took prayer out of schools. We took Christ out of Christmas. We've removed God from this country, so now he's had enough and is punishing us as a result." No, nevermind the belief that God gave us free will. I guess he gave us free will until the point he's so angry, he has to provide himself catharsis through destruction. Oh, what a benevolent God he is... This "rational...

On Rush Limbaugh's radio show earlier this week, the drug-addled Pillsbury Doughboy said this: "See, in my humble opinion, folks, if you believe in God, then intellectually you cannot believe in manmade global warming ... You must be either agnostic or atheistic to believe that man controls something that he can't create." First of all, how can strong religious beliefs be seen as "intellectual" in any context? Such individuals place their blind faith in a person they've never seen before, never heard, never spoken to, never met - yet they give their entire life to this invisible being in hopes that they'll be eternally rewarded after death in a land that they can't prove exists. That's about as "intellectual" as when my dog looks up at the ceiling, looks all around at seemingly nothing, and then goes outside to bark at a blade of grass. Secondly, even if one believes in God, why is it he or she can't believe in global warm...

For whatever reason, I looked up the concept of the coexistence of free will and predestination. This concept has always puzzled me. I read through many people's comments on how the two entities can be compatible with one another. Some went as far to say, "It's so simple. I don't understand how anyone could not understand it" or "It crazy that so many intelligent scientific-types don't understand this. You're making it more difficult than it needs to be." Are we? A solid chunk of the comments laid claim that God knows what we will choose to do, meaning he doesn't make the choices for us and this is how the two entities can coexist. Others suggested that our free will involves the choices we make to reach the final destination, but that destination has already been predetermined. I think many of these individuals are getting the concepts of omniscience and predeterminism mixed. It is said that God is omniscient or all-knowing. This would n...

How I'm so sick of hearing this tired cliche. I just overheard it this past Tuesday when I was out and about with some friends. A buddy of mine and I heard the very sad story about a guy's mother whom died from cancer at 39 years of age. He was only 9 at the time, I believe he said. He was then told, "Everything happens for a reason." That was followed up with a statement that I believe to be true, that if we don't believe that things happen for a reason, that tragic incidents are a result of God's plan, then it may drive us crazy. It's much easier to accept things as are if we believe these very unfortunate events were meant to be. I agree with that latter portion there and due to that, I wish I believed everything happened for a reason. I could stop questioning why certain things happened and just accept things as they occur. However, I can't for the life of me believe that. Rape. What would the reason be behind a person being violently forced to h...

I know I've written about this before, but read a Facebook status today saying something along the lines of, "Life is good. I knew God had a better plan for me." It seems like 40% of Christians believe exclusively in free will, 40% believe in predestination and 20% believe in both. I have no sources to back up these numbers and I honestly have no idea how accurate they are, but it's just a rough guesstimate. I understand the free will argument. I don't believe in it, but understand if one believes in predestination. I can't for the life of me understand the two concepts co-existing with one another. But, also bothersome to me is this illusory self-designated predestination. "He has a plan for me" or "He has a plan for you". Really? Isn't that a tad narcissistic to think like that? Things are going well for me, so that translates to God having a good plan for me? What about the child born with AIDS? The raped woman? The abused homose...

There are many things about organized religion that confuse me, especially the Christian faith, as that's the religion I grew up learning the most about, living in a country where the majority practice this particular faith. One debate I've always had problems with on a logical level is with regard to predestination vs. free will and also mixing in "God's plan" to the equation. I know people whom believe in predestination. I know some whom believe in free will. I know others whom believe in both. I know some that believe God granted us free will, yet he/she/it has a plan for every one of us. Breaking this down, I can understand if a person believes solely in one or the other, whether that be predestination, free will or that God has a plan for us. However, I have difficulty in understanding how we can simultaneously have both or all three. If our destiny is predestined by a higher power, of what difference would free will make in our outcome? If I was predes...

I wrote a blog not too long ago dealing with what a friend of mine said when I mentioned to her that she should play the lottery since she had been getting so lucky as of late and she responded with, "Sometimes I don't think God wants me to have money." She also claims to believe in free will. I received a comment on my blog that read, "When a 'christian' believes in free will, that means that they believe that God gives man the choice to believe and follow him." That comment left me scratching my head, so I did some research. The definition of free will is "the belief or the philosophical doctrine that holds that humans have the power to choose their own deeds." This definition seems to differ amongst Christians. Whereas some may believe in predestination, others believe in free will, and others yet seem to attempt to blend these two together. I do not understand this logic. If the comment left before me was true, how could it be constru...

A while back, someone I know had been getting very lucky with certain things. It seemed as if they'd been catching all the breaks. So, I said, "Hey, you should go pay a buck or two and get a lotto scratch card" or whatever those things are called (shows how much I play). Her response? "Sometimes I think God doesn't want me to have money." I thought maybe she was talking about something else, so I said, "What? What do you mean?" She replied with, "I've never won anything before." I was going, "I know some people who have won more than their share of money, but they also spend more than they win or they lose it again to the slot machines. Do you think 'God' wanted them to have money?" I don't like that mentality. It's the mental state of putting your entire life into a supernatural being's hands and giving up. When I was born, should I have muttered to myself, "I don't think God wants me ...