Christianity is stupid
A letter from CW:
I remember a few years ago when my dad walked away from his job that he had with a company, he decided to take an early retirement.
My dad was Manager and Controller of a major company where I live. He made some really good money, but when the owners overlooked my dad's advice, the company got into financial trouble. My dad resigned, and never went back to work. He retired at the age of 57 with no retirement or pension of any kind.
He rededicated his life to Christ in 1989, and he says that he believes the "Good Lord" blocked his attempts at getting rich, knowing he would probably be a crooked business man. He says he has no regrets about it.
Well let's see then. My parents are now both on fixed income, and they have to rely on SSI, and now because of a lack of money, they missed out on the opportunities to purchase our neighbor's farm when it went up for sale, and now the person who bought part of it has put junk all behind my parent's house, and my dad fusses about that on a constant basis, they were unable to purchase my grandmother's home when she passed away, and a member of our family is struggling with an eating disorder that may very well kill him, and my dad doesn't have the money to get him the help he needs.
My dad still says that he has no regrets about his decision, and it was God's will that he was not able to make big money.
No invisible God will determine if I make it in the financial world or not. All these Christians and God both can go screw themselves.
I do not need to get permission from an invisible force to make it in the financial world.
Once again, Christianity is stupid.
I remember a few years ago when my dad walked away from his job that he had with a company, he decided to take an early retirement.
My dad was Manager and Controller of a major company where I live. He made some really good money, but when the owners overlooked my dad's advice, the company got into financial trouble. My dad resigned, and never went back to work. He retired at the age of 57 with no retirement or pension of any kind.
He rededicated his life to Christ in 1989, and he says that he believes the "Good Lord" blocked his attempts at getting rich, knowing he would probably be a crooked business man. He says he has no regrets about it.
Well let's see then. My parents are now both on fixed income, and they have to rely on SSI, and now because of a lack of money, they missed out on the opportunities to purchase our neighbor's farm when it went up for sale, and now the person who bought part of it has put junk all behind my parent's house, and my dad fusses about that on a constant basis, they were unable to purchase my grandmother's home when she passed away, and a member of our family is struggling with an eating disorder that may very well kill him, and my dad doesn't have the money to get him the help he needs.
My dad still says that he has no regrets about his decision, and it was God's will that he was not able to make big money.
No invisible God will determine if I make it in the financial world or not. All these Christians and God both can go screw themselves.
I do not need to get permission from an invisible force to make it in the financial world.
Once again, Christianity is stupid.
Comments
Meanwhile, I'll make an educated guess that the pastor of this man's church is not living on a macaroni-and-cheese budget.
Hugs to you and your family, CW.
Your father has found something more valuable than this world can offer. Instead of storing up riches on this earth than can easily be destroyed he is storing up riches in heavan. I'm praying for you and your family.
-Stormblade
What a bunch of bologna. Riches in heaven let's see, his street is going to be more gold than the neighbors, and his driveway made of pearls. Laughable
Onanite
Perhaps this is an example that people should try and work hard to earn money and to ensure that they can provide for themselves and thier loved ones, and not just totally rely on a being that they cannot see to make all thier choices for them.
If there is a perfect God, perhaps this God would want us to learn how to be financially responsible and to take care of ourselves. After all, what parent wants thier child living off them for the rest of thier lives?
So I'm sorry to have to tell everyone this but, if you do as Jesus commands us to do and if yet you still own the clothes that you are wearing you are going straight to hell.
God's word is not to be tinkered with.
God's holy word is not to be taken lightly.
Either you loose those clothes and all possessions, or go straight to hell, it's all totally up to you.
Even Jesus, not to be a hypocrit, died wearing borrowed rags.
Great - if you're so righteous, then why don't you go and do just that. Go ahead. I'm waiting. Have you sold all your possessions yet? No? Jesus loves you.
Hypocrites.
Wouldn't it be better to be perceived as a Christian, than lets say, an Atheist?
An Atheist, that has no "beliefs, no hopes, no spiritual after-life, no longing to be with God or Jesus?"
I mean what does an Atheist have? Nothing, except what they have before them, this instant.
What does a Christian have? Hope for a spiritual after-life, a longing to be with God and Jesus.
Wouldn't it be better to be thought of as a Christian than be thought of as an Atheist?
Isn't being a Christian better than being an Atheist?
A Christian atleast has a promise, backed by a written book, of being with Jesus in heaven, whereas an Atheist has no promise of "anything" beyond the grave.
Isn't it atleast better to have a belief of a promise, than to have no belief in anything after death?
Isn't that the premise of organized religion is to promote and endorse that belief on a weekly basis to keep people in line with their beliefs?
That's the reason people need faith, they constantly need faith abunduntly, they need constant reassurance, they need revival, to constant remind them of the promise that they are to be rewarded after they die.
They need to constantly pay the preacher so he will continue to come back and tell them just what they want to hear, each week.
It's how Christians want to be perceived, not necessarly how they really are inside.
If you were afloat in the sea for days and hungry and thirsty because your boat sank and you landed on a island with people you've never seen or heard of, it would be hard to convence them that their religion was wrong.
This is what it's like being an Atheist, we're scarcely out numbered, the majority mind-set is Christian in America.
Christianity is not only stupid but it needs to be reinforced by organized religion constanly, or it will quickly die.
In the latest news, two major Episcopal church branches in Virginia break off from the national chapter.
Christians can't agree on theology. Remember, Catholics, Prespyterians, Baptists, Epispocols, 7th day adventists, Mormons, although they supposedly worship the same Christian God, they hate each other and think each other will go to hell.
Why is it that the only common bonding these Christian factions share are criminal - pedophilia, sexual abuse, fraud.
Atheists do not have a holy spirit to guide them on to the "right(tm)" path.
Atheists do not hire a preacher to tell them how wonderful they are.
Atheists do not have an or need an imaginary invisible god.
Atheists do not have to make a public commitment that cannot be
met.
Atheists do not have an invisible personal savior to bail them out from every wrong doing.
Atheists do not build churches and call them houses of a god.
Atheists do not believe that a god calls some people for some things and simply ignores others in desperate need, depending upon their deeds and works and beliefs.
You're right, xtainity is for the stupid and the ignorant.
in your dad's form, it's a sad excuse for not accepting responsibility. can't make it financially? not his fault. it was god's will. why was it god's will? easy christian answer, to teach him something.. to teach him that he is worthless and undeserving.
many christian's cope with disappointments, unfilled dreams and failed endeavors by telling themselves that god deemed them an unworthy piece of shit. Now that's not too different from the unbeliever who suffers from depression and mental illness and thinks of themselves as worthless and useless. The only difference is that christians go one step further and decide that they're not responsible for telling themselves they're worthless, almighty god is.
and who can question god.
certainly not the worthless christian.
and so not only does the christian need to take no responsibility for his own failures, he has no need to get off his worthless ass and even try again. try, try and try again. No. He will wait for god to put something in his lap. He will wait for something miraculous, something unexpected, some lucky and fortuitous windfall of some kind and call it "god's will".
Even if it required him to lift the smallest finger to cause this fortuitous event to happen, he will not do it. Why? simply because he cannot see the event. He is not looking for the event. He is not proactive. He is passive. Waiting. Worthless.
It is sad that he will only reinforce his own worthlessness. Because he has determined it is "god's will" that he is not successful, he can conclude that he is not lacking in any area. There is no reason and no incentive to improve himself, examine and honestly evaluate what he could do, what he could improve or learn to achieve his goal.
You cannot aucceed if you know you have already failed.
My Dad has also made major life affecting decisions based on his faith that christianity is 'truth'. Decisions that no right minded person would make.
At almost 60 yrs of age he's decided to become a pastor.
Not just to preach to a congregation, but to evangelise the Muslim population of Western Sydney.
He's moved house into the middle of the biggest muslim neighbourhoods in Australia, which is also one of the highest crime areas in Sydney, and joined an Arabic Baptist church, because they need English speakers.
Mum doesn't like it, she was looking forward to a peaceful retirement, but she refuses to complain, being the good obedient christian wife...
I don't even think he likes it himself, giving up all his time and money to attend bible college, living in such a bad neighbourhood, but he 'feels the call' - the call put in his mind by the bible.
The bible he accepts on faith, and no logic, or anything else I say to snap him out of his funk, has any effect, because his faith makes him immune to reason.
So now my brothers and I have to go into the deepest darkest Muslim/crime-central of Western Sydney for our christmas's.
Thank you Jesus.
Where else in the world can one get a luxury job preaching one hour a week for 52 weeks and get paid before you even start, with a home and all expenses paid.
All you got to say is, "I Love Jesus, aren't you a good Christian and I'll pray for you!" and you're in the money.
There is no riches involved, rather the opposite.
He's doing it out of a misguided sense of compassion and duty.
Misguided because it's based on christianity, and christianity is Stupid.
Since you say that you're from Australia, I have no idea what people expect from preachers there.
All I know here in America that mostly all preachers live a life of luxury, with homes and cars furnished with a big salary, most drive either big Cadilacs and wear fancy taylored clothes and rolex watches.
And people worship the holy ground that they walk upon and defend them when ever they commit any crime.
Perhaps preaching for free is even dumb'er but atleast your father thinks he's doing the right thing.
google in: pastor charged
you will see thousands of preachers charged anywhere from incest to child molestation to embezzlement to murder, mostly here in the USA
It hasn't effected religions one bit, Christians are numbed, they are taught not to find fault, because the Bible has all the exclusions built-in just for those
crimes.
Judge not lest ye be judged, the flesh is weaker than the spirit, turn the other cheek, forgive those that trespass upon you, all will be forgiven that just ask[sic], etc.
Here's a christian favorite: "Christians are not perfect, just saved."
I cannot find that passage in the Bible, seems to be made up...lol
A preacher can get caught for fraud and kicked out of church, but they never ask for the money to be returned.
They are just counting the souls that got saved...huh? It's a sickening mind disease. TC
It's sad that your father wasted his life and his financial resources because he feared that otherwise he'd morph into a crooked businessman. (Hmmm ... Wonder why Jesus didn't plant similar thoughts in the minds of all the fundy preachers who went on to become crooks -- and worse?)
Anyway, if your father had continued to have some income coming in, he could have followed Jesus more closely by using anything left over after his needs to actually help the poor. As it was, no one benefitted. What a shame!
My background is in the Lutheran church, Missouri Synod. My cousin is married to a LCMS pastor and they are barely squeaking by in a suburb of Detroit. Not a good neighborhood, either.
Pastors do much more than just preach at a couple of church services every week; there are elders meetings, board of directors meetings, baptisms, funerals, weddings, visiting shut-ins, not to mention, the day-to-day administrative duties. Plus, they are on call 24/7 to the congregation and plenty of folks take advantage of that.
On top of that, pastor's wives are expected to perform any number of church duties like Choir, sunday school and fundraising (all without pay) to name a few, as well as being a paragon of Christian virtue.
My cousin knew that before she married a seminary student, but still chafes and complains occasionally, just the same (but only to her mom, of course!)
My aunt, btw, is every bit as pleased that her oldest daughter is a pastor's wife as any Jewish mother whose daughter ever wedded a doctor! LOL
Yes, Christianity is stupid, and no, my family doesn't know I feel that way. But it's the world I grew up in and I still love my family.
We got Mega-churches with salaries starting at 50k with perks on up to 250k/yr. Golfing 6 days a week, beauty parlors, taylored suits, choir robes, 100k Hammond Organs, super large screen TV's, ATM's, pastors seperate entrance and study, house furnished, Cadilac furnished, all utilities, expense account, congregation often showers preachers with private gifts...wink...wink!
It's all big money here with the Southern Baptists, tell them to drop that Lutheran crap and come out here and get rich.
I think pastors are rated third below Doctors and Lawyers, I'll see if I can find out.
They can come out here and open a church in someone's basement and in a few years build them a Mega- Temple Of God.
:-)
-Wes.
Aww thats ok hun, I'm a fervent Atheist, but I like to string the fundies along and then slap them in the face with their own feces.
Maybe you should make a copy of what I wrote or others on here and paste them up where others can read them?.
Good idea...hmmm? Don't let them see ya doing it :-(
So I'm sorry to have to tell everyone this but, if you do as Jesus commands us to do and if yet you still own the clothes that you are wearing you are going straight to hell.
God's word is not to be tinkered with.
God's holy word is not to be taken lightly.
Either you loose those clothes and all possessions, or go straight to hell, it's all totally up to you.
***
Why on earth would God send us to hell for wearing clothes that we brought with our own money? Furthermore, would God, who is said to be perfect and full of over-flowing love for all his children, want his children to live in poverty, homeless, pennyless, and starving in the streets because they have no money, no food, no shelter? Would you want your children to live like that?
Furthermore, if God gave us everything we needed while living like that, would we be required to give it away instantly because we can't have posessions? If we give our posessions to the poor, then they own posessions, and thus they're going to hell for having posessions.
I'm sorry, but what you wrote is one of the funniest things i've ever seen a christian write. Virtually nobody follows those commands to give up everything and live as a homeless hermit. Nobody sells everything they have.
Do you? If not, you're going to hell. At least, that's what the belief says. Maybe it's wrong. God would probably be more interested in us helping the poor, rather then becoming poor ourselves. It's up to us to do what we can, even if it's donating just a little bit of money, to help the poor rise up. God would be more interested in us doing that, rather then becoming poor ourselves.
What a bunch of suckers!
Mad person want people to call them god.
If Jesus is born during in the 21 century, I believe he will end up in the mental hospital.