Atheists Need to Perform Magic to Grow Their Numbers
In Judaeo-Christianity clergy regularly perform acts of magic that enthrall their audiences. They lift high a decanter and change its contents from grape juice or wine into blood. They proclaim, "He is risen." Jewish meat inspectors proclaim meat is Kosher. Until atheists perform some slight of hand magic and make people think it is real atheists will remain a minority.
Among the many difficulties is being dead. There is a constant trickle of Christians writing books and on paid lecture series telling the details of what they experienced while they were technically dead but their brain was still working. They tell of experiences that are, not surprisingly, quite like the descriptions provided by their faith. If an atheist tells of his/her experience before coming back and has experienced nothing there is no profit. There is no book to write or lecture series.
There is the magical story of creation, God and the seven days. All atheists can say is that they don't know where the universe came from. People will tithe to hear the seven-day story but not the, "I don't know."
Atheists have no product as good as prayer that heals very sick people. Now, some people recover from illnesses beyond normal probability without prayer. There is no press office, like those in Christian denominations, to herald that a person recovered with no prayer. But, if people were praying there will be press releases telling everyone about it.
Atheists have no motto to put on our money. Having our money say, "We trust in no God" will not help politicians get elected. The current "In God We Trust" is a safer for counting votes.
The only reason there are any atheists at all is that all religions have always gone too far with their magic and claims. Even if atheists cannot make magical claims, they can sit back and welcome those who have found the magic in religions to be unhelpful.
The sarcasm and sanctimony drip off of your keyboard and onto my screen. As a Christian, there is no "magic" involved. Unless magic is defined as a trick and not actual sorcery, then Christians have no quarrel with trickery. Sorcery is meddling in the acts of demons.
ReplyDeleteThe sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church are spiritual acts, not magic. Baptism erases the spiritual stain of original sin from the soul. Confession erases the stain of actual sin, mortal and venial, from the soul.
To sell atheism, atheists usually just try to incite hatred of organized religion. Nice sales and marketing plan. That is your personal sales pitch and it just doesn't seem to work.
I really hope and pray that you repent before it's too late.
Echoing Pascal: IF Jon is right, Matt will never know that he has been duped. At the end, he won't be around to know anything. Neither will I, neither will Jon. However, if Matt is right, Jon, along with the rest of us, will have some really interesting experiences at the end of our earthly tour.
DeleteMatt--"Baptism erases the spiritual stain of original sin from the soul. Confession erases the stain of actual sin..."
ReplyDeleteI believe it was President Reagan who said, "Trust, but verify." You have yielded your trust to this make believe stuff but never verified. Before "it's too late" I hope you will start to see it as others taking advantage of you.
Before it's too late for what?
DeleteMatt -- "Before it's too late for what?"
DeleteBeats me. I was just copying what you wrote. What did you mean?
Matt said to Jon, “The sarcasm and sanctimony drip off of your keyboard and onto my screen.” Now that is sorcery. Jon said, “Atheists have no motto to put on our money.” I had to grin at that. As a non-theist I guess theists could argue my tender is a three dollar bill with “In Doubt We Trust” on it. The feats of humankind like landing a spacecraft on a comet or walking on the moon are impressive. Then there’s the solo flight of a tiny hummingbird from Central America to North Dakota and back again. Wonderment is my “tradition”. Gods, crucifixions, holy ghosts, transubstantiations, sins, redemptions, born again, die twice, if it all works for you, have at it. Just don’t give me your incessant talk of being put upon. It is written your Jesus didn’t whine but once. Then there was the stormy blustery night on board a small regional aircraft attempting to land in a crosswind. The pilot performed an amazing landing. No hops, no skips, no jumps. After pulling up to the airport, a lady across the aisle sighed saying “The good Lord blessed us on that one.”. As we deplaned the captain, a middle aged handsome woman with grey hair, was wishing us all a good night. I said to her that was a great landing. She looked at me, smiled, and said “The blind squirrel found a nut.”. That was good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteArdy--I like the story about the landing. She is a good pilot no doubt.
DeleteAs to sarcasm, I think sarcasm is present when people say, "Thank God my surgery went well and I'm alive." Or, "Thanks to good surgeons and God I'm alive." The surgeon has to hear it was not just his/her work that it ended well, or, that the patient went into it with good health, or, that sometimes people are just lucky. Honesty is not sarcasm. Dishonesty is.
Hope you don't have arthritis, otherwise patting your self on the back must be painful. That aside, let's look at the bottom line. Everything is happenstance. It just happens, no real cause, divine or otherwise. The pilot's skill or the surgeon's skill was nothing other than "good luck". It just happened. Pure chance, of course. Chance, chance always chance.I doubt that Jon and Ardy have thought thru the implications of that take on the universe.
DeleteKind of as an update, several months ago I explained my policy on comments which I call "Jon's a Jerk" posts. These posts simply insult me or the blog and have no other contributions to our discussions. It's not that these posts bother me, I have published about 5,000 in the past. Having published 5,000 I don't see any need to publish 5,000 more. Please understand you post may not be published if it is another of the 5,000 "Jon's a Jerk" posts.
ReplyDelete