There is nothing worse than putting up with the pronouncements of the fundies giving God a pass on some disaster or another. If He is all-knowing and all-powerful, then it’s His fault, and no moron with a Book is going to convince me otherwise. How reliable can someone be who gambles with Satan [see Book of Job]?

There was one mission I was tasked to eliminate someone, and I refused. Simply because all the proof of his *guilt* was in my view suspect. I think I’ve mentioned this before. I wasn’t just some sanctioned killer. I know they got someone else to complete the mission. But I will always believe I did the right thing. And I’ve paid the price. The powers that be don’t forget soldiers who refuse orders, even if legally allowed to do so under certain conditions. *shrug* Too many people are OK with ambiguities. I am not. “No good deed goes unpunished”, right? 🙂

I study history whenever I can, as you know. 🙂 I came across a document by a Jewish History Professor on Concentration Camps during the Holocaust.

He discovered a phrase carved into a cell wall by a Jewish prisoner that read: “If there is a God, he will have to beg my forgiveness.” From the document:

Holocaust Haggadah – Efficacy of Prayer -The Greatest Fraud: Words carved into the cell wall of a Jewish prisoner during the Holocaust.
“The murder of at least one million children under the age of 13 in the Holocaust —no matter what the reasons— makes God responsible for murder.”
— History professor Yehuda Bauer.

I couldn’t agree more.

“God made me do it” is no more believable than “The devil made me do it”, they are variations on “but all of the other kids are doing it” – childish excuses for bad behavior.

I have often remarked that I can never be a ‘good Christian’ because there are things that I will never forgive or forget. Telling me that Adolf Hitler could have gone to Confession prior to his death and then been a candidate for “Heaven” is just too absurd to be accepted, much less acceptable.

My response to the question of a final judgment is that God had better have some damn good excuses for His conduct before He questions mine. “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Get real, if He had done His job, our jobs wouldn’t have been necessary.

My standard for the death penalty is hard scientific evidence, not a coerced confession, not eyewitness testimony, but DNA, fingerprints, fibers, surveillance video, blood stains, etc. that can be independently verified and prove the case beyond any doubt.

I oppose things such as death penalties, not on any altruistic or moral grounds, or because i don’t think some people don’t deserve to die. I killed plenty and arranged for the death of others that I believed deserved it. All of them had killed many innocents and caused much terror and destruction. I am no hypocrite. No… My objection is simply that no government or politician can be trusted to make that decision.

I always liked the quote from “Man On Fire” paraphrased by Gen. Schwarzkopf: “Forgiveness is between them and God. It’s my job to arrange the meeting.” 🙂

And that was my job. 🙂 And if there is a God… Then he and I will sort it out one day.

I also like the Holmes quote: “Oh, I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for one second that I am one of them!”

Throughout the Bible, the main role of governments was to protect its people from threatening invaders and to maintain law and order within its borders. This was done by maintaining a military force.

John 19:11: “Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above…”

Romans 13:1-5:
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.
Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”

And so on. Of course, as we know… it ain’t always so! 🙂 Maybe in a perfect World… but then, there would be no need for a God. 🙂

I have never used religion or God to excuse or justify anything I have done. And I never will.

Yes, that is a useful little construct because it works with anything in the numerator or denominator positions. I have a text file of similar structures so I don’t have to remember how to type them.

I have no great interest in anyone else’s religion, unless they attempt to impose its practices on me; at that point, I can get downright nasty about it. Just for being a UU (remember, three US Presidents were Unitarians, and we usually claim TJ as well), I have been called “dangerous” and told I’m going to Hell… well and good; it’s the one (hypothetical) place I can depend on my not being harassed by fundamentalist Christians!

Besides your Freedom of Religion is infringing on my Freedom of the WordPress – so there. 😉

It has always amazed me that many of the people who scream about their Freedom of Religion or Freedom of Speech don’t seem to understand that their freedoms don’t include the right to impose their religion or speech on other people. I’m not interested in other people’s religion on any level other than historical or sociological pointers, and I certainly don’t want them altering the way I live my life because of what they claim to believe. I say claim because there is no certain way of determining what someone actually believes.

SO… would conservative American Catholics seek to jail me, or even kill me, for infringing their “freedom of religion,” i.e., their alleged “freedom” to impose the constraints of their religion on my (hypothetical) spouse?

Here’s a new commandment for them: “THOU SHALT NOT impose thine own THOU SHALT NOTs on Americans of religions other than thine own!”