The Empiricist Strikes Back asked:
One of the things theists repeat about atheists is that atheists disbelieve religion because that lets athesits do as they please, as though they otherwise could not commit crimes and immoral acts. Before I left the faith I did prison ministry for five years. I met theists by the thousands in the penitentiary. No atheists. Christians can probably name off pastors and priests they’ve heard of murdering their wives, commiting adultery, robbing the church, molesting children, snorting meth and hiring hookers for *** ***. Believing in a god clearly does not prevent immorality, so why assume the opposite? In fact beliefs about god have been the basis of horrific crimes like 9/11, the Inquisition, the witch hunts. Those murderers were not atheists. Why do you suppose theists don’t see the contradiction? Isn’t it just bigotry the same as fundies like Jerry Falwell slandering black people fifty years ago?
I’m familiar with jailhouse religion. I wasn’t a corrections officer, but I did my correctional counseling internships in college and was a police officer for fourteen years. But I met deacons and pastors in the pen who were religious long before they got to the pen. But my point was not that Christians are in prison out of proportion to their number sin the general population,only that a belief in the existence of a god or gods does not in any way act as a gurantee of morality. The worshippers of Baal and Chemosh were theists and they practiced human sacrifice. And one correction to a comment below: Mulsims are not atheist, nor are the Aryans. They believe in “Aryan Christianity.” So stop trying to affilate atheism with criminal gangs that are avowedly god believers.
And one other point: it’s a dodge to assert that every Christian who commits a crime was not really a Christian. 1 John 3:15 says, “And you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” So I suppose onthat basis you might assert that a person hwo commits a murder is not saved or they could not murder. But I think it’s a stretch to build a doctrine on a single verse.
Milo
One of the things theists repeat about atheists is that atheists disbelieve religion because that lets athesits do as they please, as though they otherwise could not commit crimes and immoral acts. Before I left the faith I did prison ministry for five years. I met theists by the thousands in the penitentiary. No atheists. Christians can probably name off pastors and priests they’ve heard of murdering their wives, commiting adultery, robbing the church, molesting children, snorting meth and hiring hookers for *** ***. Believing in a god clearly does not prevent immorality, so why assume the opposite? In fact beliefs about god have been the basis of horrific crimes like 9/11, the Inquisition, the witch hunts. Those murderers were not atheists. Why do you suppose theists don’t see the contradiction? Isn’t it just bigotry the same as fundies like Jerry Falwell slandering black people fifty years ago?
I’m familiar with jailhouse religion. I wasn’t a corrections officer, but I did my correctional counseling internships in college and was a police officer for fourteen years. But I met deacons and pastors in the pen who were religious long before they got to the pen. But my point was not that Christians are in prison out of proportion to their number sin the general population,only that a belief in the existence of a god or gods does not in any way act as a gurantee of morality. The worshippers of Baal and Chemosh were theists and they practiced human sacrifice. And one correction to a comment below: Mulsims are not atheist, nor are the Aryans. They believe in “Aryan Christianity.” So stop trying to affilate atheism with criminal gangs that are avowedly god believers.
And one other point: it’s a dodge to assert that every Christian who commits a crime was not really a Christian. 1 John 3:15 says, “And you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” So I suppose onthat basis you might assert that a person hwo commits a murder is not saved or they could not murder. But I think it’s a stretch to build a doctrine on a single verse.
Milo
September 1st, 2009 |
Tags: Gurantee, Jerry Falwell