Injustice

The Story

Several years ago, Mike Baker and his family were the victims of a home invasion. An intruder bludgeoned Mr. Baker and his wife, Cathy nearly to death, tied them to chairs, and forced them to watch while he brutally beat and then raped their twelve-year-old daughter, Megan. The intruder, let’s call him Mister X for his real name is immaterial to the story at hand, then slit Megan’s throat and stabbed her parents repeatedly. Megan died almost immediately; her father later that night. Despite her severe injuries; however, Mrs. Baker managed to survive, but was in the hospital for weeks and took years to fully recover physically; mentally, she never quite did.

Mr. X was found a few days after the incident, arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison; he was acquitted on a technicality during an appeal and released. Mr. X continued his antisocial behavior through a string of burglaries, armed robberies, auto theft, and other various criminal activities which culminated in the murder of an elderly woman for the $2.35 in her purse. This time, Mr. X was convicted to life in prison and there were no appeals. Mr. X spent the rest of his life in prison, dying of pancreatic cancer just five years into his sentence.

Dolores Wise was the Baker family’s neighbor, but wasn’t home at the time of the attacks. She was out doing what she normally did on Thursday nights – volunteering at the Senior Center. After the attacks, Mrs. Wise helped the Baker’s other family members to make funeral arrangements, with transportation to the hospital, and kept them all well-fed. This wasn’t anything new for Mrs. Wise. Her entire life she had always tried to help whenever she could whether at the animal shelter, or with the local blood drive, or soup kitchen to name a few. When Mrs. Baker was able to come home from the hospital, Mrs. Wise spent a good portion of the day helping her to eat, bath, and keep the house. She read to her, cooked meals, and took care of errands like grocery shopping and paying the bills. She did this almost everyday for three years until Mrs. Baker eventually died from unseen consequences of the brutal beatings – or perhaps grief.

In the last few months of his life, Mr. X was bedfast, and so he did a lot of reading and thinking, in particular the Bible. He started to think back on his life and all of the things that he had done and the pain that he had caused. Two days before he died, Mr. X accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

After Mrs. Baker’s death, Mrs. Wise had a lot of free time on her hands, so she went back to the volunteer work that she had enjoyed so much throughout the rest of her life. She continued to work with at the Senior Center, the animal shelter, the soup kitchen, and other miscellaneous activities. A few years later, Mrs. Wise died after suffering a stroke. As she was near death, she though back on her life and how fulfilling it was, how full of love, hope, and joy. Now, Mrs. Wise knew that she only had one life to live, that there was no heaven or hell or afterlife of any kind. She firmly believed that no gods existed and that with this one precious gift of life that nature bestowed upon her, that she must live it to its fullest – and she did. Mrs. Wise died a non-believer secure in the knowledge that her life had been one well spent.

As chance would have it, Mrs. Wise and Mr. X died on the same day and were taken to the same funeral home. Dale Wheaton was the funeral director and while his wife Leah was at work, their ten year old daughter Emily stayed in her dad’s office at the funeral home.

Pastor Halton arrived at the funeral home at the request of Mr. X’s sister, Pat. When he arrived, he inquired about Mr. X and seeing Mrs. Wise’s name displayed, inquired about her as well. He was particularly curious as to why only three people were present in the viewing room for Mr. X, while Mrs. Wise’s room was filled to the brim. Mr. Wheaton explained about the life of crime that Mr. X had led and all of the suffering that he caused. Only his sister, her husband, and Mr. X’s brother had bothered to show up. In contrast, he explained, Mrs. Wise was generous and warm – loved by all who new her.

Now Emily, being the curious creature that she was, couldn’t help but eavesdrop on her father and Pastor Halton. Emily listened intently to what they were saying trying to keep hidden. Pastor Halton told Emily’s father that surely such a woman deserved a first class eulogy and wanted to know which minister would be conducting the service. “None” said Mr. Wheaton, “Mrs. Wise was a non-believer, an atheist”. Pastor Halton was somewhat taken aback; he couldn’t believe that a woman of such integrity of character and moral principles was an atheist. “It’s a shame”, he said, “that she didn’t come to God before she passed”.

Suddenly Emily burst out from her hiding place and dashed forward, inserting herself between her father and Pastor Halton.

“Why did you say it was a shame, Pastor Halton?” Emily asked.

“Because, now she won’t be in heaven with Jesus.” Pastor Halton answered.

“But she was good.” Emily implored.

“It doesn’t matter, Emily. She turned away from God and now must spend eternity separated from him.” Pastor Halton explained.

Emily asked, “Separated? Where? In hell?”

“Yes, Emily. It’s sad, but just” stated Pastor Halton.

“What about Mr. X?” Emily asked.

“Well, as I understand it, witnesses say that he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior before he died, so he will share eternity with God.” Pastor Halton explained.

“So he was wicked and goes to heaven, but Mrs. Wise was good and spends eternity burning in a lake of fire?” Emily asked with incredulity.

“That’s correct Emily. If we believe in God, we are rewarded by his Grace, but when his children turn from Him, He must punish them for their transgressions.” Pastor Halton explained.

“Daddy” asked Emily “you would never leave me or hurt me just because I couldn’t believe in something would you?”

“No, Emily. You are my child and my love is unconditional” said her father lovingly.

Emily hugged her father tightly and then turned to Pastor Halton.

“I want to be just like my dad when I grow up – and like Mrs. Wise.”, said Emily.

Pastor Halton shrugged and walked over to Mr. X’s family. He talked with them for a while and then left – never stopping to pay his respects to Mrs. Wise.

Commentary:

The Bible talks about what happens to those that do not follow God/Jesus:

Matthew 25:41 (Jesus speaking to people at final judgment), ...Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Revelation 20:12, 15, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life...And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Matthew 10:28, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Luke 12:5, But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which AFTER he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
Matthew 18:8, 9 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Does your church teach this? How can a god be just if he sends good people to hell and cruel people to heaven? Does an epiphany at life’s end negate a life of evil? Does the lack of one negate a life of compassion and generosity?
Can you be truly happy in heaven if your family is burning in hell? If you think you can, if you think it’s even acceptable to be put in this situation, then, I feel truly sorry for you. Sorry and disgusted. How anyone can worship a god that is so heartless is beyond me.
Wake up, people. Most of you are more moral than the bible that you cherish and more moral than the god you defend. Act like it – through off the cruel god of this bloodthirsty religion. Stop propagating this twisted man-made fairy tale. Think long and hard about what your religion truly means and above all – Think for yourself.

God Says: Humanity Sucks

On my way to work this week, I was listening to a preacher on the radio. He said what I have heard many other preachers say many, many times, but every time I hear it, it makes me sick. He was talking about how all of us have sinned, how all of us are incapable of reaching the kind of perfection that god demands of us, and how we all fall short of the glory of god. See Romans 3:23.

It's the typical view that humanity is worthless, vile, immoral, and incapable of goodness with out the grace of god. The view degrades humanity to elevate god. It takes away all of the compassion, knowledge, art, science, etc. that man has cultivated for good over the years and gives the credit to God. It denies the fact that despite setbacks, humanity has clawed its way passed many obsolete notions (in some places) and outdated moral norms and is trying to trend the path towards increased compassion and decreased selfishness. But religion is happy to leave us with our greed, anger, cowardice, and cruelty and deny our better nature by assigning it to God.

God supposedly created us in his image, created us as we are - incapable of being perfect - and then blames us for this. I despise this part of religion probably more than anything else.

God created us, created us prone to "sin", incapable of meeting his standards, and doomed to eternal punishment for it. But he has a way out, if only we believe that setting his son (himself) up as a blood sacrifice - a human sacrifice - as a substitutionary atonement - for our shortcomings. If we pay the ransom, belief in God and Jesus and they whole warped concept of justice that He provides, we get the "prize" of spending eternity with this jerk. Fortunately, He does not exist. He is a creation of Man. It's too bad Man has such low self-esteem that it has to create God's to make us feel even worse.

God Knows

God, according to most religions including Christianity, is all-knowing. If a god exists, it knows why I don't believe in it. It knows exactly what I find troubling about the various religious definitions of and explanations for god. It should also know exactly what information or experience that I would require to be convinced that he/she exists. So far, this invisible sky-god has chosen not to do so. Apparently, this god doesn't exist or doesn't want me to believe or is incapable of doing so.

If the god is not capable, then it's not much of a god. If the god chooses not to reveal this information, then how could it be considered compassionate or just, since it knows that I am doomed to eternal damnation?

I know that some would say, "but it has been revealed to you, you are just closed to it". Bull. The kind of information and god that I am talking about would make it impossible for me to not believe in its existence. And this is not an issue of free-will since, believing in a god's existence doesn't mean that I would necessarily worship this god - far from it.

If I were provided that evidence right this second, I would believe, put God would still have a lot of questions to answer and I highly doubt that I could worship this god given everything I know about its cruelty and injustice.

If god exists and has the capabilities ascribed to him/her, then apparently god wants to me to be an atheist.

The Character of God: 2 Kings 2:23-24

2 Kings 2:23-24

23And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

24And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

Comments:
Many apologists try to say that these passages are taken out of context. So go look them up for yourself and you will see that the full context is represented in these two passages. Simply for mocking Elijah, God sends two bears to tear 42 children to shreds. Forget "context". Is there any situation in which this seems justified? Not to me. They didn't try to cause him bodily harm and they were children! You can argue all you want that it wasn't God that sent the bears, but what other reasonable explanation is there? Immediately after Elijah curses the children, the bears appear and kill them. Coincidence? - I think not. This is just another example of the "justice" of the Bible's "loving" god.

The Character of God: 2 Kings - Chapter 1

Consider the following chapter from: 2 Kings 1

¹ After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel. ² Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, "Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury."

³ But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?' ⁴ Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!' " So Elijah went.

⁵ When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, "Why have you come back?"

⁶ "A man came to meet us," they replied. "And he said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" ' "

⁷ The king asked them, "What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?"

⁸ They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist."
The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite."

⁹ Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!' "

¹⁰ Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

¹¹ At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!' "

¹² "If I am a man of God," Elijah replied, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

¹³ So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! ¹⁴ See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!"

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶ He told the king, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" ¹⁷ So he died, according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.
Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram ^[a] succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. ¹⁸ As for all the other events of Ahaziah's reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

Comments:

King Ahaziah was ill and chose to ask another "god", in this case, Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron whether he would recover. God sent Elijah to intercept the messengers and to tell them of god's dissatisfaction. The king sent a small regiment of this army to meet Elijah and ask him to return to see the king. The response: God killed them all. A new regiment repeated the request and again, god killed them all. Later the king dies "according to the word of god".

What was the point of this? God killed 102 men who were responding to his interference with the king's messengers. These men had done nothing wrong and it was god who started the whole thing in the first place. Because of his jealousy, people had to die.

Fortunately, I don't belief a word of it. But if you do believe that the bible is the revealed word of some god, here is an example of the character of your "god" - jealous, vindictive, and certainly not just.

Minnesota's Golden Gopher "Mocks" Praying Player

As an atheist, I have to agree that this was disgraceful. No, not the gopher, the praying player. I find it absurd that players have to publicly broadcast their religious beliefs in such a flagrant manner. Would it be acceptable if I went to the end zone and said "I'm so happy I don't believe in you, God."?

What about when players have to look to heaven and thank god after every play? I love to watch Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers play ball, but I want to cringe everytime he "thanks god" after every play. Come on, do you really think that god is making sure that you don't get hurt or that you succeed on every play?

I think this kind of demonstration and thinking about religious expression is so arrogant and demeaning to humanity.

Arrogant because these individuals appear to believe that god is going to take time out of his day to ensure that they do well or at least don't get injured, but he apparently can't be bothered to stop children from being raped and beaten or dying of hunger and disease every single day. Apparently they think sports ranks higher than human welfare to god.

And it's demeaning to humanity when everything good that happens is attributed to god, while everything bad is either due to human weakness or Satan. Take a little pride in what you do. These athletes excel because of genetic gifts and damn hard work, not divine intervention. Every time god gets the credit for what man has sweat and toiled for, it cuts us down just a little bit more. But then that is the message of religion, isn't it: Man is worthless and requires redemption through god. It's a very negative view of humanity - and they call us atheists pessimistic.

For the Love of God

Breaking the jaws of children, pouring acid down their throats, and trying to saw off the top of their heads in order to exorcise demons - Evangelical Christian love at its best. The spread of Evangelical Christianity to Africa is spreading its own demons. This is the kind of dangerous activity that is linked to the bible - "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".

You may not believe in everything in the bible, but if you continue to support the book that is the foundation of this thinking, if you take the side of those who believe against those who don't solely because of the belief in god and not based on the merit of the argument, then you are as guilty as those who represent the worst in humanity. Stand up and speak out when you see injustice, no matter who is committing and no matter what you may have in common.

Why Do You Atheists Care What We Think?

Why? Because we love you. Seriously. Or more correctly, because we care about humanity in general. We care about how people are treated and whether or not their rights are being trampled on. We care about the education of our children and the science that may help them to live longer, healthier lives.

So what does that have to do with the beliefs of others? The beliefs of others often limit or deny rights to others for no valid reason, but simply because of religious dogma.

How much have gay and lesbian individuals suffered because of people applying biblical edicts against homosexuality? We continue today to deny them access to marriage, because of a belief in this ancient "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" concept.

How many people will die because of AIDS and how many teens will be burdened with unwanted pregnancies because of religious intervention to stop the use of contraception and the spreading of lies about its effectiveness?

How many people of good character are denied jobs or the opportunity to hold public office because of unfounded beliefs that atheists are immoral?

How many children will be lied to about evolution in order to protect the doctrine of biblical creation; a doctrine in capable of defending itself? How much will science suffer because of the backwards thinking related to evolution and how much will society suffer because research related to this topic and others like stem cell research are underfunded in order to cater to particular religious beliefs?

As atheists and humanists we have to stand up against injustice and its source, so we fight back against the religious beliefs that support this kind of unfair treatment.

If you simply believed in a god and didn't try to impose your particular religious beliefs on the rest of us, we would probably not have an issue, although we might wish you thought otherwise about religion. But unfortunately, your beliefs inform your actions - you can't help it. So when you vote or support a cause, the religious viewpoint is always a part of it. That is why we care about what you think, because what you think translates into what you do. And what you do is often unjust and dangerous to the rest of us.

Narcissistic God

Narcissism
Narcissism is the pattern of characteristics and behaviors which involve infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition. (Source:wikipedia)

Sound familiar. Just browse through the old testament. A quick review of the ten commandments will show that God is obsessed with being worshipped. A review of the Pentateuch shows several instances of God either conducting or condoning rape and murder, particularly when it interferes with his wishes.

God kills almost the entire population of the planet, including plants and animals that couldn't possibly do anything 'sinful'.

God sends several plagues down on Egypt including killing all of the first born (again including innocent animals) so that the Pharoah will set 'His chosen people' free. But all through the old testament God doesn't seem to have a problem with 'His chosen people' having slaves!

All throughout Leviticus, God is obsessed with useless ritual animal sacrifice in 'His' name.

In Deuteronomy, God says that you should kill your family members if they try to get you to worship another god. Apparently God believes in other gods, otherwise, why would he be worried?

It goes on and on and on all throughout the Old Testament. Then, in the New Testament (Matthew 5:17 - 5:19), Jesus states "...Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled". He clearly indicates that the old law is still valid. Same god, same rules.

According to the New Testament, we who do not believe are condemned to eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46). Infinite punishment for finite crimes.

Consider a person that gave their time, money, and energy to help people as much as they could; who never drank, smoked, took drugs, swore, killed, stole, or any other negative activity. This person would be condemned to eternal punishment while a rapist, murderer, or pedophile needs only to truly repent and accept Jesus to gain entry to heaven and eternal bliss.

How could anyone even consider worshipping a so-called god like this?

But this is the god of the Old and New Testaments! And he is worshipped by billions!

If you want to believe in a god, fine, no problem. But don't make it a god as cruel and sadistic as the one described in the Bible.

A Good God - Don't Make Me Laugh

You can tell the character of a person by what he says and does. At least that's all we have to go on because we can't tell what is in someone's mind. So we base our opinion on the "goodness" of a person by how he/she treats others in word and deed.

So if we try to determine the biblical god's character from his word and deed, we should just examine his actions in the Bible. I know that their will be objections to this such as 'mere humans do not have the right to judge God' or ' this is taken out of context'. Well, I disagree. The only way to distinguish between the different versions of gods that are proclaimed by various religions and determine which one to follow (if any) would be to examine what they are supposed to have said and done. The one that appears to be the most fair, just, loving, and consistent is probably the more likely candidate for worship (assuming you believe any of them).

Let's look at just a couple of items from the Old Testament for now since this represents the foundational root for the god of three of the major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

Deuteronomy, Chapter 23:
23:1 He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

This is from the King James Version of the Bible and is supposedly the word of God. I don't know how you could justify saying that this is taken out of context. Apparently, anyone who is injured or blemished in any way is unfit to be in God's company. That seems totally rational and fair doesn't it? By no fault of your own you become injured and lose your testicles or penis and now God has no interest in you.

If your mother and father conceived you out of wedlock, then you and all of your children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren, etc. are 'barred from the congregation of the Lord'. That seems fair, too doesn't it? Again through no fault of your own, you are punished. And even if you get married and have children and keep them from being born 'bastards', they still get punished.

I know that Chrisitians will say ' but that's the Old Testament. Things are different now'. Bull! This is the same God as the one in the New Testament. Did He change? I don't think so, not if you believe that He is perfect and has ultimate knowledge as we have been taught. Face it, if you believe the Bible is the word of God then you have to accept that God has a thing about keeping your 'manhood' intact. If you don't believe this is the nature of God, then why do you believe any of the rest of it?

This is the first of what I plan to be several posts that demonstrate the character of the Biblical god. Think about it and wear a steel cup at all times.

Why are we here? - Part III

Just to follow up on an issue related to our supposed 'Perfect God'.

Consider the end result of the whole process described in the bible.

1. God creates universe and man.
2. God destroys mankind, plants, animals (except for Noah and company).
3. God and man continue to kill, maim, rape, etc... until Jesus comes back.
4. Jesus comes back. All the saved go to heaven. All the rest go to eternal damnation.
5. God and the saved spend eternity together.

Create it all, gather some back, destroy it all. What's the point? Why cause all of that suffering? God's Great Plan!

What plan could possibly justify all of the destruction? Why would God need any of this if He is perfect? He didn't do it for us, we didn't exist in the first place!

Now what? Start it all over again?

Lunacy.

Why are we here? - Part 2

Let’s give God the benefit of the doubt and assume that He doesn’t need us. That leaves the “want” issue. Why would a perfect God want us? Why create the universe and perhaps more importantly, why create a human being capable of noticing? What psychological need do we fulfill? Perhaps it’s ego.

Let’s just start with a very small selection from Exodus 20. Three of the 10 commandments have to do with god.

20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

I think that one can see from these passages that God has an ego problem. He doesn’t say “Don’t rape, don’t molest, don’t abuse”. No. Instead of adding these to the list of things not to do, like murder and adultery, He is more concerned with praise and respect for Himself. So much so, that he will be such a just God and punish not only the unbelievers, but their children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren. He not only has an ego problem, but is clearly not a fair and just God. Does this sound like a God? Not to me. But maybe this isn’t God’s word here. Maybe this is just the way that man recorded the incident - with a little embellishment for effect! But then that would mean the Bible isn’t the true word of God. Hmm….

More later.

Why are we here? - God is imperfect.

God
The Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe.
Perfect
Being entirely without fault or defect.
Complete
Having all necessary parts, elements, or steps.
Just
Acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good.

When I was younger, I was taught that God, the god of the Bible, was complete, perfect, and just. That He was omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

So, why are we here?

If God is perfect and complete then He is self-sufficient. He is in need of nothing. There is nothing that He needs to complete Himself. He does not need food or shelter or companionship. To add anything to a perfect “anything” makes it imperfect. So if God doesn’t need us, He must want us. But “wanting” is a form of need. It is not a physical need, but it is a need nonetheless. It is a psychology need. I want something because it fulfils some sort of emotional need. If only I could have ‘x’, then I would be happy. Would a god have emotional needs? Not a perfect god. “Wants”, i.e., “emotional needs” indicate a defect, a sense of dissatisfaction to some degree. But, how could a perfect being be dissatisfied? Being perfect would imply being psychologically perfect as well. Such a being should be contented with existence as it is.

There should be no need or desire in a perfect god. So why are we here? I submit that if, for the sake of discussion, we assume that God exists, then we are here because God either needed us or wanted us. In either case, this would mean that God is imperfect. But if He is imperfect, then he is not a god.

Scalia is clueless

From the Wall Street Journal:

Justice Antonin Scalia disputed the premise behind the lawsuit, telling Mr. Eliasberg that it was unfair to view the cross merely as a Christian symbol.

"The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead," he said. "What would you have them erect? Some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David, and you know, a Muslim half moon and star?"

"I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew," Mr. Eliasberg said. "So it is the most common symbol to honor Christians."

"I don't think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead that that cross honors are the Christian war dead," Justice Scalia said. "I think that's an outrageous conclusion."

Scalia is clueless. He thinks that families of veterans with non-Christian backgrounds would be honored by the cross? Would he like us to honor him after his death with a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist religious symbol on his grave, or perhaps Scientology? And what about atheists? I don't think Pat Tillman would feel honored with the cross. Once again Scalia shows either his arrogance or stupidity with regard to religion. As long as it's his religious beliefs that are intruding on others, that's ok, but let it work the other way and suddenly he gets offended. He should be impeached, but unfortunately I don't think you can impeach a Supreme Court Justice just for incompetence.