Luckily GWB was there to get you out!

Not that anyone asked me, but my answer (as a theist, but not one who feels tied to any specific religion) to the "why is there cruelty if there's a God" question is this: If there is a God, and He created and monitors the universe, His purposes and motivations and abilities must be so far beyond anything human beings can conceive of as to render our judgment on anything He does meaningless. It's like we're roaches bitching about Raid, from the Big Guy's perspective. And there's no way we can even begin to understand why He's spraying the Raid around, but there is a reason. Maybe not one we'd like, but one that makes sense to Him.

This doesn't make Him cruel. It certainly doesn't make Him kind. It simply makes Him what He is.

God is the Orkin Man.

Or maybe God is the virus that makes us seek out cats.

Being an atheist is nice sometimes. Shit happens because shit happens. It's not deep, but it make sense to me.

Being an atheist is nice sometimes. Shit happens because shit happens. It's not deep, but it make sense to me.

Uh-huh.

I beg your pardon - I never promised you a rose garden.

Or:

"A man said to the universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation"

My take on my personal diety is that she's not there to stop bad things happening. She is ultimate comfort and support, though, and the occasional bit of minor good luck.

tommyrot, that is actually my favourite poem ever. It's on my desktop at the moment. Fills me with joy.

If there is a God, and He created and monitors the universe, His purposes and motivations and abilities must be so far beyond anything human beings can conceive of as to render our judgment on anything He does meaningless. It's like we're roaches bitching about Raid, from the Big Guy's perspective.

Yeah, this is an entirely reasonable and fitting-the-facts view of things. The thing about that, though, is I can't see any reason why that God would be micromanagery and petty over who we have sex with and what we do on Sunday. Which, obviously, is fine with me.

Also, I had a dream this morning that we had a bunch of conservative Christians over to visit and I ended up arguing pretty seriously with one while cleaning up spilled spaghetti. She said she thought liberal democrats like me were making everything worse, and I said that was funny because I thought the same thing about people like her. Also, she said meara was doing heavy drugs. Alas, I awoke before my rebuttal.

(Later, I was Jim Ellison in a really freaky horror movie/video game in a haunted castle. There were really cool special effects, but no Republicans.)

tommyrot, that is actually my favourite poem ever.

Yeah, it's somewhere in my top five....

Also, she said meara was doing heavy drugs.

I dreamt I was about to buy pot from a dealer. Then the alarm went off.

My most recent dream was really odd. The earth was being invaded by aliens that looked like large floating birds. Some other people and I (oddly nobody in my dream was someone I knew) were trying to fight them off but we were running out of ammo and they didn't go down easy. Finally I used the last shells of my shotgun and we all took off evading explosions. I jumped some fences and ran through a suburban neighborhood. Then suddenly I had a bunch of teenage kids with me (again nobody I knew) and we snuck into a house for shelter. Now stupidly, I decide we should all play cards in the living room where we can see if anyone comes down the street. Well, sure enough we see some people and I tell everyone to hide but everybody does a really crappy job of hiding and I get spotted through the window. Then a bunch of people (presumably aliens in disguise as they were all odd and extra strong) came crashing through the windows and grabbed everyone. One of them then started throwing me through doors and walls, then grabbed me and started breaking my fingers and gouging my face which was kinda painful and then I woke up. As dreams go it sorta sucked.