October 27, 2006
Simon Says - "The Great Paradox of Religion"
Gosh, since Leah wrote about religion, I think I'll add my $0.02. Sorry to steal your thunder, Babe.
Here's what bothers me:
Religious Person: The world is too great, too big, too beautiful, and too complex to have happened by accident. I mean, look at the eyeball! What a magnificent example of perfect design! You're telling me that the eyeball evolved from nothing? That this amazing part of our bodies just HAPPENED?!?! No way! The eyeball is a product of intentional design. There's no other way.
Athiest/Me: OK, that seems reasonable. Tell me though, who designed the eyeball? Who designed all of the amazing and beautiful things in this world?
Religious Person: Why, GOD, of course.
Athiest/Me: Of course, it was GOD. And how did God do it? How did he go about designing the eyeball and all of the other things in the world?
Religious Person: God is omnipotent - he can do anything. God is perfect, God is greater than man, greater than the world, greater than the universe. God is all knowing, and all powerful.
Athiest/Me: OK. So who designed God?
Religious Person: What? Are you kidding? What a laughable concept! No one designed God!
Athiest/Me: Really? Then where did God come from?
Religious Person: God has ALWAYS been. God has always existed. No one designed him, he just IS.
Athiest/Me: Let me get this straight... the eyeball is too complex to have "just happened," but an all-powerful, all-knowing, PERFECT being "just happened?" The eyeball, which can go blind, which is vulnerable to a simple gouge from a stick, which goes out of focus with age, which gets glaucoma and pinkeye and has a retina that can become detatched, this thing is too complex and amazing to have just happened, but a PERFECT infallible omnipotent invisible creature that can do anything, has a grand plan for all of us, and never makes mistakes of any kind, just IS? Is that what you're saying?
Religious Person: Yup.
Athiest/Me: And this perfect being, all powerful, omnipotent, and perfect, who loves each and every one of us intentionally designed the eyeball, but left it vulnerable to blindness, inability to focus, glaucoma, trauma, and so forth?
Religious Person: Yup.
Athiest/Me: And this doesn't strike you as a load of bullshit?
Religious Person: Nope.
Athiest/Me: Makes sense to me! Let's go to church!
THE END.
Posted by Simon at October 27, 2006 01:12 PM*ducks*
Posted by: Leah at October 27, 2006 01:20 PMHa! That's perfect!
Posted by: candace at October 27, 2006 01:35 PMThat is great!
Makes me want to copy and paste it send it to my right wing bush voting born again christian friend.
You guys are too much!!! Jajajajajaja (yes, with a "j", like we do in Spanish). BTW, Simon, with this sense of humor and a gf who proudly declares her knowledge on 4-letter words, please tell me you've heard George Carlin's piece: There is no God. If you haven't you MUST, it’s hilarious! He explains why he decided to believe in the Sun over God. Thanks for the laugh, guys!
Posted by: Jala' at October 30, 2006 01:00 PMFaith isn't an intellectual thing, it's a heart thing. Either you've got it or you don't.
Posted by: Texas T-bone at October 30, 2006 08:16 PM: )
Posted by: Jodi at October 31, 2006 12:15 AMthe problem, of course, with the heart explanation is that just about anything can be explained away if logic isn't a criterion. i believe with all my heart in a flying spaghetti monster, and i can feel his presence in my most solitary moments, but that doesn't make him real; that just makes me really good at conjuring emotions based on environmental conditioning.
Posted by: cst at October 31, 2006 06:17 PM
