The backbreaker

[athrock]

You are entitled to your opinion, Rocket, but the scenario I offered is plausible and reasonable. You just don't like it because it doesn't fit with your current view of God.

I don't have "a current view of God". I'm just reacting to the myriad versions of this fictional being with which I am bombarded endlessly. I evaluate your fictional character's actions the same way as I evaluate any other being, fictional or real, and killing a baby to get back at its father for something that pissed you off (or other bad deed he did) is P-S-Y-C-H-O-P-A-T-H-I-C. Especially if you let the baby suffer for a week in order to increase the pain of the father.

The difference between us is that I'm not a rose-colored-glasses-wearing fanboy, willing to overlook these glaring moral failures in your favorite character.

You don't currently have a view of God? No, of course not.  

You INTERPRET the events of the story through your own lenses, Rocket. You are pissed off at God (and your mom), so of course you see God as doing something to the child in order to punish the father. Well, have you read the rest of the story? Does David seem punished to you? In point of fact, after the child's death, David took a bath, had sex with Bathsheba and God blessed them with a second son. So, where is the punishment that you desperately try to read into the story?  

That's because you are a mere man and do not have the mind of God. But let's do a bit of math here...

Infinity in heaven + 80 years on earth = Infinite Happiness
Infinity in heaven - seven days of suffering on earth = Infinite Happiness

No, I'm not seeing that the child was cheated in any way. Missing out on those 80 years as a result of dying in infancy does not seem to have diminished the boy's happiness at all.

What YOU can't see (and seriously, this is because you don't WANT to see it) is that God could, in His omnipotence, know that the child may have been destined for a life of suffering because of the circumstances surrounding his conception. See, for an atheist like you, this life is all there is...happiness here on earth is as good as it gets. It never occurs to you that dying and going to heaven is BETTER. Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

You can't say that, can you? Because death is the end for you...at least, that is the best you can hope for. (As a former Christian, you might be nagged by "What if..." doubts when you're alone with your thoughts.)

Nope. Never worry about it. I really don't. I find it a little bit embarrassing for you that you have to fantasize that I do. Again, read my signature... I neither fear nor desire the things your cult threatens or promises.

LOL. Okay, Rocket, whatever you say.  

As for that "have the mind of God" bullshit... dude, really? I know the whole "my ways above your ways" thing, but I really don't see a way around the sentence "God killed an infant to get revenge on the father of that infant for something the father did."

Right. Because your presupposition is that God is a moral monster and this is one of your favorite examples. But if you were able to be OBJECTIVE, you might be able to say, "Gee, I hadn't ever considered that God was actually sparing the child a life of misery."

You're not as open-minded as you atheists want everyone to believe.

And besides, according to your "a little math, here", the nicest thing I could do would be to abort ALL the babies I could. Think about what you're arguing on behalf of, here!

Silly Rocket. Now I know you have stopped thinking and are simply typing off the cuff. If YOU take a life that does not belong to you, that is called murder. If you take your own life, that is called suicide. Either way, you may not do so without culpability because all life belongs to God, and you may not end it without incurring His judgment.  

Now, in point of fact, you probably WOULD be doing each of the aborted babies a favor...after all, they will face much hardship in this life, and some of them will grow up to be hell-bound, godless heathens.    But you would not be doing their PARENTS any favors (assuming the parents are not consenting to these abortions), and even with the approval of the mother (and father), abortion is not acceptable to God.

Yes. Quickly. I don't thing the infant went to purgatory at all. Since Jesus had not yet come, the child would have remained in a rather pleasant place known as the Limbo of the Fathers until Jesus came and preached to all of the righteous who had died prior to the incarnation. You Baptists were never taught any of this basic theology, were you?

Um, I'm Cajun, so every member of my family on my mother's side are Catholic, and I know all about Catholic theology. (Mom converted to SB when she married dad, and became quite rabidly fundamentalist.)

Isn't self-righteousness a sin? I mean, really dude, re-read what you just presumed about me!

I simply go by what I see you post, and as you pointed out, your mom is a fundamentalist and not a practicing Catholic.

"Never taught any of this basic theology", indeed.

We shall see how well you learned your lessons.  

Yes, yes, I know you all are experts on the Bible and What It All Means™. I'm sure YOUR version is the right one (insert quoted verses _here_), though!

I wasn't JUST raised in a Protestant home, I was raised in a fundamentalist and therefore Biblical literalist home. However, I do agree with you that it's an incorrect reading to think of it as "once saved, always saved". I simply found their assertion ludicrous enough to mock, for the reasons I state in the second half of my signature.

And for this reason, Rocket, I can understand some of your reaction to bad theology. The Protestant Reformers screwed up...badly. And I could show you this from the writings of the Early Church Fathers, if you like. No doubt you're familiar with the phrase "garbage in, garbage out"? Well, Rocket, if you have based your disagreement with Christianity upon flawed theology, is there any wonder you feel the way you do about God?

But would you still feel the same way if the errors in your thinking were corrected to your own satisfaction?

My disagreement with Christianity wasn't an overnight thing, jackass. Once I realized the Young-Earth Creationism in my church was bull, which meant a lot of the other theological ideas might be suspect, I began to study other forms of Christianity in order to change churches. The Catholic church was the first place I looked. Then I started studying religion in general, seeing how humans make things up according to various cultures, and assign their own human frailties to the fictional beings they create.

I did not say it was an overnight thing. And Catholic theology (which you claim to know) is not built on "Young-Earth Creationism". Consequently, what you should have found - if your study of Catholic doctrine was thorough - would be a very comprehensive world-view that is intellectually satisfying. Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas...(those are just the A's)...some of the brightest minds in all of human history have been Catholics. Our doctrines have been pretty thoroughly vetted and tested. We're still here.

Granted, I tend to use the Protestant version as my "default", when arguing because most of my arguments are with Protestants... mainly because most of the Catholics I know are significantly less arrogant and dickish.

That default was what prompted my comments, of course.