The backbreaker

[TheRocketSurgeon]

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.

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.

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."

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!

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!

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

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.

Granted, I tend to use the [a] 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.

[Edited to change "the" to "a", because there is no one, or even one thousand, Protestant version(s).]