Quote:Baptism Becomes a Funeral After Collapse of Church Where Ceremony Was Held During Mexico Earthquake

(September 23, 2017 at 7:38 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://ktla.com/2017/09/23/baptism-becom...arthquake/

Quote:Baptism Becomes a Funeral After Collapse of Church Where Ceremony Was Held During Mexico Earthquake

More "mysterious ways" horseshit, no doubt!

(September 23, 2017 at 3:10 pm)mordant Wrote:

(August 25, 2017 at 8:46 am)ignoramus Wrote: Theists, are you comfortable knowing that the thing you worship will never reveal himself to you?
He will never help you when you are ill. He will never be your wingman in battle. Never protect you from harm.

Today I was with friends and the topic of the earthquake in Mexico City came up. It was mentioned that 11 members of a family were killed as they were attending a religious ceremony together at the time. I remarked that considering god is supposed to bless the righteous and confound the wicked, that is a pretty painful thing for a religious person to experience.

To my astonishment, one of my friends, who is not a church-goer or particularly even a theist, thought that remark was in bad taste as he somehow thought I was making fun of these folk's misfortune when I was objecting to it.

Religious people -- or those who sympathize with them (this guy's wife is a devoted member of the Salvation Army) don't want to even have it pointed out that god will never help you or reveal himself to you. Or any other inconvenient truth.

So my conclusion is that yes theists are perfectly comfortable as they simply pretend these things aren't issues. All they see is life's blessings, which they attribute to their god, and everything else is all the fault of specific humans or humanity in general or some proxy like Satan, or -- to the extent god has anything to do with it, it's his "Mysterious Ways". Easy-peasey.

Quote:In August 1769 lightning struck the tower of the Church of San Nazaro on Brescia, Italy. In the vaults of the church over 200,000 pounds of explosive was stored. The resulting explosion killed 3000 people and destroyed a large part of the city.

Quote:November 1, 1755 was to be a sunny autumn day in the city of Lisbon one of the most important and richest seaports of Europe at the time. The locals were profoundly religious and the city was preparing to celebrate the day of All Saints, with the obligatory criminal proceedings of heretics in the afternoon.

Quote:At 9:40 all the bells of the city began to ring simultaneously and only seconds later the first buildings collapsed. Three major shakes followed in the next 10 minutes, most people were killed by the collapse of the churches, full of believers attending the second mass of the day,

Quote:The earthquake had wide-ranging effects on the society and culture in Europe. The earthquake had struck on an important religious feast and had destroyed almost every important church in a devoted Roman Catholic city.

Quote:Theologians and the religious authorities - like the Jesuit Malagrida in Lisbon - exploited the situation and the superstitiousness of the people, declaring that the earthquake was a punishment by god for the sins of the world

Quote:But why then should god destroy the churches and spare the brothels?

(September 23, 2017 at 10:19 pm)emjay Wrote: It's curious how theists would rationalise something like that... but I guess if they were alive to do the rationalising they always would and it would come down to this: "God nearly killed me, but didn't. Praise the Lord!"

(September 23, 2017 at 10:43 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

(September 23, 2017 at 10:19 pm)emjay Wrote: It's curious how theists would rationalise something like that... but I guess if they were alive to do the rationalising they always would and it would come down to this: "God nearly killed me, but didn't. Praise the Lord!"

But he nailed all those other fuckers to the wall!