I’m an atheist. So why can’t I shake God?

[Ravenshire]

Would god violate a rapists free will if he waited until the rapist had made the decision to rape, stepping in after that moment but before the rape occurs to protect the victim?  Nope.  No more than a cop who sees an assault-in-progress and prevents it before serious harm is done has somehow violated the free will of the perpetrator.  

These free wills excuses are just horrid.

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

This is a story that either you made up, or is bullshit that you bought into. I'm leaning toward 'you made up.'

[robvalue]

A story someone made up as part of his indoctrination to deflect questions.

If he's not just an outright Poe, which is a feeling that's hard to shake.

[GrandizerII]

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

This is a story that either you made up, or is bullshit that you bought into. I'm leaning toward 'you made up.'

Maybe it did happen. Tall guy who appeared to be glowing in light could have been any normal person with some flashlight or whatever.

[robvalue]

One time, God stopped a rape.

For an omnipotent being, I'd call that no achievement at all, especially when he invented rape in the first place.

If you were setting up the rules for your life forms to live in, would you allow rape to be possible? Yes or no?

All those that answer yes can kindly suck my balls. You can have "free will" which includes loads more positive, enjoyable choices while cutting out the pointless harmful ones. And as a bonus, not make stupid rules whereby people "are stronger" after getting fucked over, but are just strong anyway. Not that they need to be: without all this peril God has released, what is the need to be strong?

If some people enjoy having all these shitty options, then leave them here. Make a nice new world for those of us who would prefer kids weren't raped. And brings the kids with us, huh? Don't leave them here to be raped because some people think it's an acceptable choice.

[rexbeccarox]

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

Let's operate under the shaky assumption that your story is 100% true, which is very likely not the case. The human mind is extremely susceptible to illusion. I like to use UFO's as a point of comparison. If your aunt's boyfriend had made the claim that he had been abducted by aliens that only he could see, would you be as inclined to believe it, even if he swore up and down and on the graves of his mother, his father, and his dead uncle Perry that he was telling the truth? Eh, probably not. Because that story doesn't fit into what society has conditioned you to believe.  

Every two minutes, someone is sexually assualted. That adds up to hundreds of thousands of rapes a year. Some of them are of children under the age of 12. But now you're here making the assertion that, rather than there being 243,000 rapes that year, there were 242,999, because your god stepped in. Well congrats. But, being as your god is all-powerful and can stop all rapes at any point, he must be held accountable for the other 242,999 that he allowed to happen. A conflict of conscience that convinces him to stop one crime does not cause him to be exempt from the others that he permitted to continue. I'd like you to tell story that to some little 10 year-old girl whose innocence was stolen from her - no doubt her first question would be why such a wonderful, merciful god who is everywhere at once would save your aunt but choose to watch and allow her to suffer a crime that no human being should ever have to endure.

Whew.

Can you please post more?

[DarkHorse]

Would god violate a rapists free will if he waited until the rapist had made the decision to rape, stepping in after that moment but before the rape occurs to protect the victim?  Nope.  No more than a cop who sees an assault-in-progress and prevents it before serious harm is done has somehow violated the free will of the perpetrator.  

These free wills excuses are just horrid.

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

Nice to know your God and Jesus helped her, but not me, even though I was still a committed Christian back then, and could have really used his help. Bloody-fantastic. Proof that A) this story is bullshit, something your aunt read/heard somewhere and B) Your God and Jesus don't f'ing exist.

[ignoramus]

Scooby, you're full of woo man!
Are you really that weak of character that you need to subscribe to fairy tales to make it through the day?

OK, you prayed to god and he blew the leaves away for you.
Ok, we get it, you are the centre of god's universe!

I can't believe how people can have such insecure and fragile egos and the extraordinary lengths they go to to justify it to themselves. Go to a religious forum. You're wasting everyone's time here man.

[robvalue]

Well, that's the thing.

It should be clear by now that random anecdotes aren't going to impress us. If you haven't learned that by now, you're really not paying attention.

So why keep on with it?

[Bob Kelso]

Would god violate a rapists free will if he waited until the rapist had made the decision to rape, stepping in after that moment but before the rape occurs to protect the victim?  Nope.  No more than a cop who sees an assault-in-progress and prevents it before serious harm is done has somehow violated the free will of the perpetrator.  

These free wills excuses are just horrid.

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

Putting aside the massive likelihood that is your being a Poe:

What you're telling me, is that your god -who remains oddly idle at the other 99.99% of rapes and all deeds foul- decided to step in and save your aunt?

[robvalue]

God set fire to every building then put out one of the fires. Hooray! What a hero.