(June 8, 2014 at 12:00 pm)Elskidor Wrote: If a god asked something so horrific of you, I'd hope one would have the common sense to question what type of ass they are worshiping and put him/her on ignore.But if you suddenly learn that god does exist, that changes things. It also introduces a shitload of context. I think that for most atheists, the question comes across as "if the god of the Bible asked you to do this, would you?" But to the atheist, that god is incomprehensible; he comes off as a petulant bully who reflects some of the worst qualities of men. He doesn't really seem like a god to me, for example. So it is akin to an obnoxious neighbor asking me to do something horrible for his amusement. The answer, not surprisingly, is "fuck off, asshole."
But what if there is a god, and it isn't any of the ones we hear about? What if he actually is that brilliant intellect that theists think their god is? What if his explanations for the way things are make pretty good sense? What if what he is asking you to do really does work out for the best for everyone involved? What then?
Of course, that second paragraph is what most Christians really do believe about their god, so for them the answer to the question should always be "yes, I would sacrifice my child. Or kill someone. Or whatever god asks of me." Because otherwise you are doubting that your god is what you always present him to be.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould