How does religion exaplin wide spread poverty and suffereing?

[Lethe]

Odin has made my Neon last 12 trouble-free years on the same engine & drive train, surely your weaksauce "God" can do better than that?

That's nothing. Gaia has provided me with cannabis, Dionysus has provided me with alcohol, Ananke insured I bought the puppy I was fated to possess, Shakti provides me with chocolate during the different stages of my menstrual cycle, Lakshmi insured my financial stability, and Qetesh blessed me with the ability to orgasm.

The gods have smiled upon me.

[tavarish]

Odin has made my Neon last 12 trouble-free years on the same engine & drive train, surely your weaksauce "God" can do better than that?

That's nothing. Gaia has provided me with cannabis, Dionysus has provided me with alcohol, Ananke insured I bought the puppy I was fated to possess, Shakti provides me with chocolate during the different stages of my menstrual cycle, Lakshmi insured my financial stability, and Qetesh blessed me with the ability to orgasm.

The gods have smiled upon me.

Check your paper towel supply.

[thesummerqueen]

I confess, I didn’t read the birth defect thread because God doesn’t explain birth defects. Simple.

A friend and I were actually discussing this one day – how the numbers (understanding statistics can be skewed) seemed to show that people of a lower socio-economic status tended to be more religious. We loosely hypothesized that when you are down on your luck to all the way plain fucked, religion might be the only comfort you can afford – to cling to the idea that someone out there is still watching over you and keeping it from being worse than it already is.

If you want an incredible display of how retarded it all is, ask why the poor who worship him don’t ever reap rewards (oh wait…that’s right, everything is rewarded to you after you die…I swear, and people think Jews are bad about the whole guilt and suffering thing, at least they believe this life is worth living and to be enjoyed, not something you’re supposed to plod your ass through. Convenient that it’s given to you after you’re too…dead…to tell anyone if it’s true or not…). And then follow it up by asking why the wealthy, who have (to quote the fabulous Mr. Izzard) “enough money to make Solomon blush,” don’t credit a Christian god, but sacrifice it in the name of Scientology. God – the people you rewarded would rather worship a science fiction author and his made up characters. If you could, please take a little of the money you so generously rewarded them with and pass it on to people who actually bother praying to you? Then you don’t look like an asshole, and when I hear someone “prayzin’ Jay-sus!” I’ll think there might actually be something to it (unlikely, but I’ll be less annoyed).