We live with evil
The unfortunate event of Richard Hupper's mugging should bring home the reality that we live in a world filled with evil -- and our world begins with us. A comment was reported that "the inherent good that resides in the majority of folks was in plain sight immediately following the attack."
Therein lies the core of the problem: It is unrealistic and fantastical to believe that people are inherently good. There is an observation recorded in the Bible that says, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Although written a couple of thousand years ago, it's never been more apparent than today. That passage describes the sin nature of man. God's solution was to send Jesus to save us from our pending self-destruction.
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The weaklings who performed this cowardly act did so, in part, because they recognize no higher authority than themselves. Why is that? Because we have denied God his proper place in our homes, schools, workplaces and governments. It's only natural for sheep without a shepherd to scatter. We are becoming a society of self-serving, discordant, thin-skinned complainers. More and more extreme actions will be taken by people who are desperately trying to satisfy the need for love and leadership which only God can meet.
While it's pleasant to reflect on the positive history of the park, perhaps we could re-create a culture in which we anticipate a positive future. God is always willing for us to turn back to him. There's no better time than the present.
Tim Leiphart
Red Lion
Ummm....didn't god create evil? I mean, if there was nothing before god and god created everything, then god created evil, right? That being the case, god should be able to just get rid of it, right?
We don't have to be bleating sheep blindly believing in a non-existent sky-fairy to have ethics. Perhaps the assailants weren't taught by their parents (likely Christian, considering Christianity's prevalence in America) how to properly behave themselves in society.
As for the spurious assertion that Christianity is a cure-all, just go to one of the many prominent Christian activist websites, and you'll see many "self-serving, discordant, thin-skinned complainers." And do you really mean to say that such a brutal assault occured because "More and more extreme actions will be taken by people who are desperately trying to satisfy the need for love and leadership which only God can meet."? Please explain - where is the "love" in this?
Tim; don't bother to answer these two. God gave all free will to seek him or deny him. They will not understand until they want too or need too.
Free will? Who has the free will exactly? The criminals can choose to be criminals but the victims can't choose not to be a victim. Therefore god only gave free will to the evil people, right?
Hrmm... Why in the world do "Sane" and Mr. Skelton care about the victims of a mugging? The totally innocent babies that are being slaughtered they have no concern about...
I guess it's a matter of whether the assailant is a crude ruffian or a doctor with a license.
Sane, your semantics are juvenile - do people choose to be struck by lightening? Does that mean they don't have free will? Obviously we can't completely control what happens to us, but our actions & responses to what happens are where one's "free will" is applicable.
What does a senseless crime,illegal by the way, have to do with abortion? Which at last check I think abortion is still allowed. Perhaps these crimes may not happen so frequently if we were to mandate abortion for the wave of people that find themselves with child and are in no way prepared for the task. And, lets go a step further and say that we test people in at risk groups and prevent pregnancy altogether if the there is a probability of raising a thug.
Katie, could you go back, re-read the comments, and provide a response in this reality?
Katie, I hope you're backing up your flawed rhetoric by adopting as many of those "babies" as you can. If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.
Any why do you impugn my character by insinuating I would NOT care about the victim of a mugging? How dare you! What gives you any insight whatsoever into what I believe?
God created everything that existed in the beginning of earth time. After creation was complete man was allowed to use his creative abilities to make stuff along with his own moral code. Stuff such as personal computers and air conditioners. Unfortunately, man choose to put more faith in his own ability than having faith in God and turned against God to follow his own path. Man choose to sin against God and God allowed this to happen. Since man has choosen his own path murder, stealing, enslaving others became commonplace.
Eternal principles from a loving God work for those who follow God and for those who do not. If there was never a God who created the universe and man, then ethics, laws and standards of living are situational and could never be absolute. Beating a man on the head with a board is wrong because God stated to love your enemies as yourself. Ethics made by man could justify beating this man because he represents the white upper class concert attending male who probably got this way by stepping on and stealing from the lower class poor of society.
Without God there are no absolutes and society will do as they seem fit in their own eyes. Public attacks, murders, drug usage, school food fights and undisiplined children running aroound at all hours of the night will become more common not less as God is more removed from our society.
God has never, or will never exist. He's a figment of someone's imagination, made to scare the weak.
So. How about this stream of thoughts? What would induce a bunch of adults to debate the existence of God if there wasn't one? I haven't found a weblog containing a running dialogue regarding the existence of the tooth fairy. Perhaps it's because a real God created in us a knowledge of him and a desire to know him. We can't avoid it. It drives the unbeliever out of his mind. On purpose. Consider the word 'atheist'. Dozens of them write responses to letters like this. The root of the word atheist is "a", meaning "without" and "theist" which means "diety or god"; one who is without god or denies the existence of a supreme being. Pretty interesting that there aren't any "atoothfairiests". That's because everyone very quickly reaches a certain age of reason at which they realize that there isn't such a thing as a tooth fairy (sorry, kids that are reading this). But - many, many men and women around the world grow to a ripe old age believing in God. Might be something to it. If atheists really didn't believe in God, they wouldn't think about him, talk about him or reply to letters like this. I think I'll go next door and argue with the seven-year-old neighbor girl about whether the tooth fairy exists.
Ron, how do you justify the 2 millenia of torture and murder perpertrated in the name of religion. Seems like an overdose of god is considerably more dangerous than a lack of it.
Schmim: People don't show up at my house with 'tooth fairy' pamphlets. People don't amend the constution to include 'tooth fairy' legislation. People don't murder innocent people in the name of the 'tooth fairy'. People don't attempt to replace science with 'fairy stories'. If you stop meddling in the lives of others and pay attention to finding your own morality, you'll probably find atheists less confusing.
You are proving my point.
Hello,
I'm back for a minute... I'd like to respond to "Sane's" comment about "religion" causing torture & murder. Well, it has caused that! But, look at Hitler & Stalin - they wanted to destroy religion & promote this great lifestyle of athiesm! I suppose it was the Jew's and Christian's faults for not just going along with them. They're responsible for their many deaths, right? You can find (if you look) that Baptists/Anabaptists since the time of Christ, haven't caused any atrocities, and only in some cases, defended their lives.
On another string - proof that a license means everything - Yahoo news reports that a woman slaughtered her fetuses & she is being charged with that. Sounds crazy doesn't it? Abortion is only legal if it's done by a government-approved killer.
Katie: Oh, I see, it was those 'other' christians, right? Hitler and Stalin were interested in personal power, I can't seem to find any reference to WW2 being about spreading atheism. In fact, Stalin promoted the Russian Orthodox Church in order to bolster his power when it looked like Russia was going to be overrun. Hitler was the product of a good, decent, christian family, raised by a preacher. If he didn't get his ideas of 'purity' from the bible, where did they come from? Let's face it, given the choice, you would be bombing family planning clinics just like every religious fanatic want's to. Perhaps if you purge the hypocracy and violence from your stained-glass belief system, people might take you more seriously. Truly, the only sect I have any respect for at all are the Quakers, the concept of 'sit down, shut up, and think on how you can be a better person' could stand to be adopted by every other cult on the planet.
Sane, you've fueling the stereotypes that cause division - we would NOT bomb clinics, mosques, etc for religious/moral purposes. I do have a friend that got saved out of Quakerism - they believed there's a little "god" in all of us. BTW- the "devils believe & tremble." James 2:19
Similarly to Bush, etc. etc. (I could go on and on) - Hitler especially used religion as he wanted. Obviously atheism had to be drilled into the minds of the Hitler & Communist Youth brigades - or they wouldn't have killed their countrymen & neighbors unmercifully. Survival of the fittest is where Hitler takes his "purity" ideas from - the weaker should DIE, the stronger should LIVE. Ever read Mein Kampf?
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
-Pascal
People who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities.
-Voltaire
Bush, Clinton, Hitler, Stalin, Quakers, Baptists, Pascal, Voltaire, Christians, Crusaders, abortionists, atheists - all imperfect. We will never find the answer by conducting our search horizontally. It needs to be vertical to see God, who must be shaking his head at the mess we are making of this world as we try to figure it out on our own. I guess we're busy 'finding our own morality'. What if my morality is to destroy you. Then that's okay for me, but too bad for you. That's no way to live. For any kind of order to exist, there has to be some higher standard to which we all can align ourselves.
Just because all of the parties involved in this discussion got it wrong at one level or another, it doesn't make God wrong, even if they claimed to do their deed 'in the name of God'. That's no more reasonable than me robbing a convenience store 'in Katie's name' or 'in Lowell's name'. The police won't likely blame my crime on them just because I choose to defer responsibility.
All this time bantering back and forth could be spent discovering the truth by looking for God. And if I'm looking up, I won't be so inclined to be distracted by whatever it is that you are doing down here.