Wednesday, September 15, 2010

May "god" bless you

First of all, if you listen to podcasts, add Geologic Podcast to your list of favourites.  George Hrab is a witty and intelligent musician and podcaster and his insights are quite amusing.  He mixes nifty production with a wacky and fun series of little segments ranging from "Not the Bible", "Ask George" to "Religious Moron of the Week". 

During one of his recent podcasts he tells of a story about when he was younger and he was going to see (forgive me for butchering his story - I'm just recalling it because of a recent email I received) a baseball game on a particular day if it didn't rain.  He remembers incessantly praying that it wouldn't rain so he could go see the game.  It dawned on him, at some point, that, what if, somewhere else there was another young boy who was going to be forced to attend a family reunion was, like George, praying the opposite - that it would rain so he wouldn't have to attend the family reunion.  At that point, George, points out, that he couldn't reconcile faith in the Judeo-Christian god.

The recent email that prompted my recalling of this story included a link to a local classified site that had the following ad:
Wanted: Need


Please Help. I am a single dad and don't have much money and need a Van and I need it for work so I humbly ask if anyone knows who has a Van sitting around still works and doesn't need it and just wants to get rid of it. With getting a safety and insured is going to hard enough for right now. I can do all minor things to fix it but all in all its got to work and road worthy medium or small car would be preferred good on gas.

Thank you so very much.

May God Bless you in the same way you have Blessed me.
The emailer suggested that maybe I'd take interest in this ad because of the final line - and I took it the same way they did.  One could question why it is that "god" isn't blessing this single dad directly - if there is any value in "may god bless you" then it would make sense that the "god" could bless the dad.  I'd argue that there is no such thing as a "blessing" from "god" as there is little (no?) reason to believe in the positive assertion that there actually is a "god" that exists.

It reminds me of times when I walk past people who are begging on the street who will say "god bless you" to passers-by.  I can't help but think that if these people surely believe that "god" has "blessed" them, that I don't want to be "blessed" by that "god".  (Clearly I'm not referring to your god.)

3 comments:

RealityinSarnia said...

Surely you are not talking about my gawd....... The Flying Spaghetti Monster takes care of all his followers..... The Pastafarians.

It is our day this Sunday September 19, 2010. Speak like a pirate day all around the world. Come join us.

Arrrrgh

Ramen

NathanColquhoun said...

A few blogs you should follow

Christian Nightmares (http://christiannightmares.tumblr.com/)
Religious Douchebags (http://www.religiousdouchebags.com/)
Jesus needs new PR (http://www.jesusneedsnewpr.net/)

RealityinSarnia said...

Nathan, here are some religious sites you should be following:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/
http://www.signmovies.com/
http://www.godhatestheworld.com/
http://www.jewskilledjesus.com/
http://www.priestsrapeboys.com/
http://blogs.sparenot.com/
http://www.americaisdoomed.com/

right up your alley