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[–] 129 points 11 months ago (12 children)

I have never prayed to god and I've never been in a plane crash.

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  • [–] 39 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    I am constantly praying to god, and I've never been in a plane crash. Checkmate atheists!

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    I say "jesus christ" about a lot of things. Does that count as praying?

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    I think that's actually a sin

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    Nope, that's not taking his name in vain. No matter how much the christian busy bodies would have you believe. That particular idea is about shit like the prosperity gospel or christian nationalists.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago

    I had understood it to mean, like, making an oath ("I swear to God..." or the whole hand-on-a-Bible swearing) and not following through, or making it lightly.

    Jesus had a whole thing about it, saying that not only should you not make an oath in God's name lightly, but that you shouldn't at all (implying it shouldn't be necessary, if you're already an honest person). "Let your yes be yes, and your no be no."

    Which, honestly, makes way more sense than some nonsense about not saying their names.

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  • [–] 113 points 11 months ago (18 children)

    So this person believes their god wants people to be in fear and panic, begging for their lives, and to die anyway? Thats so fucked up.

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  • [–] 79 points 11 months ago (13 children)

    Christian God is a narcissist and will burn you for eternity for not praising him properly. This is nothing new.

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  • [–] 33 points 11 months ago (12 children)

    God breaks his own rules in the ten commandments. God tells us not to be jealous of our neighbors while describing himself as a jealous god.

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    While true, christians have been sidestepping that one, and others like it, for longer than our civilization has been a nascent idea. They just say the laws that apply to man don't apply to god. It's not even that difficult of a conclusion. See: God causes a crack in the earth to swallow up an entire family because they sinned? A-ok. Can a man kill someone and their family because they sinned? Nope, have to follow the laws about it, written in some book called leshitticus or something, idk.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    God acting as an executioner for crimes he's supposed to judge seems not as bad as God just straight up being like "yeah folks, I'm jealous and petty! But also perfect! But you better not be jealous and petty!"

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago*

    God so loved his creation that they would condemn to hellfire every child born into slavery who never has a chance to experience or express a single ounce of religious agency, much less participate in the requisite Christian salvation pageantry!

    Her pain is God's love!

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    Technically, the 10 commandments tell believers not to be envious. Not to envy your neighbor’s stuff.

    Envy is “I wish I had what someone else has.”

    Jealousy is “I’m worried someone else will take what should be mine.”

    (Though in modern English “jealous” has largely absorbed the meaning for “envious,” I think the distinction is worth making because both concepts are individually useful.)

    Since the first commandment is “you shall have no other gods before me,” God being “a jealous God” fits the 10 commandments well.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Tbf, of all the fucked up shit and inconsistency in the bible, this one isn't really a thing. The tenth commandment uses a different word (covet) and has a different context than in the "jealous god" used earlier.

    The tenth commandment is very structured around "wanting shit that isn't yours." Because God (canonically) is the rightful owner of all things, he cannot be covetous

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    The tenth commandment uses a different word (covet) and has a different context than in the "jealous god" used earlier.

    Since the Bible wasn't originally written in English, could that be simply something lost in translation, tho?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    The words are different in Hebrew, too. There's pretty substantial debate on how exactly to translate the jealous god part, but that's largely to do with how "abusive husband" the translator wants to make him sound.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Not that this refutes your argument or anything but they're not sidestepping it. It's an example of "rules for thee not for me". As far as they're concerned capital G od is above men and as it's his right to impose rules that apply only to those beneath him.

    You can see it in their politics, Christians support the top down model and don't believe those in positions of authority should be held accountable in the same way as the "common" man. UNLESS, they represent an opposing ideological stance.

    If anything, the thing you should use as an example of God's hypocrisy is that he sicks Satan (who is subservient to God) on humanity...... as a flex?

    Politically that's be like the DNC being subservient to the Republican party and being used to piss off a bunch.....wait (This is a joke... kinda)

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Oh I know, it's not meant to be the one true argument to destroy anyone's belief in god. But yeah the entire story of Job is just so fucked up. God literally puts Job through so much suffering just because of a pissing match with the devil.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    wants people to be in fear and panic, begging for their lives

    Ha, sounds live the average CEO. That, and if whatever someone prays for shows up, it's because they made it happen. And if it doesn't show up, it's because the praying person didn't put in enough effort.

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    [–] 104 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    "I have no evidence for any of this but I know in my heart it's true!"

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  • [–] 85 points 11 months ago (11 children)

    According to the most recent studies, it turns out the name of God is

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

    Imagine how shocked the world would be if it turns out the Arabic word for God comes from a black box recording that got swung back in time after a plane crash, with the last bit of the recording being stuck...

    that last bit of recording? copilot waking up right before the crash, calling out to the pilot called Allan, but halfway through the word it turns into a scream. All-AAAAAAAH! BOOM.

    And the whole world is just stuck on this otherwise insignificant fact. Never mind that someone just dug up carbon-dated 2000-ish year old contemporary technology, proving time travel is possible, or that people 2000-ish years ago managed to somehow make that tech work enough to influence the third largest language in a very significant manner... No, it's the fact that the Arabic word for God came from a guy named Allan.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    I like to think that a small learjet carrying 12 passengers passes through a time portal, and when the captain steps out onto that Tigris plain, he winces at the sun and says "Jesus Christ!" and the people bowed

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    See that wouldn't really work. The modern "Jesus" is actually quite far from the original old Hebrew/Aramaic name he would've used.

    No, it would've been Yeshua or Yehoshua (the Bible has some shifting references as to when the longer form of the name might've gotten shortened to Yeshua).

    Similarly, "Christ" isn't something used in Aramaic. It's not even technically his name, it's more of a title, from the Greek Χριστός (Christos, translating as "anointed), which in Hebrew would be mashiakh - or in direct English translation... Messiah.

    Furthermore Yeshua was a quite common name at the time, in Nazareth alone you would've found a handful, even though the village was maybe a thousand people at the time.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago*

    Heretic! There is only one true god and its name is SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    To be a party pooper, according to the old testament it's JHWH or in long, Jehovah.

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  • [–] 232 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    That maxim, "There are no atheists in foxholes," it's not an argument against atheism — it's an argument against foxholes.

    - James K. Morrow

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  • [–] 27 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    On the other hand, if you're already on the battlefield...

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  • [–] 58 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    I heard one black box where the pilot’s final words were just a very resigned, almost conversational, “Goddamnit.”

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  • [–] 30 points 11 months ago* (3 children)

    I heard one where the pilot exclaimed "we're doing it!" [or something similar] as he managed to fly the 747 inverted, seconds before hitting the ocean.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Please give me the sauce. I need more information on this

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  • [–] 39 points 11 months ago

    Yes, a large percentage of the population is religious, that doesn't make their religion true

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  • [–] 38 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Who else are they gonna pray to? Joe Pesci?

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Odin, Amun-Ra, Perun, Sol Invictis, Jupitor, Zeus, Vishnu, Deified Alexander of Macedonia, Et cetera there are lots of gods outside of fucken Yahweh to choose from.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    I'd only pray to Odin if I was worried about frost giants.

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  • [–] 33 points 11 months ago (30 children)

    This mfer has never heard of selection bias.

    What are the bets they're in the US, and hearing about crashes mostly in the US?

    Christianity may be the largest religion in the world, but it's a plurality, not a majority.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    There's a bias for everything. Maybe even one that contradicts the bias you're precipitating. I dunno. Whatever

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago*

    I dunno, seems pretty rock solid that the majority of people aren't praying to the Christian god [edit: worldwide, which is my point], seeing as nowhere even close to a majority of people on earth are Christian.

    There are all sorts of religions out there, and many who don't believe in religion at all.

    I do agree that all humans are prone to bias, that's why it's so important to be aware of it in order to mitigate it.

    The OOP making some stupid religious claims, definitely is not aware.

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  • [–] -3 points 11 months ago (27 children)

    Same for the other side. All the countless times where God miraculously saves the plane in the last moment lost to history. No news report, no one will check the black box. It's just another Tuesday

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (15 children)

    Surely if it was a miracle there'd be some supernatural residue left over. Holy ectoplasm.

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  • [+] -7 points 11 months ago (14 children)

    The absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    There's a complete absence of evidence for everything you can just make up.

    I claim that the universe was created by Ralph the Wonderllama who lives on Proxima Centauri B and who owns all albums by Simply Red.

    But hey, no evidence of absence, right? So my claim is valid, right? And you suddenly don't care how unlikely it is, right?

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    I claim that the universe was created by Ralph the Wonderllama who lives on Proxima Centauri B and who owns all albums by Simply Red.

    And I respect that belief

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah but respect isn't proof, and you're the one that made the assertion requiring evidence here...

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    And I respect that you are critical of what I said! We need critics to grow. A critical mind is a gift of God

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago*

    Oh, you're trolling. Alright, fair enough. I gotta ask though, why troll in defense of the christians? They're doing more than enough to destroy society without your helping out on their behalf by sowing nonsense like this.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    Yes, but absence of evidence isn't evidence for anything.

    It's wild how many need to find them some scientific method.

    I was only pointing out, in my original comment, that I'm sure around the world people pray/say all sorts of things when a plane is crashing, not just the Christian god. But because they're only focusing on crashes in the US, they are concluding that everyone prays to god (presumably, the Christian one).

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago*

    (dunno if you're being sarcastic)

    It's just a twee catchphrase christians came up with to say you can't prove a negative. It's not anything new, and it's not actually contributing anything. It's a core aspect of "burden of proof", and this is just a way of shifting said burden to the people asking for evidence of the divine instead of leaving it on the people asserting that the divine exists in the first place.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    so you didn't know which god saved them either. It could be the flying spaghetti monster. (note the existence of this religion is literally based on your statement)

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  • [–] -2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    so you didn't know which god saved them either.

    Neither do you.

    note the existence of this religion is literally based on your statement

    That's demonstrably false. I made my statement yesterday and religions exist for way over 70 years. Destroyed by pure logic. Checkmate atheist.

    If you want to know what really starts religions, check out Daniel O. McClellan's book "YHWH divine images" chapter 2. You find the PDF for free just by searching the title.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago*

    Neither do you.

    Yes, but importantly you can't demonstrate that it was a god that saved them. We'll deal with the issue of which one it was once we get past that first problem.

    That’s demonstrably false.

    Er... Well, this seems like a great opportunity for you to prove that. Though I suspect you misunderstood the initial comment here.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (10 children)
  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    It's because they missed the point of my comment. That it's selection bias to claim that everyone is praying to the Christian god, when statistically, that can't be true, even if they are praying.

    The selection bias had nothing to do with selecting the planes that crashed, but selecting planes that crashed in the US, which is a much more Christian country than many other places.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)
    1. I don't even believe OOP's premise. There might be a majority with prayers at the end but I don't think it's every single one.
    2. I think they only care about the US. It's not selection bias but ignorance about the rest of the world.

    That said, OOP's argument wasn't that their god is real but that deep down, everyone is religious. Still they made it into a truth claim about their religion. The commenter took the truth claim and ran with it.

    I thought about putting "/s" in my first comment but it didn't feel quite right. It was more a thought experiment. Applying selection bias to the reply. It was only the second comment when I entered troll mode.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Because there is no magic sky magician letting kids die a gruesome leukemia death, while saving a specific plane because a special favorite person of his happens to be on board the aircraft. There's just physics and mechanics and pilots and things going right and things going wrong.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The comment is obviously sarcasm / a joke

    Making the sarcastic statement that "we don't hear about god saving planes at the last moment but it does happen"

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    That person has gone on to repeatedly double down on the position elsewhere in the comments, I'm afraid to say the hivemind was right on this one and they sure appear to be a whackdoodle that actually believes what they said there.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Because of Poe's Law. Sometimes I try to make my intentions obvious but sometimes I just don't care

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    Did you mean Poe's Law? That would imply you only made the claim about divine selection bias sarcastically, and we all just thought you were being serious.

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