The people who posted it apparently think that it's entirely appropriate to use the deaths of innocent people in school shootings to lob some snark at the atheists, secularists, and others who believe in the separation of church and state. But what I want to address here is the toxicity of the mindset behind the message -- apart from what would spur someone to think that it was ever a reasonable thing to post.
First, I thought y'all were the ones who believed that God is everywhere, is omnipotent and omnipresent and omniscient and omni-what-have-you. What you're implying here is that a handful of people who think religion has no place in a public, taxpayer-funded institution have somehow overpowered an all-powerful God's ability to do anything to stop a crazed gunman. Probably explaining why both Oklahoma and Texas are currently poised to approve and implement new laws requiring public school teachers to work lessons from the Bible into their curricula; it's easier than doing anything to actually improve education and keep children safe, and leaves the powers-that-be with a nice smug feeling of holiness afterward.
It's basically "Thoughts & Prayers" v. 2.0, with a side order of Showing All The Other Religions Who's Boss.
So we're already on some shaky theological grounds, but it gets worse. What the above message suggests is that somehow, God's attitude is, "if you won't pray in schools, innocent children deserve to die." That given the choice of using his Miraculous God Powers to stop a massacre, he just stands there smirking, and afterwards says, "See? Told you something like this would happen if you didn't worship me all the time and everywhere. Sorry, but my hands were tied."
Me, I think any deity that acts like this is a monster, not an all-loving beneficent creator. That said, it's entirely consistent with the depiction of the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament. The Old Testament God was constantly smiting people left and right for such heinous crimes as gathering firewood on the sabbath, and when the Chosen People of Israel conquered a place, the word from above was "kill everyone, including children."
Don't believe me? There are plenty of instances, but my favorite is 1 Samuel 15:
So we're already on some shaky theological grounds, but it gets worse. What the above message suggests is that somehow, God's attitude is, "if you won't pray in schools, innocent children deserve to die." That given the choice of using his Miraculous God Powers to stop a massacre, he just stands there smirking, and afterwards says, "See? Told you something like this would happen if you didn't worship me all the time and everywhere. Sorry, but my hands were tied."
Me, I think any deity that acts like this is a monster, not an all-loving beneficent creator. That said, it's entirely consistent with the depiction of the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament. The Old Testament God was constantly smiting people left and right for such heinous crimes as gathering firewood on the sabbath, and when the Chosen People of Israel conquered a place, the word from above was "kill everyone, including children."
Don't believe me? There are plenty of instances, but my favorite is 1 Samuel 15:
This is what the Lord Almighty says: "I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys." So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah.Long story short, Saul did as told, killing everyone up to and including the donkeys, but the Lord was still pissed off for some reason, and the Prophet Samuel told Saul so. Apparently it had to do with the fact that Saul had spared the Amalekite King, Agag (like I said before, to hell with the children). So Saul executed Agag, but the Lord still wasn't happy with him.
There's no impressing all-powerful deities, some days.
Anyhow, what this shows is that people who post bullshit like the above image are simply describing how the Old Testament God does, in fact, behave.
The whole thing brings to memory a quote from Richard Dawkins. I know his very name justifiably raises pretty much everyone's hackles, but it's so germane to this topic that I would be remiss in not including it:
The deepest problem, though, is the one that the people who post this nonsense would be the least likely to admit; when they advocate tearing down the wall between church and state, they're absolutely adamant that it can only be for the benefit of one particular church. Start talking about having Jewish prayers or quotes from the Qu'ran or some of the Ten Thousand Sayings of Buddha festooned about the walls of classrooms, and you'll have these same people screaming bloody murder. Hell, I bet they'd even get their knickers in a twist over which flavor of Christianity you're allowed to promote.
Anyhow, what this shows is that people who post bullshit like the above image are simply describing how the Old Testament God does, in fact, behave.
The whole thing brings to memory a quote from Richard Dawkins. I know his very name justifiably raises pretty much everyone's hackles, but it's so germane to this topic that I would be remiss in not including it:
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.To which I can only say: touché.
The deepest problem, though, is the one that the people who post this nonsense would be the least likely to admit; when they advocate tearing down the wall between church and state, they're absolutely adamant that it can only be for the benefit of one particular church. Start talking about having Jewish prayers or quotes from the Qu'ran or some of the Ten Thousand Sayings of Buddha festooned about the walls of classrooms, and you'll have these same people screaming bloody murder. Hell, I bet they'd even get their knickers in a twist over which flavor of Christianity you're allowed to promote.
Hey, teachers in Oklahoma or Texas: maybe you should try posting quotes and sermons and whatnot from the Patriarch Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and see what happens. Maybe even insist that the children put up Christmas decorations on January 7, when the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas.
Could be an interesting experiment to run.
So as usual, what we're talking about is a combination of ugly theology and smug hypocrisy. And it would be hardly worth commenting on if it weren't for the power that these attitudes still have, and the increasing degree to which they still influence policy in the United States -- something that is only going to extend further with the incoming administration, especially if more Christofascists like Pete Hegseth and Mike Huckabee get confirmed in high-level positions.
Other than railing about it here on Skeptophilia, though, I'm not sure what to do. Anyone who really believes this -- anyone, in other words, who wasn't just trying to score some points off the nonbelievers -- has subscribed to a belief system that is very close to the definition of moral bankruptcy, so trying to reach them via argument is probably a forlorn hope.
And people talk about us atheists being amoral.
So as usual, what we're talking about is a combination of ugly theology and smug hypocrisy. And it would be hardly worth commenting on if it weren't for the power that these attitudes still have, and the increasing degree to which they still influence policy in the United States -- something that is only going to extend further with the incoming administration, especially if more Christofascists like Pete Hegseth and Mike Huckabee get confirmed in high-level positions.
Other than railing about it here on Skeptophilia, though, I'm not sure what to do. Anyone who really believes this -- anyone, in other words, who wasn't just trying to score some points off the nonbelievers -- has subscribed to a belief system that is very close to the definition of moral bankruptcy, so trying to reach them via argument is probably a forlorn hope.
And people talk about us atheists being amoral.
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