A woman told Matt Dillahunty, “I believe in the Christian God, because I don’t want to live in a world where those with power impose their evil intent on the masses and not face any type of consequence. Without God, people can easily escape human justice.”
Dillahunty replied: I don’t buy into that. She also raised the point that someone had mentioned pedophile priests, and being a pedophile is immoral, but they can escape from human justice, therefore, God’s justice is eventually gonna get them.
“What kind of world do you live in, if this is your principal objection to world views that don’t include some cosmic justice in them?? If you’ll excuse the condescending remark, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Life isn’t fair, and the desire for justice that you talk about, is one of the key foundations of most every religion.
We’re all aware that sometimes Good goes unrewarded, and Evil goes unpunished, so some justice-seekers invent a security blanket to insure that they aren’t mired in depression. It allows them to avoid facing the harshness of an indifferent reality, whether it’s Heaven, or Hell, or Karma, dictating infinite rebirths. It serves the same purpose.
Some of us realize that there’s no good reason to believe that the Universe is anything other than indifferent to our existence and our perceptions of good and evil, and that dealing with Reality on Reality’s terms is the only way to make any real improvement in the situation.
Life isn’t fair, and that’s actually comforting if you think about it. If Life were fair, it would mean that you actually deserve the bad things that happen to you, and that those who benefit from evil deeds similarly deserve. The knowledge that there is no reason to expect justice is the reason that we ensure that we impose justice.
The realization that good is not always rewarded, is what drives us to reward it when we see it. The realization that evil is not always punished is what drives us to work together as a co-operative society to deal with our problems collectively and individually, in a way that drives real change, and minimizes harmful actions.
Realizing that justice is not guaranteed allows us to appreciate it when it happens, and work toward causing it to happen on a more regular basis. Your particular God-view of justice represents the height of irresponsibility and injustice. Your chosen religion has us born as reprobates, guilty before we’ve taken a single breath, responsible for things we’ve never done. It offers instant, undeserved forgiveness for the most horrible of crimes, and punishes those whose only crime is disbelief, forever!
It advocates slavery, denigrates women, curses homosexuals, orders the stoning of unruly children, sanctions wars of extermination, condones human sacrifices, and poisons every mind it touches. It includes only one unforgivable crime – disbelief. Is that just?? This justice that you so admire is no such thing. It is divine edict. It’s arbitrary, capricious, and ultimately unjust and immoral.
Yes, I realize that there are pedophiles out there, who’ve escaped our flawed justice system. Do you realize that your system says that they are all eligible for an eternal paradise?? How does that address your objection? Under the rules of Christianity, the pedophile who escapes justice here, can also escape your ultimate justice. He may spend eternity in paradise, while someone who spent their entire life doing good, helping others, and contributing in a generally positive way to the one and only life that we’re sure to get, ultimately is judged unworthy of that reward.
Don’t kid yourself. You haven’t accepted a comic sense of justice that alleviates the problem. You’ve accepted one that you believe alleviates the problem –for you. It is a selfish justification that shows no regard for real matters of justice. It is the height of arrogance, and your desire to feel special, because somebody up there thinks you’re special.
Well, according to the paradigm you advocate, He thinks that anyone willing to worship him is special, with no regard to justice or character. Go! Read Romans. No-one makes this point clearer than Paul. The Law was established with full knowledge that no-one would be able to fulfill it. It was established to demonstrate this inability, and damn us further – and then a loophole was created to allow some people through, regardless of their standing with The Law.
Your religion has made you a slave. It has made you uncaring. It has made you support immorality and injustice, while claiming that arbitrary edicts and loopholes count as either. It is a reprehensible lie, that poisons the mind, and prevents you from understanding reality. When the scales drop away from your eyes, as they have for many of us, we’ll be here, and you’ll realize that you’re not alone, and not to blame.
Archon's Den 