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Sunday, January 12. 2014

Humorous Atheist

Penn is a warm and delightful fellow, and a good talker. He riffs, free associates. He makes the case that the desire for afterlife is ungrateful.


"If God told you to kill your firstborn, would you do it?" I would not. 




Posted by The News Junkie in Religion at 16:42 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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I respect Penn and I agree with him on lots of topics, but I do not agree with him on God (though I am really impressed that he's read the Bible).

I am not a Christian because I want God to keep me from raping or killing anybody or because I am afraid of death. I don't believe God makes people suffer (for that matter I don't believe he makes people happy).
#1 mudbug on 2014-01-12 17:42 (Reply)
Like I have an hour to listen to this bullshit form some magician in Las Vegas?

Right.
#2 Scullman on 2014-01-12 17:55 (Reply)
It's often funny B.S. though. However I've had quite my fill of him and others for whom atheism is a religion and not just a state they wound up in.
#2.1 William O. B'Livion on 2014-01-12 23:25 (Reply)
God's not telling women to kill their firstborn child, the democrats are.
#3 M@rk on 2014-01-12 18:04 (Reply)
A bit superficial Scullman. Reminds me of those who said, "Why waste time on a B-Actor from Hollywood". Not that they are the same, but both were typecast.

Agree or disagree with him, Penn often makes very cogent arguments for his beliefs, and some damn good observations on our World and Society.
#4 Ron Snyder on 2014-01-12 18:06 (Reply)
I don't care about his cogent or non-cogent arguments, or his beliefs.

If you think his observations on our world are important, knock yourself out.

Reagan proved everyone wrong who doubted his ability.

This guy would have to pull a rabbit the size of a Volkswagen out of his ass to get me to listen to his bullshit about what he thinks about God.
#5 Scullman on 2014-01-12 18:40 (Reply)
Perhaps not. But as a pagan, if anyone of the tops of pop, er, pantheon, showed up to ask that I sacrifice captives or slave women taken in my last campaign, I’d do it, just as my ancestors did.

Propitiation: it’s what the goddesses want.

Saw P&T in Vegas. Great show. Until the drunk sitting next to me passed out on me. Could have been worse.
#6 ErisGuy on 2014-01-12 19:14 (Reply)
I am seeing P&T in Las Vegas on Sunday night on the way home from Utah. I don't care if comedians share my beliefs.
#7 MissyW on 2014-01-12 20:38 (Reply)
God killed his first born.
(the one who cried "Why have you forsaken me")
Makes Him one-up on most of us.
#8 ns on 2014-01-12 21:54 (Reply)
God, did not kill His first born. We did.
#8.1 Ben Hammer on 2014-01-13 09:12 (Reply)
I am NOT taking the rap for killing Jesus. I was NOT even born then. The humans that convicted him and forced him to drag a cross around then nailed him to it killed him. God did not intervene to stop the humans from killing his OWN flesh and blood.
Obama, (the devil), did not MAKE me do it.
#8.1.1 Heltau on 2014-01-13 20:24 (Reply)
I'm not really a god botherer, but if God, the Creator Of The Universe And All Its' Contents shows up, and convinces me he his who he is, he's going to get a bit of an argument from me, but if he's got the right answers, yeah I'd probably kill my firstborn. He's going to have to be hella convincing though.

I mean really, he's GOD. Once you've internalized the notion that he's the first guy who figured out how to sort laundry AND then went on to build everything, including women (which means he's the ONLY guy who knows how they work).

Then again would the sort of God worth worshiping ask you to do that?
#9 William O. B'Livion on 2014-01-12 23:31 (Reply)
"would the sort of God worth worshiping ask you to do that?"

Agreed. That story has always bothered me. And then what God did to poor Job. The Old Testament God is not a nice guy.
#9.1 gold digger (Link) on 2014-01-13 09:59 (Reply)
Good grief, God did not do that to Job, Satan did. It is an allegory of a dialogue between Satan and God related to God's faithful servant Job. It is not literal and it is not historical. It is intended to communicate a truth through story.
#9.1.1 phil g on 2014-01-13 11:05 (Reply)
The point of the Abram story is that it was an exceptional act of faith to be willing to kill your first born for Abram. But this is because of who Abram is. The bible also shows that many people are willing to kill their babies without much bother for mere idols.
#10 Pensans on 2014-01-13 05:47 (Reply)
People take that story out of its historical context. Many of the cults/religions back then did require human sacrifice.

That episode set the precedent t that human sacrifice was neither required or desired by the true God.
#10.1 NJSoldier on 2014-01-13 10:53 (Reply)
ALL the cults/religions which were pagan based at that time required human sacrifice to resolve human conflict and to please their gods. God working through Abraham introduced a new dynamic.
#10.1.1 phil g on 2014-01-13 16:41 (Reply)
The story of Abraham and sacrificing Isaac may be the most misunderstood story of the Bible along with the commandment 'thou shall not kill'.

Rene Girard does a good job of putting that story into the context of the culture of human sacrifice that was the default culture of human relations that God was working to lead humans beyond. Every pagan 'god' required human sacrifice. Abraham was simply going along with the prevailing culture when 'god' instructed him as 'he/they' instructed everyone to sacrifice an innocent. Then God, the God of Abraham, intervened with a different paradigm to substitute a sacrificial symbol in place of the sacrifice of the innocent human. Jesus' sacrifice was not about an angry God looking for vengence but rather God's ultimate victory over human sacrifice as a scapegoat as a solution to social disruption. That is the power behind the crucifixition. Human scapegoating no longer has any power over human relations.

Without that context the story just doesn't sound right. I don't know if the context is lost in translation(s) or lack of verbal tradition to provide the context to the text. But I wouldn't expect a commedian to bother with that level of detail and nuance, wouldn't fit his conclusions.
#11 phil g on 2014-01-13 10:52 (Reply)

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