A reply from the National Day of Prayer 'Scare Mail' Post

Happy Holidays!

This post is actually a reply to a reply from an anonymous commenter on my last blog post regarding the National Day of Prayer.

Because my reply exceeded 4,096 characters, Blogger.com wouldn't allow it. So, I thought it would be best to just post my reply in its entirety here as an actual blog post.

Here is the link to the anonymous commenter's reply (it's the 7th comment):

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=30665987&postID=3364443166124680683

So...with no further ado, here is my reply to this person's reply:

Thanks, Anonymous, for your reply.

I have to say upfront though that you still haven't addressed my main question of why Christians feel the need to have a National Day of Prayer, and have that day sanctioned by the U.S. Government.

You state in your reply that "no one wants one 'religion' to rule." I appreciate that. I agree with that. Separation of Church and State is something so precious to me that I think if we lose that demarcation we lose a great deal of freedom in this country.

You also state that "Each one of us has some kind of belief system." I agree with this statement. Whether you are a theist or an atheist, there are core belief systems for all humans on the planet. I completely agree with you.

You continue..."The Christian belief and living a Christian life is not distorted like some of yours and others put out there about what Christianity is. Christianity is a relationship with The One True God of The Bible. The Jewish, is a relationship with The One True God of the First Five Books of the Bible..."

I'm unclear as to how I and 'others' have 'distorted' Christianity. Please explain.

You go on to state the following:

"When one chooses to become a Christian, that person individually at his/her point of need comes to a realization that he/she needs help in living this life here on earth".

You also go on to state that "as hard as it may be, the believer knows because Jesus came to earth to help us all; and, because He came to us here where we live & because He could, we could, too, weather many storms that may come --that is to go about doing and living a good life here on earth".

I agree with these statements. Not that I personally hold the same beliefs, but that I believe that this is an accurate portrayal of what Christians think about their God. I would only add to your statements that Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and all the other metaphysical belief systems out there could use those same statements as recruiting tools, if you will, for their own causes.

People often turn to God when they realize that their lives are going in a direction that they don't necessarily like. This isn't always the reason people turn to God, but it's definitely a common reason. I completely understand the psychology behind this 'pull', if you will, towards the supernatural.

You continue with some statements about times in your life when you can't make it on your own strength; that prayers, angels, and God himself have helped you to weather the 'rain storms'.

I can neither prove nor disprove those claims, and would rather just grant you that in your mind and in your experience those things are true.

But what happens next is something that I do want to discuss a bit further.

You state that "God is Good and Just and He Loves us, all of us here on the earth and wishes that no one would perish".

You also start talking about 'Evil' and raise the question to me about whether there is evil in the world?

Let's start with the 'evil' question.

I do believe there is evil in the world in the sense that violent acts against human beings are perpetrated every day on this planet. All you have to do is look at a child who's been abducted, sexually assaulted, and/or killed by an adult. This one act of violence should make every human being saddened and angered that this act ever had to occur and be enough to show that evil exists.

Now, I am not a Christian, and I have granted to you in previous comments here on this website that being an 'atheist/agnostic' could be classified as a religion. I'll go ahead and proceed that my atheism/agnosticism is a religion, if you will grant me that your Christianity is a religion. I know some Christians who are uncomfortable making that concession, but I think it's a fair thing to ask in this case.

I really don't want to digress into a debate about whether my belief system is or isn't a religion, as I don't think it matters so much. Let's just equate religion with a belief system for matters of semantics.

But what DOES matter is that you have raised 4 things that I would like to address:

1. You ask "what is to be done about evil" and "who can destroy it?".

2. You say that there must be 'standards' and you have made a value judgement on my 'standards' compared to your 'standards'. You state that my standards don't "ring true when compared to Christianity, true Christianity".

3. You state that no religion even "comes close to Christianity on many levels."

4. You also ask if the evil that I concede that goes on in this world is not "God's doing"?

Actually #1 and #2 I can address together.

My standard as an atheist/agnostic on the evil act of raping and murdering a child is that it is a completely unacceptable practice in our society, or any society for that matter, and whoever perpetrates such violence should be apprehended, given a fair trial to prove or disprove their innocence, and then if the trial shows that the party involed is indeed guilty of the act, is incarcerated in a maximum security prison for the rest of their natural existence on the planet.

I am very interested to hear how my expressed 'standard' here is 'sub-standard' if you will to yours in 'Christianity, true Christianity'.

And by stating that this is my standard, this is also how one goes about 'destroying' evil. Slowly, but surely, we as a society support the criminal justice systems in place to put all human beings who perpetrate violence against other human beings in facilities that keep them from harming other human beings. Period.

Please explain your 3rd statement. I don't know what you mean by 'coming close' 'on many levels'.

And as for the 4th item, since I don't believe in anything supernatural, yes, I would say that all the evil that goes on in the world is not 'supernatural evil'. Evil comes from human beings in other words.

BUT, since you DO believe in the supernatural, I would like to get your thoughts on a few things related to the existence of evil and your God.

In your words above, "God is Good and Just and He Loves us".

Please explain how this same God who is supposed to be good, just, loving, and I would add omniscient and omnipresent, can look upon even one act of violence against a child such as I've described, and do nothing to save that child from same said egregious act of violence?

Think about what you or any human being would do if they were to see such an act of violence take place in front of them. They might be scared, but I'm pretty sure the majority of persons seeing such an act of violence would do all they could to stop the person or persons perpetrating said act of violence against a child.

If you grant that God created all things, you must grant that He created evil. And since He created evil, I cannot agree with your assessment of Him as Good and Just and Loving. These traits simply don't flow from a being who allows such violence to occur on 'His watch'.

Please remember though, I am not stating that I BELIEVE that your God exists, I'm simply stating that what YOU believe about your God is inconsistent with the violent evidence we see around us.

I know there are arguments out there from Christians that package the whole above scenario I've described as a humans gone astray from what God intended plight, but in the end, the original creation of humans is done by your God, correct?

Why would God even allow such things to happen in the first place? He easily could have created an entire universe full of peace and love where no acts of violence ever occurred and we wouldn't even need to have this conversation at all. But, sadly, your God didn't do that. And BECAUSE your God didn't do that, Anonymous, I must say, and I'm sorry if this comes across antagonistically, it really isn't meant that way...your God in my humble opinion is quite an unsavory and despicable character. Not exactly someone I would choose to have a relationship with, much less even a cup of coffee.

I'm open to hearing any and all defenses of your God. PLEASE feel free to use as much or as little space as possible to defend my accusations against Him. If you need more than 4.096 characters, email me at drew.mather@gmail.com. I'll post your response in another blogpost.

I guess I should stop here myself. I look forward to hearing your reply.

Again, I really do appreciate your comments, and would very much like to get to a better understanding of how you think about what I consider to be pretty big issues.

Thanks for stopping by,
Drew