A Plague on All His Houses

[akirlu]

Woke up to the radio alarm announcing that people are blowing each other up in India, most likely over the findings of a long awaited report on a contested religious site. I'm inclined to think that the follow-on to Who Is This God Person, Anyway ought to be entitled An Incompleat Compendium of Attrocities God Needs to Answer For. Yes, I suppose humankind would find idiotic reasons to murder each other even without the benefit of theism, but theism sure does add that extra dollop of self-righteous assurance that makes killing in God's name not merely acceptable, but an actual good in the eyes of believers. Under circumstances where murder is justified and glorious and good, I utterly fail to see that the benefits of having God outweigh the costs. Pascal's wager is a bad bet. Your God is not merely too small, he is outright petty, and a terrorist.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I must admit it never ceases to amaze me that people still put "faith" in Pascal's Wager. It has a little merit in a binary God view as Pascal lived in, but certainly not with competing petty God views as we know exist now.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

I must admit to taking a dim view of this whole god business. In my opinion gods are like cars in that while they might not be designed with the express purpose of crapping up the world when people use them they seem to anyway.