Just when you think we've managed to drag most of humanity out of the darkness and cloying fear of superstition and unjustified beliefs, someone stabs a baby.Told by a witchdoctor that sacrificing their baby girl would make them rich, this Pakistani couple did what any good believer in the supernatural would do. They killed their baby.
I can't think of any clearer example of the dangers of believing in something without evidence. When people ask what's the harm when people have a personal, private belief in something, you can point at this dead baby girl and say "That's the harm."
These people believed in magic. This meant that when the witchdoctor, a trusted authority figure in their belief system, told them that killing their baby would make them rich, it made sense.
If they hadn't believed in magic, or if they hadn't been monstrous enough to believe that being rich was worth more than the life of their baby girl, they wouldn't have performed the sacrifice.
There is no such thing as a belief in a vacuum. When you believe in something, it shapes the way you live your life and how you deal with others. Unfortunately for this little girl, her parents believed she needed to die.
Yours,
Charles
Of course, you realize that this event is TOTALLY different than believing that (to quote George Carlin) there is an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
ReplyDeleteBut He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.
Yes, I can see how the case you've just mentioned is completely and utterly different to the event I've posted about.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that God cares about money, which is a trading convention, rather than directly create the items that the money would be used to purchase?
Yes, but if you are to disobey the ten commandments, God also says that their is forgiveness and grace. That's where His love comes in. God doesn't want anyone to go to Hell, that's why there is such a thing as forgiveness and grace. He provides the way out; a way to Heaven. He is the Way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, God isn't about money, money, money. People are about money, money, money. The only "money" that God asks of us is tithe and offering. Tithe being 10% of your living and offering being what you give from your heart out of happiness, not because you have to give.
Why have you put "money" in quotes, as if God isn't asking for actual, cold hard cash? Again, why does God need money at all?
ReplyDeleteGod doesn't need our money. He asks as a test of obedience, and we give out of an act of obedience.
ReplyDeleteWhy does God need a test of obedience? Doesn't he already know, through his omnipotence, the nature of your character?
ReplyDeleteYes, God does know, but He desires a relationship with His people. That's why He gives us our own free will; what would be the point if we didn't have a free will?? We would be robots practically. In this way, we have a choice to make, and we will be accountable for own sins and our own actions. God wants us to choose to do right, but we don't always go that route. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;... Isaiah 53:6". That's why God sent us the Good Shepherd (Jesus Christ) to die for our sins; so, we could be forgiven of our sins and draw closer to Him. 'Cause let's face it, we're all human =) We all make mistakes! It's the fact of whether or not we're truly sorry for what we did and want forgiveness and search after Him, or whether we don't care what we do with our life.
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