I don't see how someone could believe in an all-controlling god who is responsible for EVERYTHING and still love and praise him. If you believe that evil is a direct product of god's will, why would you follow him and not something a lot more nice and benign that isn't toying with you?

How does one speak from a part of the body they do not possess?

Theodicy, anyone?

"I believe God controls the universe"

It's mind-blowing to me that someone can say this in 2012 and still be a viable candidate for anything besides involuntary commitment.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/god-distances-self-from-christian -right,30087/

Or a facehugger.

But he's actually an Archie Comics villain.

He raped Veronica and Betty but their bodies had ways of shutting that process down.

If he is a Marvel Comics villain, we need a hero with style, wit, technique, and wisdom to take him down.


I nominate Howard the Duck.

Forbush Man

Actually, I don't really get very upset over this anymore, because I love that these people feel so threatened that now evangelicals and fundies are basically being so open with their insane belief system. It's pretty much all the ammo anyone would ever need to keep discrediting them and adding fuel to the argument that "respecting" people's faith and religious beliefs is a stupid, losing battle and that you have to, at some point, start calling people out on their totally unreasonable bullshit.

It'd be nice if that happened, but since voting Republican has been equated with voting for Jesus, the party faithful are still voting for their god-bothering zealots in droves.

Respecting other people's religious beliefs is important, but it ends when someone's religious beliefs become their politics. Then it becomes fair game.

The most celebrated event in the Christian canon involves a man being brutally tortured, then impaled through the hands and feet and hoisted unto a piece of wood to die slowly in front of hundreds of people.

Just saying.

Yes, if it results in a pregnancy.
Seriously, the people who believe this sort of thing believe that free will exist, thus personal responsibility, BUT each fused sperm and egg cell is lovingly handcrafted by God (Even the IVF ones).

Yes, they say they believe that God has some vague plan for each person and controls everything, but it is filled with only good, positive things. But also that all bad choices and crimes are Satan/your own stupid sinner problem.

I'm not saying that it doesn't fall apart if you think about it, I'm just saying he doesn't think about it.

You're wrong. Some believe something *completely different* that has trivially different implications for the moral character of God. How dare you sir.

There is no doubt that some Chirstians believe otherwise, even if that makes their theological beliefs more problematic in other ways.

It wouldn't be fair to let this type of over-generalization slide even on a site where we're probably mostly left-of-center atheists, myself included. Not every strain of modern American Christianity comes from motherfucking Calvinism.

Can't you tell what God intends by what happens? I don't know why people are getting so hysterical about this. This is literally what everyone who believes in God believes.