this isn't my work.  I didn't write it.
I've never met the guy who did.  But I do have respect for him and his opinions.




From redwoodpecker:


This is a reply to a reply to one of my blogs wherein the blogger in question, homeschoolblog (I hope I spelled that correctly) assured me that soldiers who kill themselves do in fact go to heaven, which was suggested in all innocence by her and with no ill intent or aggression towards me, which of course infuriated me.

She suggested that God helped her through a suicidal period despite her own Pastor killing himself, which was the result I guess of God either not caring about that particular pastor, or perhaps he just wasn't paying attention. 

Anyway, here's the reply my narcissism prompted me to post.

I have a question on the subject, you say god got you through it, but did he?  What's your proof?

I say so because MOST people are suicidal at some point, and most don't kill themselves.  Even those who don't believe in god.  Does that mean that you are somehow inferior to them, that you needed god's help?  Why did god help you and not all the people who believed in him but still killed themselves like your pastor?  How many people would you guess killed themselves after many fruitless prayers for some kind of help?

It would be more accurate to say that your belief in something greater than yourself looking over you helped you get through your suicidal thoughts, while that same belief isn't sufficient for others.  This is a much more rational and realistic interpretation than the idea that God is like some kind of lottery , who may or may not help you depending on whim.  In addition, either he helps those who don't believe in him, or it's just possible to forgo killing yourself without god's help, in which case even if there was a god, and he did help you, it would only show that you are weaker than those who required no help from him.

The soldiers are simply dead.  They were used by other men in pursuit of money and power, killed themselves, and now their families will never see, talk to, or hold them again.  While it is impossible to prove one way or another whether something happens after death, it can be said that without any information, anything is possible.  Since there are infinite possibilities, and your heaven is just one, to determine how likely it is you divide the number of possibilities you've suggested, one, by the number possible, which is infinite.  One divided by infinity is so close to zero as to make no difference, and so is essentially zero.  That means there is a zero percent chance that heaven as you imagine it exists. 

I hate these fairy tales because it allows you to dismiss the loss of human life like it's nothing, like it's a trip to the store, which no doubt while reassuring to you, and your particular fears, leads to a general lack of concern over the greatest atrocities in the world. Even when people are being horribly slaughtered you believe it's just a transition period to a bunch of shiny white clouds and harp music, or whatever equally stupid thing you picture when you think of heaven, and so their deaths are not taken as seriously as they should be, nor will you or most of the generally brainwashed religious population do anything to stop it, because basically you no longer think death is a bad thing anyway.

Why stop the killing of children and housewives if you think they're just being sent to eternal paradise?  Hell, why even go that far, why help someone who doesn't believe what you do?  After all, their differing beliefs ensure they'll go to hell anyway, so what's a little murder next to eternal damnation?

Having faith doesn't automatically make you retarded or callous.

But it helps.