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I find it ironic that Christians, while advocating the need for humility and self-effacement, often claim that because Jesus loves them, they are special. They will admit that Jesus loves everybody (even you and me) but somehow, they are special in the eyes of god. If everyone is special, then how could anyone be “special”?

I see this claim as the expression of the desire to be important, even to an unseen entity. They interpret anything good that happens to them as a result of god’s intervention; paradoxically, anything bad that happens is either directly from god or he allows it to happen because the sufferer needs to learn a lesson. Poor old Job did not even need to learn a lesson; he was the victim of a bet.

Many times, Christians have told me that I do not “understand” the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures according to their interpretations because god gave them the ability to understand. This assertion makes them superior, plain and simple.

I have a cousin who wrote on FB that god loved her “so much,” he kept a tornado at bay while she and her husband ate dinner at a restaurant. When they were safely down the road, the tornado hit. I guess god hated ALL of the people who lost their lives and homes—or, maybe, they needed to learn a lesson.

This is not confined to Christianity; yesterday, a pagan told me that he understood the beginning of the universe because of a “divine revelation” from Her, the Goddess. He said that everyone was present at the beginning because we are all a part of the goddess, but he just happened to remember it. I interpret this as him saying he is more spiritually advanced than the rest of us.

Uh-huh.

Thoughts?

Gwendolyn2018 9 Mar 7
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15 comments

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To some it up IMHO like @Clare sez, to be truly religious you have to be completely self absorbed and VERY special.

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Jesus was just a carpenter in the middle East that got lost in the desert for 30 years. Lol

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The self-righteous conceit that you are referring to comes from peoples desire to make themselves feel good, plain and simple. Just a form of mental masturbation!

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Ask them what lines the demigod wrote in the bible, this is always good for a scramble. I once met a guy at the beach not sure if he had just landed on the planet or not. He kept insisting that he invented the idea of the idea kept wanting to know if we could buy him a alcoholic beverage we were only about 16 at the time he too was an enlightened individual.

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I have written about the in ability extensively on Atheist Nexus under the name compelledunbeliever [atheistnexus.org] . the can not interpret the scriptures BECAUSE they are Christians. The reason why is that they read into the Bible concepts that are fairly modern that do not exist in the Bible and makethat part of their theology. Not in the bibles ancient scriptures, A virgin birth, the rapture, the trinity, original sin,free will just to name a few. These are major Christinan concepts that they actually believe are in the Bible but are not. So when they read something that touches on a similar concept they read those ideas into the Bible.

One of the major things about any religion or cult is exclusiivity. It is almost a necessery requirement. I am special because of my religion. If that was not the case the religion its self would not be special and thus not worth observing.

Devine intervention be it miricules, or special knowed be it hallucinations or what ever is also very important in most religions. It does not matter what the facts are as long as they FEEL that their god is interceding for them.

In short it is an understatement to say I am not surprised. I am very happy that you have on your own made these obversations.

@Gwendolyn2018 They are not in the bible. The virgin birth can be found in it today as it has been added to the new testament and changed in the old to reflect christian beliefs. The original hebrew said "Young woman" not "virgin". There is no mention, concept or idea of the trinity in the original text. This idea was added to the bible by Jerome when he wrote the latin Vulgate. One passage said father and son and he was pressed into adding Holy spirit. The idea of the riniy hinges on this one forged passage.
There is no mention of free will. The rapture was made up by a preacher in the late 1700s. St. Augustine mad up the idea of Original sin in his book the City of God.

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He sounds like a crackpot with goddess and the others seem to have a smug better than thou attitude and you are quite right, it is rampant among the religious regardless of who/what or how they worship. Unfortunately some think it means they are allowed to kill everyone that does not do as they do and believe as they believe.

@Gwendolyn2018 I've got neighbors like that here in farm country

@Gwendolyn2018 I practice neother one, in fact I practice nothing religion wise

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It is the norm for people to want to think they are special, and look at the universe as it relates to them, whatever their belief. It isn't odd, or unusual, or even bad to think things like,"I was missed 10 times by bullets, I must be lucky." Or substitute 'lucky' for 'in favor of -insert name here-'. In fact, I would argue that people who cannot quantify how someone gets out of sticky wickets on regular occasions, keeps themself alive by following 'the luck' or the 'god blessed' person. Otherwise, their own inability to understand could get them killed.

@Gwendolyn2018 I think everybody knows things that other's don't, can do things that other's can't...and I would argue that no one is the same...we're like rice crispies....

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Doublethink. It is a feature of human personalities to be able to hold contradictory notions and yet see no contradiction. We have not and likely will never be wholely rational beings. We have the abilities and limitations provided by our genome first, then by the social matrix we both provide and live in.

@Gwendolyn2018 Hypocrisy is what it is, Doublethink would be a voluntary way of maintaining this. As in "IngSoc". I would have used another word for what I describe, were there one. To what the OP would address, I would say is involuntary, an inability to see a contradiction.

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Let's consider the functions of religion. On a societal or group level its about social control. But forget that.
On a personal level, religion appeals to the individual's emotional need for comfort and sense of protection, and for guidance. Since everyone sees countless examples of random suffering, death, and cruelty inflicted on innocents, the cheapest way for the theists to feel safer is to convince themselves that all those horrible things can't happen to them. Why wouldn't those things happen? Well, because they are "specially" protected by God. If just anyone and everyone were protected, the suffering and death we see all around could not happen. Since it clearly does happen, the religiously invested have to convince themselves they are somehow different than "the type of" people who suffer. Self-delusion with a purpose. It can be powerfully resistant to logic.

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On the Jasuz loves me thing..not once does he say he loves anybody..in fact he states plainly "Suffer the children"..yeah Suffer..as to their superiority..absolutely the ego stroking is a form of masturbation..

In the context of the phrase, 'suffer' means 'allow.'. English is fucked up.

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I actually ask people who post on FB shit like "Thank you god for this feast today"
-What about these guys - Does god pick and chose whhich one of the things he made in his image gets food? along with pictures of starving kids

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Yeah, we're all special -- just like everybody else. Although that's actually not a claim that's unique to theism, it is certainly one theism likes to leverage.

The fabulist arrogance that god would forestall a tornado so you could dine at leisure and then clobber everyone afterwards is so ridiculous on its face that I'm surprised even a fundamentalist would gabber on about it in public. But I guess they really don't engage the ol' brain at all when it comes to such things. I guess it reflects their desperate, desperate need for god's approval and favor when there's basically just zero everyday evidence for it. So you look for confirmation, and you find it in some particularly striking contrast like this. Simple confirmation bias.

My fundamentalist father once boasted by email to a bunch of people that my home was spared from Hurricane Katrina when thousands weren't because HE was praying for my safety from the other side of the country. Never mind my entire street did ok in the storm, or that literally many thousands of "true believers" who prayed for protection had their homes wiped out. NOPE. He was sure it was his prayer that did the trick for me, the heathen. Ah the humility! Praise the Lawd!

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Jesus is mean. Check out my video.

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It's sad if God existed and loves all what's his/her excuse for killing kids with cancer or wiping out whole towns with floods and disease. Next time some ass says god saved me or gods great he cured me or whatever shit they spin. Look em dear in the eye and say yeah what makes you so special when ever minute a kid dies of diseases or hunger where was you're God then.. you sanctimonious

@Gwendolyn2018 yes it is and these people are the worst form of scum on earth

@Gwendolyn2018 yes it is ive been friends with a family who've lost a kid they can't understand why if there is a god he took her away

@Gwendolyn2018 its sad and im sorry but pathetic that they think this way. Religion is huge business its bigger than pharmaceuticals and tge gas and oil industry but people don't see that all they see is there god did it.

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The nature of human beings.
My younger brother was my father's favorite, and he relished that position!

Yep. My point exactly! This part of NH is more like Southern Maine.

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