There is no god to make anyone "go without", or any other damned thing, because there is no god.

Lent is just another man-made construct.
Just like all gods and religion.
None of it has any basis in reality, and it's all just a bunch of bullshit.

Well, here's another one, posted online today:

"The lockdown will start on the 26th of March 2020 and the Bible's verse we quote is isiaiah 26:20 "Go home my people and lock your doors, Hide yourselves for a little while until the Lord's anger has passed". The day and year which it's 26-20 corresponds with the verse 26:20. Isn't this amazing? Y'all should stop doubting God and pray "

My only response is to keep on scrolling.

I gave up Religions for Lent.

i saw people posting they would ""give up """ the internet.. how about giving up food for a week.. like some people have to

I would say, "Your God has already killed a quarter million people - and you say it's just to make folks go without"? ... Without what? Family, friends, food - stuff like that? ... Your gawd is a sadistic asshole.

Ohferpetessake, "Lent"???? Never mentioned anywhere in the babble, just a construct of the Catholic church to get $$$$$$

I became an atheist at 13 when I realized the Bible is just a book of stories written by men. Like Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I chose rational thought, not magical beliefs.

A make-believe god has nothing to do with reality: birth, sickness, viruses, bacteria, health, death, weather, the climate crisis, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.

Since the virus actually started last year, the connection to your holiday is tenuous at best.

I don't like to waste time with idiots.

I didn't even know it was Lent.

You: Its Gods way of making us go without.

Ok. Going without masks, respirators, accessible tests, etc. during a pandemic, causing death. So it’s giving up life for Lent.

Your argument is illogical and honestly self centered.

I don't think the atheist community addresses Lent at all, but that's some shabby logic even for a theist. If the idea behind Lent is to give up things voluntarily, then having things removed from you without your consent is not even remotely similar. If churchgoers follow the directive of POTUS on Easter, we may see atheism get a real foothold in society due to accelerated natural selection.

The stock market crashed in 1929 marking the start of the Depression on Oct. 28 and 29 right before Halloween, and again in 2008 on Sep. 29 starting the Great Recession. Sep. 29 was National Coffee Day. In 1945, on Aug. 6 - National Root Beer Float Day - the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

The point is that bad things, when they occur, must occur at some time on the calendar. This calendar is filled with all sorts of memorials to all sorts of different things, some well known and some not. Events that occur will necessarily correspond to some sort of memorial set on a date on the calendar. That this disease corresponds to Lent is really no more meaningful than when the stock market crashed near Halloween or on National coffee day, or when the day dedicated to root beer floats happens to be the same day thousands of Japanese citizens lost their lives to the world's first use of an atomic weapon.

Humans are pattern seeking beings and we can and do find patterns where none exist.

Not every atheist is an ex-christian. Leny has no meaning for me. It is not part of my personal history, experience or previous belief system.

In addition, the question of why, if there is a god,does he let dreadful things happen does not automatically lead to the belief tha there is no god -- only to the suspicion thatthere are no good gods.

g

Just stupidity

I just say, I don’t believe in god, or any other imaginary being. Not Santa, not the tooth fairy, nothing.
Covid19 is a virus, it’s behaving like one. It has no intentions, or thoughts: it only tries to find hosts and to live.
Lent? ‘God’ doesn’t make people go without, they make THEMSELVES go without. There will never be answers ‘from above’....because nobody is home up there. You can choose that delusion if you want, though. Enjoy.

I'm thinking the religious will say that the greater good of forced family time and the lesson of not appreciating who we have until they're gone are lessons given to us by God.

My thought is that a kind and loving god would be able to teach these lessons without the pain and suffering, so let's just chalk this pandemic up to natural consequences of some bad choices and mistakes in not being bold enough to take proper precautions when the reality of the situation called for them.

Believe in god/s or not, this is a human problem and a human common sense response is necessary, and takes the everyone working together to combat it.

I understand but it is this way because gods have nothing at all to do with it.

I live in Arizona. Recently there was an outbreak on the Navajo Reservation because there was a revival in an Indian village and a bunch of Native Americans were infected. There are preachers all over that are encouraging their followers to trust in God and not in science and I would imagine we are going to see the consequences of these acts soon. Me, I personally haven't had to give up anything other than the company of friends but a lot of folks have lost jobs and and some their lives and the lives of those they love. I believe folks are going to see people that put belief in nonsense above belief in facts pay dearly for faith. Whether it makes enough of an impression on them to change is still up to question.

Go without what your grandparents?

I would say: "It's funny how your god of love and forgiveness can't do anything, teach mankind anything, without killing a lot of people."

I'd say, God has killed over 21,000 people just to tell us to chill in the lead up to Easter! Really? Don't hold your breath though because they will still come up with platitudes and apologetics in response.

Jesus cured disease by casting out demons. Maybe Trump ought to enlist Demonologists to cure the virus.
Isn't this the stupidest thing you ever heard about?

I can't even respond to you without becoming really abusive. So I won't Stay healthy.

If you want to hit on COVID-19 specifically, the 19 stands for the year it was discovered, i.e. 2019. So that predates this lent season. So we can kill that argument off right there. You can also ask whose lent they mean, the Catholic (practiced by the west) or the Orthodox (practiced by the eastern half). If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, why are we going without some essentials but not having to forgo alcohol (something many Christians hail as evil)? If it was about the practice, why is it infecting people of all (including no) faiths? You can also wait to see if it ends exactly on Easter (whose easter, and in which time zone?), then grill them on that. Heck, ask them upfront when it would be expected to end if it is to enforce the giving up status of lent.

It doesn't take many questions to expose this example as nothing more than a joke.