3.25.2009

Keep Your Ridiculous Christianspeak to Yourself!

speak
A friend of mine was in an automobile accident a couple days ago. I do not have all the details yet, but I was relieved to hear that everyone involved was okay. She had her children with her, and I am sure they were frightened, but it is good to hear that all were unharmed. It sounds like her car was pretty badly damaged and had to be towed away. Sadly, this unfortunate accident provided an opportunity for a misguided Christian to spew Christianspeak to an audience not particularly interested in hearing it. At least this offered me some insight about another friend.

I learned about the accident when a friend spread the word via social media. She provided a brief account of what had happened and that everyone was okay. In response, one of her other friends with whom I am not acquainted posted a reply crediting some sort of god with the lack of injuries and gushing Christianspeak.

I submit that thanking gods for allowing one to come through an accident unscathed is ridiculous for many reasons, not the least of which is that it raises the question of why one was in the accident in the first place. If we are to assume that a particular god intervened to facilitate survival, then why wouldn't the same god have acted a fraction of a second earlier to prevent the accident?

Perhaps even more important, if we credit gods with allowing some to live through accidents, what are we to make of the countless people who are not similarly rescued every day? What if one child had been killed or seriously injured? Would we praise gods for this while not bothering to ask why the one was not saved?

I'm sure you have gathered by now that this sort of thing pisses me off just a bit. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. You see, the friend who initially shared the news seemed even more annoyed than I was with the Christianspeak. She's no atheist, but she replied something along the lines of "Or we could recognize that modern safety features like airbags and reinforced steel kept them safe." Right on.

If Christians really think that their god is going to protect them, why bother with safety features at all? And you know what else? I am sick and tired of the anti-science types reaping any benefits from science and technology! They shouldn't be able to have it both ways.