1. Send a Message to God: He has gone too far this time

Comment #17482 by JimMet on January 14, 2007 at 3:02 am

Naive? It amazes me that anyone can read this and not realize that it is satire from an atheist. Nice article.

2. Book a Day

Comment #11764 by JimMet on December 7, 2006 at 6:49 am

Mr. Dawkins owns an "Atheists for Jesus" T-shirt? This is depressing.

He needs to read the New Testament. Most of the silly things the Son O' God supposedly did are also conveniently listed at whywontgodhealamputees.com under the chapter "Jesus is a Jerk."

The most glaring crime Jesus supposedly committed, however, is not listed there. I quote from an essay I once wrote--and that I've not attempted yet to publish--concerning human perfection. This is an excerpt.

"[I]n the gospel of Mark, chapter four, He reveals His sagacity while preaching in parable to a "great multitude" by the sea. After the sermon, His disciples ask why He used a parable instead of speaking straightforwardly. He replies that His double-talk is a mystery lest those He does not want in heaven are converted and their sins forgiven. He then interprets the Galilean galimatias for His perplexed disciples—the votaries who should best understand Him and least need clarification. Yet, earlier, He had left His congregation scratching their heads in perplexity: he might have preached with as much effect in a foreign tongue. He must have harbored an inexplicable detestation for those simple souls who came to Him thirsting for moral enlightenment, and for whom, by His own admission, He could have granted salvation with a few intelligible words. Rather, He hardened His heart against any semblance of human kindness (again proving His divinity?) and consigned them to suffer the eternal tortures of Hell. In His selfish elitism and unfathomable cruelty, The Paradigm of Perfection neglected to communicate unambiguously to everyone except His gang of twelve.

How should we assess the intellect and personality of someone who bothers to deliver a sermon he knows his listeners do not understand, not because they lack understanding, but because he is intentionally obscure and cruel? If perfection is, as argued, efficiently wedding means to ends, to what end did this act of supreme pitilessness aim? Perfect evil? For if His purpose was to commit a crime of the greatest possible enormity, what could be worse than to torment for eternity common folk who, by gathering before Him, demonstrated their unconditional trust in His saving power? A greater evil is unimaginable, but this was putatively the perfect action of God Incarnate."