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What if I say this,
A God fearing man is less likely to rape a kid, but a non-believer in God, someone who has no concern of God's justice (an Atheist) is quite likely to abuse the name of religion by taking the camouflage under religious morality, and prey on kids.
By this reason and logic, I can very easily conclude and FIRMLY BELIEVE IN IT, that ALL pedophile pastors are actually Atheists at heart who are simply wearing a cloak of religion. These criminal Atheists have no believe in God or his justice.
You could say this, you could even believe it, but statistics would not support it. It is simply wrong, even if you want to believe it. But yes. You CAN believe it. You can believe fairies come out to paint dew on the grass at dawn if that's what you want to believe.
What if I say this,
A God fearing man is less likely to rape a kid, but a non-believer in God, someone who has no concern of God's justice (an Atheist) is quite likely to abuse the name of religion by taking the camouflage under religious morality, and prey on kids.
That is simply an assertion for which you are providing no evidence. What basis do you have to supposing that a "god-fearing" man (and how, objectively would we determine that? Coincidentally, I suspect, by simple conformity to your dogma of choice) would be "less likely" to perform child rape, whereas an unbeliever would be "quite likely"? Your basis, clearly, is the notion that but for the fear of god's displeasure, we would all be merrily raping children. Strange, then, isn't it, that despite my being quite unconvinced that there is a vengeful deity poised to strike me down or at least burn me in hell should I rape a child, I have never raped a child, nor ever even had the slightest inclination to, nor even wished that I might. That could be because I am paternal (in the positive sense) and my instinct is to protect and nurture children rather than exploit them. And that may be because it is my nature quite apart from an imagined set of divine rules and regulations.
Strange, too, that people who profess a relationship with their invisible personal deity of choice, sometimes go ahead and rape children anyway.
The logical conclusion is that abnormal sexual attraction to children has to do with things other than religious beliefs or disbeliefs. Occam's Razor once again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
By this reason and logic, I can very easily conclude and FIRMLY BELIEVE IN IT, that ALL pedophile pastors are actually Atheists at heart who are simply wearing a cloak of religion. These criminal Atheists have no believe in God or his justice.
Of course you can deploy faulty reason and logic to firmly believe anything that you wish.
Not that I am suggesting that some percentage of these religious leaders aren't complete frauds. But I am put in mind of a lesser situation of sexual misconduct (by the lights of Christianity) that I saw first-hand when I was pursuing my higher education from Christian sources. An earnest young man who I knew well, call him Rick, was probably the most devout believer among us. His entire existence from sunrise to sunset was all about memorizing scripture, discussing doctrine, studying for theology classes, scraping together money for Bible commentaries to add to his library, spearheading campus Bible studies, etc.
Then he began to date a young lady from the same school and his focus shifted to her. Some three months later, she dropped out because she had become pregnant. It came out that Rick was the father.
Is there any basis to imagine that Rick was a "criminal Atheist with no belief in god or his justice"? Or would that require a more egregious sexual sin such as pedophilia or bestiality or something?
Ironically Rick had one iconoclastic (to us) doctrinal belief, in something called "hyper-dispensationalism" which he was known for. His sexual sin was credited to this aberrant belief about one particular doctrine of ours -- we believe there were seven dispensations, and he believed in dozens, with a resulting lack of enthusiasm for scripture authored by Paul. For this lack of orthodoxy, his ability to resist normal physical intimacy with this girl was eroded. The Holy Spirit didn't like his dispensational theology, therefore, obviously, abandoned him to his sexual peccadilloes.
So you see there are many ways to fancy that believers can be covert non-believers or covert apostates and to relate that to whatever over-the-top transgression they are accused of. But here again, applying Occam's Razor, poor Rich was simply a normal young man with normal hormones who fell for a normal young woman with normal hormones and could not resist "going all the way". This had nothing to do with his bona fides as a believer and everything with him being a young adult with ordinary sexual curiosity, amplified by a highly sexually repressive milieu in which he lived, and probably by ignorance of basic responsible sexual behavior such as protected sex.
But of course it's easier, if you're trying to maintain a narrative contrary to nature and reality that young people should abstain from sex or dress in gunny sacks to disguise their physical bodies or whatever, to turn a straightforward natural situation into some sort of supernatural explanation involving whatever object of fear and loathing your particular dogma of choice wants to assert in that situation.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vizio
Maybe it's about me, maybe it's about a peer of mine in the area.
Just a new series I'm going to start. I'll try to post a new one every day--at least when I'm on.
I just want to show that there are honest, good, hard-working pastors that toil day in and day out, many in small churches in areas like mine, that never get heard of. They are faithfully loving and serving God and their people.
I'm sure there are.
And let's celebrate those that actually do their job that they profess to do. Isn't it the expectation they actually do what they profess?
But let's NOT pretend that those who profess to be holier than thou and yet commit transgressions should not be publicly outed, shamed, slammed, convicted, pilloried, and castigated often and loudly. Those hypocrites, you know. Those who take advantage of their leadership roles. Those that harm, rather than help.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mordant
OK but I'm just pointing out that your first post is an assertion -- a story with no attribution. Is it something you personally witnessed at least?
Because if you're going to gain traction with this, it has to be distinguishable in some way from making stuff up.
Maybe you don't like cupper's choice of what he focuses on but he posts links at least. You and I both know that there are stories of good done by Christians ... and while the occasional personal experience testimony is fine, no one is going to credit it by and large without sources and attributions. Just sayin'. Do yourself a favor and post less often with more attributions.
This, the bolded.
Otherwise it is just rumor. I always cite and attribute my thread openings.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,928,903 times
Reputation: 4561
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
When a religious man does a morally good act, atheists come back and say, "You don't have to be religious to do a morally good act"
But when a wolf in the sheep's skin type of a pastor does an evil deed (for which, he WILL face consequences on the judgement day - regardless of whether he was brought under the weight of local laws or not), Atheists immediately point to religion, citing it as if it's the religion that forces him to rape.
Sarcastic enough, Atheists won't say, "You don't have to be a religious pastor to be a pedophile, a murder, a rapist, a thief etc.
Why don't the Atheists visit prisons and see how many serial killers, rapists, pedophiles, murders, theives, burglers and many many convicted criminals are church pastors who who were inspired by the bible to do all those evil acts?
Fact of the matter is, No Religion tells its followers to do bad and evil things.
It's each individual who brings whatever he has to the religion.
Yes, we best not talk about how to beat a slave, how a virgin better yell loud enough while raped or get stoned to death, or how women should just shut up in and listen to their husbands.
What if I say this,
A God fearing man is less likely to rape a kid, but a non-believer in God, someone who has no concern of God's justice (an Atheist) is quite likely to abuse the name of religion by taking the camouflage under religious morality, and prey on kids.
By this reason and logic, I can very easily conclude and FIRMLY BELIEVE IN IT, that ALL pedophile pastors are actually Atheists at heart who are simply wearing a cloak of religion. These criminal Atheists have no believe in God or his justice.
Ummm.... Seriously? Do you have statistics that show this? Don't forget that according to the bible (OT) it is the woman's (or young girls) fault for getting raped. Come to think of it, is there anywhere in the bible that specifically condemns rape of a kid (or any rape)? We know that Lot offered his two virgin daughters the crowd to be raped and that was not condemned by God or anyone else.
What if I say this, A God fearing man is less likely to rape a kid, but a non-believer in God, someone who has no concern of God's justice (an Atheist) is quite likely to abuse the name of religion by taking the camouflage under religious morality, and prey on kids.
By this reason and logic, I can very easily conclude and FIRMLY BELIEVE IN IT, that ALL pedophile pastors are actually Atheists at heart who are simply wearing a cloak of religion. These criminal Atheists have no believe in God or his justice.
LESS LIKELY? So a "god-fearing" man is still CAPABLE and willing to rape a child?
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But yes. You CAN believe it. You can believe fairies come out to paint dew on the grass at dawn if that's what you want to believe.
