I was deep in thought today at work, and remembered how I was told that I 'was formed in my mother's womb by God himself.' Here is Psalm 139:13-16 from the New Living Translation:
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
If this is the case, let me throw a hypothetical (but not so hypothetical) at you. Let's say two gay atheist men get married. One worked on Wall St. and the other a very successful business man, therefore they are financially sound. They want children of their own and come up with a genius idea: to take one of their sperm samples, and an egg from the sister of the other, artificially inseminate, and the sister act as a surrogate mother. The money is there to cover all expenses, and the sister is more than supportive and decides to show her support by agreeing to carry the child to term.
1. Would this baby in the womb, being created by two people who 1) don't believe in God, and 2) are a practicing gay couple (the downfall of America according to Pat Robertson), still be totally built by God AND be included in God's ultimate plan?
2. Will the child still be a part of God's plan even though the child (male and female twins in this case) will most likely grow up to be atheist? According to the above excerpt from one great piece of fictional literature, yes.
3. So would it be fair to argue that atheism is a part of God's plan?
This 'hypothetical' is actually not hypothetical at all. A man I used to work for years ago was married to the man of his dreams and they went through with this. My boss's sister carried twins to term and bore them. What a fantastic story.
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To play God's advocate here (or at least the parts I remember from my Jesuit High School): Atheism is absolutely part of God's plan. Just like sin or the devil; these are all things that challenge faith. God wants people to choose to love him. Sure, he could create us all with the absolute knowledge that he exists or show us irrefutable proof, but that would negate the need for choice in the matter.
*The views expressed herein are what were taught in a theology class I took years ago and do not represent views of mine at any point in my life.
My thoughts are such:
1. Christians fight scientific progress all the time. They fight cloning, stem cell research, and just about anything they feel "conflicts" with their religious world view.
2. Christians use technology created by science to fight scientific progress (cell phones, computers, internet, etc).
3. Therefore, Christians are hypocrites.
If Christians are going to fight scientific progress, they need to stop using the technology provided by science. If they're going to spout bullshit, archaic, bronze-age beliefs, they need to go the extra mile and stop driving their vehicles, using their cell phones, computers, and technology in general. They need to go back to using stone tools and living in caves. Then they can fight scientific research all they want. It'll be great, because no one will take them seriously, which will allow scientists to continue developing new technologies to drive human progress forward.
I find it frightening that over 55% of doctors surveyed said that their religious beliefs influence their practice. In fact, I find it rather curious that people who have received a college education with a strong emphasis in the sciences still somehow manage to retain their belief.
I'm not against people believing in a god or gods, however, I do believe that religion and science are mutually exclusive and incompatible. Notice I say religion, not spirituality. By religion, I'm referring to dogmatic beliefs, as in the kind that cause people to refuse medical treatment for their children because it's up to god whether the child lives or dies. People like that piss me off, because in most cases, the children could have lived had they sought proper medical treatment. The kind of dogmatic beliefs that cause needless death and suffering are what I'm referring to here.
Yes unfortunately, 99.99% of Religion as practiced, is harmful. And it simply infuriates Atheist and Agnostics and rightfully so.
I distance myself from these folks as well.
One of Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson's pet peeves
http://anamericanatheist.org/interviews/interview-with-neil-degrass...
@Michael - Some replies warrant a rational and intelligent response but stating
"You become a high priest in the temple of your body continually interceding for your transgressions even as the Lord Jesus continues to intercede for us in God's Heavenly Sanctuary" is rubbish. I use the word "rubbish" as I am trying not to annoy the mods. You need to "snap out of it".
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