Dissenters say that because the world as we know contradicts a loving, all-powerful God, that God cannot exist. After all, He would do something, right? Loving us means protecting us, right?

Let’s examine each argument fully for a minute.

If God was so loving, why would he allow babies to be killed and people to be hurt?

I was raped awhile back, and I felt disgusting. I felt horrible, wrong, invaded, and even invaluable. My friends urged me to file a report and get a rape kit done. I did. It did not make things any better, but I did it.

In college, I met a chick who’s sister had been killed when she was younger. She said her sister was an overall great person: moral Christian, pretty, had everything going for her. Some druggie shot her and took her away from her family. My friend still grieved her loss even 8 years later.

I do not have parents, but my friend does. And if anyone knows anything about being a parent, they know that they would do anything and everything in their power to protect their children. It is because of this fact that dissenters say that God cannot possibly be the loving God we claim him to be and still be able to allow his children to suffer. Yet what do parents do when their kids are wronged? Even though they would like to take away the pain, take away the wronged incident, or avenge the wrongdoer, they know that nothing they do or say will take away the pain. They cannot prevent wrongs at all times. But this does not make them any less loving of a parent, right? You would not say that my friends were not good friends in telling me to get a rape kit and file charges as this would be the ‘right thing’ to do. You would not say that my friend’s parents were not loving, good parents because their child was murdered either.

So why do the rules of man not apply to God if we are trying to box God into man’s thinking? I mean we are trying to compare the spiritual with the natural and somehow justify our complete lack of infinite knowledge [that God has]. So why are we holding God responsible for the wrongdoings of others to His children when we do not hold our own parents accountable [on most bad things]? Oh that’s right, because while the parents are not able to control another man’s actions, God is, right? Ok…let’s look at that.

Since God is Omnipotent, He should be able to stop bad things from happening.

1. Nowhere in the Bible does it say he can’t. Let me just first put that out there because what confuses me about this statement is that somehow someone is getting the idea from somewhere that God cannot stop bad things from happening. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that we will have troubles, we will have afflictions, and we will suffer. God does not say that life will be sunshine and daisies all the time so why should He make it so? [and of course if He did, you certainly would not be complaining about Him contradicting what He said because this is really all about making life easier for you isn't it?]

2.  I suppose you want Him to intervene while at the same time keeping your free will in tact? You know– that thing that allows you to do what you want, think what you want, say what you want, and be want you want… Oh…..that’s right….God can do the impossible! Well then let’s examine that for a second.

God is Omnipotent so He should be able to do the impossible including intervening on our free will without it intervening on our free will…

Sure. God can make the world a pretty pretty world with everyone happy. You will not know it, but you will not have the ability to do what you want because He is going to do that for you. Or perhaps He will give you the knowledge of what you could have. Now you are stuck complaining that God will not let you do what you want. What a mean God to control your every move. He should be able to do both. Really??? HOW?

I’m sick of seeing people tell me what God should be able to do without telling me how. Obviously you say He should be able to do it so you should know how, right? Oh that’s right… He’s all-powerful so he can do it [love how all your work is done merely by using that excuse rather than actually answering my questions--as I am doing for you--but oh well, guess ya'll are under even different rules than we are].

Ok guys. We are about to enter a cluster fuck. It will all make sense if you think about it clearly enough, but it is indeed a cluster fuck. Only created because we as finite humans just have to understand an infinite God [Whom by the way states in the Bible that no man can understand His ways]. I mean, God tells us everything we need to know, want to know, and should expect out of life, but we still insist on dissecting Him. I don’t know why, but I will still continue to try and help others understand as best as I can express in words [finite as I am].

Moving forward…

I assure you I will address the rest of this post in my next post, but for right now, I wanted to get this post posted because it has been in my drafts for months now. I have much more to write, but not the time right now.  If you would like me to address other issues in other posts, I certainly will, but as far as this post is concerned, do remember that it is not complete. I cannot say when my next post will be [as tomorrow is my only off day], but I will try and get it completed soon.

Tags: God, Atheists, Agnostics, allow, Omnipotent, pain, Bible, troubles, intervene, free will

I recently read an opinion article of a young man who thought it fitting to propose the title ‘You Can’t Protect Everything.’ My disdain for the article has nothing to do with its title however. Let’s take a look at an excerpt from that article:

Let me express the voice of those thinking students who understand what nondiscrimination really should be about.

If you look carefully at the list of things which the university does not discriminate against, they are all things that one is. They are not things that one does.

In other words, I did not choose to be born male. Nor did I choose to be born white. In fact, with ever more shrill cries for affirmative action, I might have chosen to be born neither.

The policy states that the University does not discriminate based on “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability or veteran status,” according the article.

Each of these affiliations relates to things that a person is. A person is black. A person is female. A person is old. A person is disabled. One doesn’t choose to be these things. One simply is.

Though religion isn’t something you are, freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment, so it’s there for that reason.

While this point shouldn’t have to be made, homosexuality is not something that someone is. It is something that someone does.

There is no such thing as a gay gene. It only demonstrates the agenda of humanist, liberal scholars that this hasn’t been made clear.

But, let’s say there was a gay gene. How would this gene be inherited? How would this gene last for more than one generation?

I was so taken aback by this ‘educated’ man’s ignorance that I simply had to post a reply to his column in the comments section. My comments on his opinion:

“Though religion isn’t something you are, freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment, so it’s there for that reason.”

Why is it justifiable to make exceptions to a point that you are attempting to make so as to merely support your side? You attempt to make a point that we do not choose to be a sex, race, or age, etc. and therefore should rightfully not discriminate against those, but not homosexuality. Yet, you realize that your point does not hold water when it comes to the aspect of religion so you are quick to make the First Amendment comment. What about ‘veteran status’? Don’t we have those who choose to go into the military, thus choosing this status?

“While this point shouldn’t have to be made, homosexuality is not something that someone is. It is something that someone does.”

Really? I didn’t know I ‘do homosexuality.’ I was under the impression that I ‘am’ a homosexual. So do you ‘do straight’ or are you just straight?

“There is no such thing as a gay gene. It only demonstrates the agenda of humanist, liberal scholars that this hasn’t been made clear.”

There is also no such thing as the religion gene or the veteran gene for that matter. But that’s not what is up for discussion is it? So why bring up a moot point?

And then to go on to compare homosexuality to body piercings! I love it! Let’s not stop there, though. Let’s not forget about clothes! The government should not protect us from being discriminated against because of what we wear! That’s our choice after all! But wait… does not a nun wear a habit and priest wear their vestments? So we can discriminate against them because they are wearing silly clothes…no wait, we can’t because they are religious people who only wear them because that is their religion so to discriminate against them would be to discriminate them based on their religion…wait…right?!

The thing with clothes and jewelry and any other accessory you choose to adorn for the day is that these are all accessories! These are not who you ‘are.’ But then you will say that you can choose not to be gay, right? But then you still have to admit that being gay or straight is just that: ‘being.’ You are comparing inanimate objects to a state of being. This is like comparing apples and parachutes.

All in all, you attempt to bring up several points as to why rights of homosexuals should not be protected, but when you apply the vacuum test, they fail. You cannot apply one logic to homosexuality, one to religion, and then yet another to veteran status.

Do a little more research before you post illogical barbel. After all, even an opinion should use some logic; because if it doesn’t, it’s really just a load of bull.

I would like to point out that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Sure, many think that being gay is a choice. So today I’m gonna choose to be gay. Tomorrow I think I’ll choose to be bi. Maybe next week I’ll dabble with ‘other’. I’ll choose to be straight only every other weekday though….

Obviously the author and I have different opinions on what our choices are, but it is not for lack of knowledge or research that I make the statements that I make. An educated opinion, while still an opinion, allows for educated debate.

Just as when I spoke on children growing up raised by gay parents, I think it is highly illogical that someone would choose to be chastised all their life. That even as a young child, that they would go against peer pressure and love someone of the same sex. So when someone says to me that being gay is a choice, I have to wonder why? Why would someone choose to be the outcast? Perhaps because I don’t choose to be an outcast, I will never understand it, but I still want to. I try to put myself in other people’s shoes; play devil’s advocate so to speak, but I still can’t understand the ‘why’.

I must say, I enjoyed one follow-up editorial that another student wrote. There were a couple of others who wrote in reply to the editorial as well:

Offensive Column Took Guts

Sexuality, Rights Are Who I Am

All in all we realize that no one will ever have the ‘right’ answers; that in a world where relativity and opinions allow us to be the ignorant race that we are, we cannot find the happy medium that is unity.

Tags: discriminate, homosexuality, ignorance, gay, rights, opinions, choice

Being single is easy; you do not have to make excuses for for your feelings, actions, and priorities. I would imagine people do not want to be single forever for fear of being alone, but how ‘alone’ can someone be if they have a plethora of friends? Sure, you do not have someone to go to bed with every night or hang out with in the mornings and late evenings (often), but you could always find someone to hang out with depending on the friends you choose.

Why is it that we cannot look after number one? I have been screwed in my life many times over caring about others and trying to put them first. I set my own needs, wants, and dreams aside so that they could be happy and have what they wanted and/or needed. To my own detriment. How is this logical?

It is hard to say what is right and what is wrong in a world where relativity is the answer to everything. All that you can do is make the decision that is right for you. Everything else is just… relative.

Tags: selfish, single, relativity

Tags: People, person

Then there is her.

A girl walks home from school in shoes with broken soles. She can feel every rock on the side of the street with each step. She has to carry her books in her hand because her family cannot afford bread let alone a bag pack for school. She arrives at the shed that they call a house and walks up the creaking steps. She opens the screen door that is supposed to separate their home from the outside world and walks into the murky room. It is hot outside but even hotter inside. Air conditioning is a luxury her family does not know. She lays her books down on the card table they call a dinner table and gets started on her housework. She looks in her fridge for something to eat but knows that nothing has changed since yesterday. There is nothing in there but some week old bread and half a gallon of milk that must be conserved until the next time they can get to the church pantry. She fixes some stew with all the odds and ends she can find. Her mom comes home and they eat. She makes sure she cleans the pot because it is the only one they have and they will surely need it tomorrow. She goes to the restroom, grabs a rag, and washes herself down; a bath or a shower is for special occasions only. She gets in her bed and pulls the sheet up and goes to sleep. She dreams only so she can drown out the noises of the street, and that she will live to see tomorrow.

Perception is a powerful tool that we do not use very often. I used to curse God for my life; I used to wonder when I am going to get my just due. After all, I put up with the abuse from my parents as a child and the lack of love, right? I sacrificed my well being for others. I am generally a good person! Should I not then get a break!?! And then I was coming home from work talking to God. We were going back and forth as usual when I finally conceded to God that I should be appreciative of what I do have. I know others here in America alone that have it worse off than I do without even having to think about third world countries. And then it really hit me. All this time I had been comparing myself to third world countries; I had been accepting that I do have more than they do and therefore should be thankful, but it was never ‘real’ in my head. But when I thought about the people I know personally, it became more personal. Who am I that I think I am entitled to anything? Why should I be entitled to a break? Who am I that I am more important than the next? I am an amazing person, a good person, and a child of God, but I am not better than the next man, woman, or child. It was a huge reality check; I apologized to God and told him as much. I am not entitled. But if He feels inclined to answer my prayers the way I would like, I would be thankful.

Tags: Perception, God, entitled

But the child would still be able to see his or her father, you say? Why then cannot the same argument be applied to a gay or lesbian family? Because you do not want it to? Because the family is gay or lesbian? What does that have to with anything? Once a family is split up, does that automatically make them bad homes?

The children will learn to be gay you say? What about the children that are allowed to stay in homes where the father abuses the mother or the child? Will they then learn to be abusers? What about the homes where the mother or the father is of a certain profession? A baseball player or a housewife? Will they learn to become a baseball player or a housewife? What about the ones where the mother or the father is of a certain religion? Will the child then be that religion? If we as adults know anything about growing up, we know that first, it is not learned that we follow in our parent’s footsteps, but also that we have control over our lives.

It is a well known fact that we do not always become our parents. If anything, we rebel against our family unit. We rebel against their ordeals, beliefs, and wants. Why would we expect any different from a child growing up in a gay family?  Would not the horrors of the bashing that their parents are surely to meet be enough to detract them away from that way of life (if, as you contend, homosexuality is a learned act)?

Who wants to be abused and judged? Who would voluntarily step into the depths of despair?  Who would voluntarily take on that judgment? That wrath? The world is not accepting of gays and lesbians so why would a child learn to be gay when they see the discrimination? Would not that teach them to not be gay?  Being gay means to be hated, despised, ridiculed, beaten, and made fun of. Why would that mean that the child would then allow for it? Would not the child learn that this is in fact not the way to go? It would seem that the way to keep a child from going gay would be to have them placed in a gay family. After all, if they see the abuse and homosexuality is supposedly a choice of the person, would not they then choose to be straight? Because…after all…homosexuality is learned, right?

The very arguments that a straight person makes are the ones that they should and could apply to their own community. I have a cousin who is in fact gay. She is the eldest of 4 kids. She is the only one that is gay. But if we are supposed to learn our sexuality from our upbringing, how is it that she is gay and her siblings are not? The argument one straight person makes to support their own foolishness is ridiculous. The fact that one is held high above the other should not be allowed. It is called hypocrisy and is all that the people know. We should stop teaching our children to become hypocrites.

Tags: Christian activists, judged, homosexuality, hypocrites

You cannot sit there and tell me it is because of their personality or how they look. They are a man, and you are a woman; you should be attracted to each other and be with each other because this is the way of God. Never mind that you do not have any feelings for this man or this woman; God says you must be attracted to the opposite sex so you must deny your true feelings and be with that man or woman.

How logical does that sound? How logical is it to say that God wants us to only be with men or women no matter if we are attracted to them or not? We should deny our feelings just to be with the opposite sex? Because this is how God wants it?

The Bible warrants that your body is a temple that should be kept pure. But because God knows that the flesh is weak, He made an exception to say that we could have sex in the unity of marriage. To be totally devoted to God would be to abstain from sex, but God does not penalize us for doing it when married. Just because He does not penalize us, does not mean that He supports the idea. God would still rather we are abstinent. How would we populate then? Exactly. Does reading the Bible translated from the Greek and Hebrew origins really make sense often?

Foundations of many belief systems are borne on the simplest of ideas. A small verse in a book of hundreds of chapters can make or break a system! It is the innate ability of the human race to take the smallest of things and blow them out of proportion. It is the legalistic approach to religion that condemns everyone. The Bible says there is no God and as such we should not believe in God…it does say it you know. ‘The fool sayeth in his heart “There is no God”‘. But because the Bible says it, I should accept it, and condemn others by its words. Never mind the context, the times, or who it is spoken to or about because it is in the Bible, and that Book is God-breathed.

By Christian logic, there should be no reason for a woman or man to be single. We should all be attracted to each other and thus be with each other. There is no excuse because God said it. Never mind that God also said that we should gouge our eye out if it offends us for example, by looking at a woman with lust. After all, that is just an allegory. We are allowed to pick and choose what things God meant literally and what things He did not mean literally. Why? Because we are Christians and what we say goes.

Tags: attracted, opposite sex

Why censor? To protect our kids? And what do they get exposed to? Whatever we let them, right? And then what? Protect our own eyes? Who forces us to look? Censorship seems senseless especially with the free flow of information and sources found on the internet. If anything, your children will see it here before they see it anywhere else.

Censorship? Seems to be another reason for the big men to beat their chests.

Tags: censorship, offend

Heartbreak is a killer. It hurts so much that some would swear it could cause a heart attack; some swear it can kill. After all, when you lose that one that you fell in love with, you lose a part of your heart; your heart is a vital part of your body. How do you voluntarily put yourself in a position to become vulnerable?

But…what is wrong with vulnerable?

It hurts. But so does childbirth…and yet we have children. So do many things that we do not have to have, but still we go through with them knowing the pains they will cause– both physical and emotional.

But emotional pains are worse.

It has been said that you cannot remember the pain of being beaten, but you can remember the pain of the words that are thrown at you. Such is the pain of losing a loved one. How do you tell your heart to obey your mind? It is so hard to follow it in every day routines so why would it start to obey you in matters that are supposed to be its specialty? Love is the heart’s main event!

What is it that we fear about a broken heart? That we cannot pick up the pieces? That no one else will be able to supply that one piece that our lost love took with them? Or is it that we will actually have to start making our own selves feel as magnificent as we truly are? Do we put our self-worth in another’s eyes?

Why not take those days, months, or even years of happiness? Risk it all. Take the gamble. We only get one life. Why are we so scared of heartache? We only get one chance to do whatever it is we want to do. Why not live it to the fullest? Why not do it all? We cannot take anything with us more than our memories. Why not make our life memorable?

I am befuddled by a woman’s opinion of herself. Do they not know how beautiful they are? These are strong, smart, sexy women; there is no reason for them to not to overcome a heartache. They are entitled to happiness, entitled to love, and entitled to everything the world has to offer. What is it about a woman’s brain that they do not know their own value? Something encoded on their DNA? I try to tell them, but they brush it off as flattery. I try to make them see how valuable they are, but they think that is what friends are supposed to do. How great it will be when a woman will realize how beautiful she is just because of what her heart shows her to be. When I look at anyone, I look at them from the inside first. It is cliché, and unheard of in the modern world now, but it is true. Try it out; you will find that there are many more beautiful people in this world than you know.

Tags: fall in love, Heartbreak, heartache

Fast-forward and your child tells you that they are gay. They have thought long and hard about who they are and are happier being with someone of the same sex rather than the opposite sex. It is hard news to hear because you know the sorrows they will encounter because of this. You begin to wonder what you did wrong, how this could have happened, and if it is just a phase. But you know it is not. You know your child. You know who they are just as much as they do. So you love them.

Now picture this: a jogger in the park notices  something in the bushes and finds a human hand. It is connected to a body that is so beaten and tattered that it makes it hard to identify the race let alone the identity. You get a call at 5 AM from the local police asking to identify a body that may be your child’s. You arrive to a scene that is beyond imagination. They do not show this type of horror in the movies. It is the birthmark on the left ankle that assures you…this is your child.

This is your miracle baby. This is the child that you stayed up with when they were sick, cheered at every game they had, listened to when they wanted to lay their burdens down, and cried at their graduation. This is the baby that you gave to the world in hopes they would take as good care of them as you had. This is your child. This is the same child who looked into your eyes with fear as they told you they were gay. This is your baby. This is the same child who wept over the baby bird who died in your driveway, who helped the neighbor with her trash because she was too feeble to bring it to the curb, and who got beaten up in middle school for defending the new kid with a lisp. This disheveled body…this…is…your…child.

The imagery is vague and fictional, but for the woman whose Navy son was beaten so badly that the only form of identification she could use to identify his body with was a tattoo, it was a cruel reality.

Every person here is someone else’s son and daughter. Why is it okay to put another mother or father through the heartache of outliving their children when you would not want such an evil on yourself? If your children are attacked, abused, or hurting, would you not want to help them? Would you not want to do everything in your power to make the person hurting them stop or hurt themselves? Why then would you do that to someone else’s child?

It is the paradox of evil that is created. One fights another to avenge their brother, but then that other’s brother must avenge his brother. And so the cycle begins and never ends.

Tags: gay, abused, paradox of evil