I think ignorance should be punishable

We learn in Genesis that once in a while, that is before he chased away the tenants of the small garden, he would take a walk in the afternoon to see how his creation was doing. I was doing my stroll in blogland this afternoon and found a post which was well written and a comment that has informed our choice of title and this will be made clear in a short while.

The OP is an attempt at a response to an atheist who questions whether a person who let his enemy torture his child was worthy of any respect/ worship. This is in reference to Job about whom, if we are to believe the bible, became sport for god and the devil to test how long he would last in his belief if all he had were taken away from him.

Those who have read the book know Job is described as being faultless. If there is any question that we should get an answer for in this book, it is to know why Job, and by extension we, suffer. Anyone who, in defense of his god, argues we suffer because of our faults has surely not read the [sic]good book.

Why does the believer defer to faith and not knowledge? Why must the theist always defer to this tactic when the facts he is presented with are uncomfortable? Is it not more honest to say there is no answer than to ask us to have faith?

It is a long stretch of imagination to read in Job the hope for a future Christ, one born of a virgin. There is nothing in Job that can be read to mean he is making a prophecy of a future Messiah.

Now, the comment that informs the title to this post is written by a person who I believe thinks atheism is only in America. The world is a big place, atheists are found everywhere, and no, for the umpteenth time, they don’t hate god. On the contrary, they lack a belief in any god or gods.

There is no difference in believing in a god who thinks suffering is the best way to meet results and believing in a fiend whose modus operandi is pain.

I don’t know the expectations of Americans, however, any reasonable person who believed in an all powerful, benevolent and provident god wouldn’t be asking for too much if they asked they be well provided for. What would be the use then of believing that you a provident master and you suffer like one who has no such master? Isn’t this madness?

The best response to the statement that

I also believe that the majority of the modern American militant atheists are NOT actually atheists. They believe in Him, yet they hate Him. If you TRULY believed that there was no God, and there was no meaning to life, and when your body dies, you simply wink out of existence, then there would be no point in anything whatsoever.

is to say there are actually no theists. If one believed they were headed for heaven, they wouldn’t be holding on to life as hard as they do even in the face of terminal illness. If there were true theists, they would be praying more than they are actually doing and we would have them concerned more seriously in finding out which of the many religions is the correct one for insurance against finding oneself in the wrong place. And I think if they truly believed the words found in Mark, none of them would work, they would live like birds expecting their god to provide for them. Being non-believers, they pray halfheartedly knowing all they believe is a lie and do it only for show. They work their asses off because no god is going to bring food on their tables.

It is beyond irony for one who believes a being, with the help of a magic wand and a few words created all there is to turn around and make a mockery of the sciences he seem to have no idea about.

If the book of Job was to answer any question for us, that question should at least have been why we suffer or worse, why good men suffer. It doesn’t. God doesn’t. When presented with the opportunity to give that answer, he tells Job to STFU!

In my opinion, the book of Job doesn’t answer why we suffer.