Reading some of the forum posts lately really got me fired up, as well as disgusted.
I find that the believers I dislike the most, is those who are so disconnected from reality that they think they are doing good, but like bulldozers they plow through life without any reality based empathy.
Telling others that they will pray for them, so steeped in arrogance and ignorance that they don't think for a second that others may not share their beliefs, that they might not appreciate such comments, that they might even get insulted. Offering their misguided faith based help to people who might have other religions or no religion at all. Giving homosexuals tips on how to get rid of their "condition". Telling young people that god commands abstinence, which in turn leads to more teen pregnancies and abortions. And so on...
What disgusts me about this, is when they truly have good intentions but at the same time are dishearteningly delusional and misguided. While smiling and reassuring, they can put people through hell, with a completely clear conscience and convinced that they are doing good. I would rather have to deal with intentionally malicious people.
Good intentions are great. But in combination with blind ignorance and/or arrogance, it can be pure evil. Ignorant evil.
Like "Mother Teresa"... withholding painkillers because she thought suffering would bring he patients closer to Christ. "The sick must suffer like Christ on the cross". Deliberately keeping her institutions in horrible conditions, with only stretcher beds and virtually no medical care, while she was making enough money to open several real clinics. (She didn't actually have malicious intent, did she?).
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I sometimes wonder what is the right thing to say when someone says:
"I will pray for you."
I start to wonder, how I should feel, because it depends on how one formulates a prayer.
However I usually think about it this way:
The poor mentally insane person is going to talk about me with his/her imaginary friend.
I think that there is no harm in that, and maybe there is a chance that the person actually remembers something from the debate. Better to talk about me then some nut job from his/her church. it might even contribute to make a crack in the dam. :)
The problem, is as you say, that they think they are doing you a favor or something.
Arrogance never cease among theists.
The truth is that they are doing it for themselves, because they feel that that is the best way to help people with minimal effort.
Thus it makes them feel good, even if it makes no effect for the person who is being prayed for.
One has to understand that after being brainwashed from birth in thinking that being arrogant and a hypocrite is a good thing, it becomes natural for these people to display it even with themselves.
The funny part is that they do not realize it which is typical for insane people not to know that they are insane.
"The poor mentally insane person is going to talk about me with his/her imaginary friend." - LoL
Sometimes I wonder if they really pray for you when they claim they will. I think it is most likely just a passive aggressive remark they use to get a final dig in.
If they remember and are not lairs they usually do, because they don't wanna add an other sin to tell to the priest.
Confession is the old Internet, no wonder, it was so popular in ancient times.
People before used to bombard the priest with their daily sins, now keep it to the minimum and use Facebook :)
Hitchens had a good reply:
Thiest:
"I will pray for you."
Hitchens:
"I will think for you too :)"
Great Hitchen's reply
I empathize with Seth Andrews of The Thinking Atheist. He was one of the three speakers in The Unholy Trinity tour of Australia which included Matt Dillahunty and Aron Ra. Andrews said he finally had to block his dad on his phone because his dad refused to quit sending proselytizing messages. He had tried to talk to his dad and persuade him to set the religious attacks aside and concentrate on their father son relationship, but his dad just would not let it rest.
Tragic.
Talk about having screwed up priorities...
A good example of a do-gooder, who doesn't have a clue:
https://twitter.com/vmw22nov
Oh geez.....after looking at that link I had to exit quickly to avoid severe face palmiing LOL I can't stand being around that stuff, especially if it is targeted at me. (Like get-togethers after family funerals)
Since Seth has become a significant figure in the atheist movement//community in a short amount of time, his father is probably receiving pressure to pressure Seth. Dillahunty's parents seem like they have done a better job compromising, too bad Seth's dad can't use that as an example.
It's a questionable form of "good will" when it is imposed upon a person or a group. The missionaries deal in that kind of good will. They target a group and then sell themselves as a god's ambassador of good. The whole of it can be confusing to a formerly isolated group (primitive Amazon tribes) and many times perceived by them as threatening to their way of life, which is exactly it's real intent.
The god-people simply do not see themselves as a threat to the world's pristine cultures. If a tribe is discovered and left alone to preserve it's culture, the social scientists involved will write about them in their journals. The missionaries then take from the documents what they need to invade those tribes with the intent of spreading their belief systems. The crime in this is no one will stop them. If this isn't a form of genocide, I don't what it is.
Here is a good example.
"Arkansas Republican who adopted two girls before ‘re-homing’ (ie abandoning) them with one of his friends just six months later"
"Harris, who was supposed to be giving these girls a stable home after their traumatic start to life, abandoned them to a child rapist."
"Harris dumped his two girls on Eric Cameron Francis, who had been a teacher at Harris’s Christian nursery, Growing God’s Kingdom Preschool. Francis then raped the older of the two girls."
Note: The girl was just 6 years old.
"Apparently the Harrises were surprised when their daughters—who had a history of neglect, violent abuse, and sexual molestation—turned out to have some behavioural difficulties. Multiple witnesses say that Justin Harris said the girls were demon possessed."
"Harris and his wife once hired specialists to perform an “exorcism” on the two sisters"
This is a good read for anyone who likes to judge and bash on anti-theists:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/leavingfundamentalism/2015/03/11/republican...
So, due to the Harrises being ignorant but "good Christians", firmly believing in demons, they committed horrible atrocities.
Ironic, isn't it? One would think that belief in imaginary monsters (demons) would be one of those things that prevents one from being able to adopt.
That would depend on those preforming the screening. If they also believe in demons...
Anyway, once the children are adopted, in Arkansas you can 're-home' them without any screening of the new parents. Great thinking, huh?
Thanks for sharing Pragy.
Dammit, Injustice is to let people like the Harrises not closed in some mental hospital or in prison for negligence and disrespect for human life.
Seriously I think killing people is bad, but if i had to choose between killing the Harrises to avoid the rape of those girls I would do it without thinking twice.
Those people are not fuken human anymore.
That is what theism brings with it, it makes innocent children daemons dressed like idiots that think they are good people.
Wow….that is sickening! Religion belongs in the toilet.