Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

Sometimes you find brilliance in the strangest of places. Some of the best commentary on God I've seen has been from Animated Television.

Lois from Family Guy: "Making fun of Organized Religion is one thing, but we believe in God in this house."

I thought that was something of a bold statement for a show who's base is largely anti-god, and who routinely bashes religion which I'm sure would be often conflated with mean God.

The other (and the best) was from Futurama. I tuned in late so I'm not hip to the details, but Bender somehow ends up floating out in space and ends up stopping at God. God was depicted as what we might typically consider a "galaxy" or at least the image of one. When it spoke different star-like things would enlarge but it was devoid of gender or human features. Its overall point in the show was that doing the right thing means no one notices you've done anything at all. Say what you will, but I loved this representation, and heres my overall position.

With the joke above (which I did laugh at), I think it represents the sentiment many anti-religious folks feel. "If there was a God, why Cancer?"

The assumption here is that if there were a God, and he did love us, why would there be cancer. Well I'm not a Christian, so I don't go with the belief that God necessarily loves us, or that God would have emotions at all, but even if you're Christian, Cancer is just one struggle in a pile of millions. It just seems worse because it can happen to young people and we have walks for it, and idiot celebrities have charities decrying it, but Cancer is inherently no better or worse than a handicap or poverty.

To quote an old folk ballad "Never knew there were worse things than dying."

Niels Bohr once said that "if you can't see God in Science then your definition of God is too small." Its in these fringe comments, to which we can find the large image of things that I came to understand my own position on faith. If you think of Christianity when you think of God, thats your problem, but with all I know, I can't reasonably say that we become dirt when we're dead.

Whether is ****enson's idea that church is found easier in the woods, surrounded by nature, or Churchills ""The destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals. Theres something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, that, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

I'm not alone in the hatred of organized religion. Inherently, centralized power in an authority that turns lucrative will always be corrupted. But this is most gross because theres something honorable there to be corrupted. I think Christianity if a fraud. I think reading a book to find religion is the essence of anti-religion.

Are prayers answered? Who's to say? I'm sorry if you thought God was a Genie who created you to feed you grapes. Such is not life. To the religions, I'm sure this position is too coarse and unforgivably barren, to the atheists I'm sure I sound brainwashed. Either way, we need to come to grips with a reality that if there were a god up there, he wouldn't be a cartoon, and he wouldn't be our butler.

I don't believe in Hell, or that our actions mean a damn thing on the other side. We can't know anything about it until we get there. Like Northern Vermont. You kinda have to go before you can talk about it.

Originally Posted by RADICALLADYBUG

When you put all your faith and god and submit to him daily he is a god who answers paryers. He might not answer them right at that moment but he is always on time.