This is making the rounds in social media circles connected to this ass-hat's manipulative bullshit. I think he just makes this crap up...
religion
Any posts about religion are my views alone and do not represent any attempt to de-convert anyone.
Flames
No Parties in Hell
Another one of these memes I ran into on Twitter: "There are no parties in hell. There's no cool rock music, no hanging out with friends. You will be burning. Forever. Repent and give your life to Jesus Christ!"
This is clearly aimed at Christians who more fundamentalist Christians see as living a life of sin. It's certainly not going to convince any unbelievers. In fact, most of us will just read this, shake our heads, and say, "Yes, but Jesus, as God, is the one sending us to this place. What kind of an abusive relationship is this?!"
Coexist
Another gem from social media: fundamentalist Christians like to point out the perceived tendency in Islam to force conversions. In their defense, this was the way Islam initially spread, and there is a fair amount of coercion in Islamic countries to remain Islamic (the death penalty for apostasy will do that to you), and there are certainly fundamentalist Muslims who still wish to spread Islam by force. But fundamentalist Christians, despite all their protestations to the contrary, are not all that different.
"Daily reminder that Christ is King and all false creeds will be destroyed."
Using Tragedy
Of course, this asshole has been prophecying Jesus's imminent return -- complete with dates -- for about five years now. He sets a date, the date passes, and he sets another date. Over and over and over and over.
On the Corner
I could hear him long before I could see him. K and I were walking up Main Street last night, returning to our car after a night out, and I could hear an amplified male voice in the distance.
"Most likely a street preacher," I thought, although sometimes the Black Hebrew Israelites make an appearance on the downtown sidewalks. As we approached, though, it was clear it was an evangelical street preacher.
"You need Jesus! If you don't know the name of Jesus, you need to invite him into your life..."
It always astounds me how these guys say nonsense like that: we live in America, in the damn Bible Belt. There is no one in this area who has never heard of Jesus. It is utterly impossible, regardless of your religious views, not to have heard of Jesus while living in South Carolina.
"There is no one walking on Main Street," I said to K, "who might be thinking, 'Now this Jesus fellow -- never heard of him. Who is he?'"
As we neared, we had to stop at the corner to wait for the light. Our street preacher started going on about the perils of living a self-centered life, completely oblivious to the irony.
"Here these people are, taking advantage of the lovely weather to enjoy their favorite restaurant's outdoor seating option, and they have to listen to this jackass as he gets his saving-the-world fix," I said to no one in particular and everyone in earshot. One guy laughed a little, most everyone else ignored my stupid comment.
I wanted to say that to the preacher himself, and came close to doing just that, but in the end, I decided not to add to the guy's persecution complex.
Changed His Mind
Science Did That
People throughout the centuries have begged their gods for healing. We see the religious praying for healing. We see the faith healers preying upon their vulnerabilities. We hear of miracles like reversed blindness and re-growing toes.
We hear about this, but we don't see the evidence. The toe woman won't show any images of her toes. While it was supposedly happening, apparently no one videoed it or photographed it. People have written about it, and there's even a website called showmethetoes.com.
Crickets. Not a word.
And then science comes along and simply does what no god has ever done. It gives voice to someone who can't speak.
It makes the paralyzed able to walk.
Why is science superior to prayer? Because it works. Pure and simple.
Not Sure
Saw this on Twitter the other day:
I'm not even sure what this means. "The earth was created some 5000 years ago," this person suggests, but at "some point God fast-forwarded time to the end of the world and then reversed earth's time billions of years to the beginning of the universe." How does that work? God moved us to the end of the world -- does that mean after Jesus returned and set up shop a second time and punished all the pro-science/anti-god baddies? And then reversed time?! And then the purpose of all this is so "God's enemies [can] choose 'science' over Him"? This god is doing some kind of time-travel trickery to fool people so they'll end up in hell?! What?!
When you believe in a literal story about a talking snake convincing a woman to eat something to initiate some kind of fruit-based curse that dooms humanity for all eternity until -- well, when you just start with that as your basis for knowledge, you end up vulnerable to believing all kinds of craziness. And it doesn't even have to make sense...
No Rest in Hell
I recently dipped into a social media feed titled "HELL IS REAL" to see what kind of discussion goes on there. Not much discussion -- mainly just a bunch of disturbing memes.
Meme 1: No Rest in Hell
The question that comes immediately to mind: why would an all-loving and omniscient god create a bunch of creatures he knew would end up in eternal torment that he himself created? It just makes no sense.
Meme 2: Hell is not a joke
Two things struck me about this: first, the imagery is so disturbing. Second, "affirm yes"? Did the creator of this meme think that at some point we would be standing in front of God, and he'd patiently point out that we didn't affirm "Yes" (redundant much?) in our social media feed so it's off to eternal torment for us...
Meme 3: Hear Hell
This one is so oddly specific. If we could hear the people screaming in hell, we might not fornicate. We might lie; we might do drugs; we might murder (see meme below), but we sure as hell wouldn't fornicate.
Meme 4: Choices
Why is the devil eating this guy? And do hoodies lead you to hell?
Meme 5: Roads
If only this god who so wants to spend eternity with us had done a better job getting us to that point...
It's disturbing that in 2023 people still have such simplistic, brutal, and illogical views. They pass this poison on to children and scar them for life. I just can't understand how they can posit a) a loving god and b) an eternity of torment. It just makes no sense to me.