So sez my cab driver last night...

"How can you teach something you don't believe in?"

Questions

Wisdumb of Solomon

I really like the passage in the previous post. The first paragraph describes me well. Halfway through the second one, however, I do have an objection. I have no nefarious designs on the poor, the widows, or the aged. However, the story picks up again in the third paragraph. After having been unjustly accused of evil, yes, I do want lie in wait for the self-righteous bastard to mete out some well-deserved comeuppance. Fucking asshole!

The "Wisdom" of Solomon

According to the Wisdom of Solomon, this is life as the ungodly see it (Wis 2):

For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
‘Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
²For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;
³when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
⁴Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
⁵For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.

⁶‘Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,
and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
⁷Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
and let no flower of spring pass us by.
⁸Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
⁹Let none of us fail to share in our revelry;
everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,
because this is our portion, and this our lot.
¹⁰Let us oppress the righteous poor man;
let us not spare the widow
or regard the grey hairs of the aged.
¹¹But let our might be our law of right,
for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

¹²‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
¹³He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
¹⁴He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
¹⁵the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
¹⁶We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
¹⁷Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
¹⁸for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
¹⁹Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
²⁰Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’

...What's the big deal?

Standing in the Road is Foolish

Testing, 1, 2, 3

One of the more interesting claims made by Jesus is, "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test." My first reaction to reading this statement is "You are not my Lord, not my God!" But a more interesting response is, "Why?"

Pierre Elliott Trudeau once wrote, "If my father, my priest, or my king wants to exert authority over me, if he wants to give me orders, he has to be able to explain, in a way that satisfies my reason, on what grounds he must command and I must obey." Well said, P.E.T., but let us add God to this list. If you want to "the Lord, my God," then you will submit to my test. As Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." The claim to be God, and the claim that the status of God gives you the right to expect my obedience are both extraordinary claims. Therefore beings like you, were you to exist, must pass my test, my extraordinary test.

Why God would want to avoid any test (not unlike some of my students) is obvious. My students feel they are too stupid or are too lazy to study sufficiently to pass my test. Similarly, God may be insufficiently omnipotent, omniscient, and/or omnibenevolent to pass even my simple tests. Well, that may not be fair analogy. I'm pretty sure my students exist. Perhaps God is merely insufficiently existent.

We are Legion

Well, maybe not that many, but we are not alone. For a collection of pithy / witty statements by various unbelievers, see:
http://www.thefoolhathsaid.com/