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| Coppo di Marcovaldo, via Wikimedia Commons |
There are many intelligent, thoughtful, kind, and compassionate Christians out there. It is good to remember that. They are our friends and family, our neighbors, our co-workers, and so on. Our lives are richer in some ways for having the opportunity to know them. It is also helpful to remember that there are many hateful Christians out there among us, people who have been blinded to reality by years of indoctrination. So afflicted are some of these Christians that they see nothing wrong with emailing random atheist bloggers (like me) things like this:
I would love to be close enough to all you so called atheist two seconds after you drop off into the lake of fire right after the Great White Throne Judgement. When you start frying like sausage. You will believe in GOD then. I have talked with folks that say there is no GOD. But then I tell them; well what if I am wrong, I haven't lost anything by believing in JESUS CHRIST, trusting HIM as Savior, following the 10 commandments and living good. But what if you are wrong and there is a GOD, and you have rejected HIM, and you have missed your chance to repent and live for HIM? Please repent and be saved. You are doing what the antichrist wants you to do; Just think about it!As much as I enjoy the typos, grammatical errors, and unnecessary capitalization in this email, my favorite thing is that the author likely thinks (and I use the term loosely) that this sort of thing will be effective in changing our minds. After admitting the sadistic desire to see us tortured, this Christian trots out the thoroughly discredited Pascal's wager. Why do so many Christians fail to realize that this wager applies equally well to them and that belief does not work like this? Is this what they are learning from their pastors?
One also has to admire the juxtaposition of the plea for us to "repent and be saved" with the rest of it. I mean, why wouldn't we want to be "saved" by an entity that will torture us for disobedience. And why wouldn't we accept this generous offer from someone who would love to see us "frying like sausage?"
If there is one thing of which I will never tire, it is receiving email from Christians. If they keep it coming, I'll try to keep sharing the good ones.
