God Hates Us All (Part 4)

      As they strolled into the massive building, Devon couldn’t help but feel like he was walking into an ancient palace. As he and Helen walked up the massive staircase, there was one massive pillar after another, holding up the tall ceiling which made the entrance of the museum itself look like a magnificent work of modern art. If he was in awe just the building, he most certainly wasn’t prepared for what was waiting for him inside. Thousands of pieces of history, art and documents that have been kept archived for hundreds and possibly thousands of years were on display for people to look at and examine with their own eyes. Devon and Helen spent the a good chunk of the first part of their day strolling through the museum looking at priceless works of impressionism, plates of armor from the middle-ages, parchments from ancient china, gold from the Inca tribes and other really cool stuff. It was a intellectual overdose, looking at all this historical and articulate stuff, and around eleven o’clock which was a close to ninety minutes after they had entered the building… they strolled out feeling like their brains couldn’t handle any more information for the day. They were full and were ready to just walk around, and relax after all that mental stimulation.

 

     A block or two from the museum, they strolled into a park and began to enjoy the nice weather and calm demeanor since everyone was still at work. As they were strolling down the sideway, Helen was the first to speak, "I have a question; while we were looking at all that stuff at the museum, did feel any inspiration?

 

     "You mean like divine inspiration?" Devon said, seeming to understand where this question was going.

 

     "Something like that." She confirmed.

 

     "Well, I was amazed by what I saw but I was not inspired. I’m not going to go home tonight and break out the finger paints just because I saw Jackson Pollack or Claude Monet." Devon broke off the path and jumped over to a park bench and took a seat, "Why does someone have to be inspired? Can’t we just enjoy something and leave it at that? Do people to into the movies and feel inspired to make their own? No, they just enjoy the film, either love it or hate it and then go home and go to bed."

 

     "So you took nothing from that building we just visited?" she said, feeling rather hurt from the idea.

 

     "I didn’t say that, but the building didn’t convert me into anything. I didn’t walk out a changed man. I gained an appreciation for some people’s work, but I didn’t’ walk out wanting to invade their line of work. And if by some chance that I did, what makes you think that it should be labeled divine inspiration?

 

     "I don’t grasp what you’re getting at." Helen replied.

 

     "I mean if something in there did move me to change or do something shouldn’t the artist or the historical figures take the credit, not some divine figure that was never there? For example, if I go on to become a great impressionist painter, then that inspired day should be known as a ‘Monet’ moment, not a divine one."

 

     "So the point you’re trying to make is?" Helen asked, and he could tell by her tone that she was curious to see where he was trying to go with this.

 

     "Well I just find it curious that God is always around to take the credit, but is never around to take the blame when things to don’t go as planned. Whenever someone wins an Oscar or the Superbowl, they’re always the first to say praise Jesus or I’d like to thank God for giving me the ability to kick a*s, but you never see the loser blame God for not letting them win, why is that?" Devon seemed to be on a roll and continued with his speil, "And when things do go horribly wrong, not only do people not blame God they let him off the hook completely by saying that it’s his will. It’s like the planet earth is suffering from battered wife syndrome."

 

     "What kind of things do you think he should take the blame for?" Helen asked. He could tell she was bothered by idea, but she wanted examples before firing back.

 

     Devon paused for a moment to collect himself "Maybe blame is too harsh a word, but neglect would be a better one to work with. The sins of the Bible are paltry to the atrocities that are being committed in our lifetime and even in the generations before our own that have been allowed to go on without any reprisal."

 

     "What do you mean by reprisals?"

 

     "I mean wrath of God reprisals: fires, floods destroying the earth or turning everyone into salt kind of wrath to punish the sinners who badly need it. We have wars being waged for oil, famine, state sanctioned torture, ethnic cleansing and then we have the horrid genocide and atrocities going on in Africa. There are girls as young as six years old in some parts of Africa who are being gang raped because they are considered lesser people in the eyes of their attackers. They are brutalized so much that they need surgery to recover from the attacks. These kinds of attacks go on daily because it’s being used as a weapon to attack the moral of the enemy and break them down on a mental level, and even an atrocity that sick isn’t being answered by God. No fires, no floods to destroy the earth or turning people into salt. He doesn’t even appear to anyone in a burning bush."

 

     "Well, do you expect everyone to take every part of the bible that literally." Helen asked with some hint of modesty.

 

     Devon seemed to notice the chink in her armor and jumped right in, "Are you telling me that you don’t believe in the story of Moses and the plight if the Egyptian slaves or the numerous plagues to free them from the bonds of the Ferial and deliver them the Israel and freedom via the huge parting of the red seas?"

 

     "Well, of course I believe in that but not everyone takes every piece of the bible literally. There are some parts that are out of touch with today’s standards." Helen said as she seemed willing to make some concessions, "Such as the clause that says a woman is only worth half a man."

 

     Devon saw his moment and jumped in, "Or the part that says adultery is a sin that is punishable by death. Or that homosexuality is a sin as well or that witches should be burned at the stake. Please tell me you don’t buy into the story of talking snakes that says the first woman came from the ribs of the first man."

 

     "No, I don’t." Helen said with a smirk on her face, "That one is up there with seven dwarves, one ring to rule them all and a galaxy far, far away."

 

     "Well, there’s one thing we can agree on."

Reviews

[Vesa Lee]

Very interesting indeed.
The settings are realistic, the pace smooth, and it flows well from one chapter to the next.

My one complaint: The debate is lopsided.

Helen inserts little or no intellectual thoughts or arguments during the whole of the conversation.
She just seems to mull over what she -sort of- believes then offers a few weak questions to Devon after he fills paragraph after paragraph of seemingly rehearsed rants.
I mean if it's going to be a debate on Faith vs. Reason (or Religion vs. Atheism) than by all means! show us an argument to get excited about.
Otherwise, it appears to be just a theatrical telling of an Atheist's "perfect win".

Of course...this is only my opinion.