A man who fell sixteen stories from a Minneapolis Hyatt, only to have his fall cushioned by a fabric overhang, says that he sees the hand of God in his survival and has begun going to church for the first time in years.
Atheist rationalist gets angry about this, concluding:
Yea pal, someone sure had a plan for you, and that plan was to send you to Hell by dropping you 16 stories. Lucky for you, your forced deportation to Hell was foiled by a thoughtful architect who put an overhang in the way.
Now why doesn’t anybody who goes through something like this ever think about it the other way? Why isn’t this bum thanking the architect? How exactly does this guy figure that God is the one who saved, rather than tried to extinguish, his life? If he said that he can’t even recall the fall, nor why or how he decided to run into the window, isn’t it reasonable for him to suppose that God possessed him at that moment and caused him to take the plunge?
Sure. I mean, you know what they say: God is Booze. But the part that makes me laugh is that the guy’s so bent out of shape by the opinions of a “drunk loser.” Clearly a guy who’s made a religion of his Atheism, but then, such people are not enjoined to practice humility.
Red herring or colossal squid?
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is going after the Southern Baptists now, claiming that they’ve covered for molesters, so I guess that they can keep the acronym and change the last word to Pastors. I hope that they have learned from my Church how not to deal with it.
Teacher negotiating sex charge
Having seen her picture, I hope she isn’t trying to charge much.
You get bent out of shape every day about the raving of the ‘moonbats’. Does that mean you’ve ‘made a religion’ out of your support for the war or on terror or anything else? Or does it simply mean it bothers you to see people making bad descisions.
Blogging is so lame sometimes. Seriously, the give-a-shit factor about this kind of stuff is measured in milli-fuckits (to steal a phrase).
I do get angry when I see people lying or being mean, and amused when I think I think they’re being stupid, but I don’t expect them to agree with me, and I think it’s funny that the people who think that religion causes so much intolerance are sometimes themselves so intolerant.
Just how bent do you think I get? Do I sound like that guy? I hope not.
Now, now Dan. Let’s give this atheist fellow his due. He was right about being unable to see God’s plan in it… for 15 stories.
However the landing has a bit of divine providence in it. And the fact that it jarred the “faller feller’” into a theistic viewpoint, seems like God knew what was needed.
Of course, it could have been Allah, or Krishna, or just pure luck. But I think he probably picked the right source of his salvation (so to speak.)
As a Christian, I don’t believe God had anything to do with anything concerning that guy’s fall. But, it is good to see that to HIM it does. Atheists, who spend their time trying to rationalize away other people’s faiths are missing something in their own lives. It may not be God. It may be a fantastic panini sandwich or a once in a lifetime blowjob for all I know, but it is kind of surprising and disturbing that they get get chagrined over someone “finding” God.
Semm, I think the pertinent difference is that faith in God is just that…Faith. It’s not explained. It just is. That man’s new found faith will NOT effect (most likely) the atheist’s life. Raving moonbats underestimating crazy ass jihadists WILL effect Dan Collins’ life. And mine. And yours.
“Yea pal, someone sure had a plan for you, and that plan was to send you to Hell by dropping you 16 stories. Lucky for you, your forced deportation to Hell was foiled by a thoughtful architect who put an overhang in the way.”
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. The atheist is so smart that he fails to fall for that whole ‘god thing’. However, he does believe that the architect is so omniscient as to add a catch-the-drunk overhang.
Architects do move in mysterious ways, so I’m told.
Dare I say that hell hath no fury like a pissed-off fundamentalist atheist?
Yeah, guys like that give good athiests a bad name.
Nat–
Get out of Vegas.
Red herring or colossal squid?
The krakken!
It seems our reality based friends are just being consistent, Dan. Being amused is being bent out of shape, laughing is whining, quoting is smearing, etc…
You know the rest35.
semm:
If I may paraphrase:
Dan: Wow, some atheists sure do get pissed when people invoke God.
semm: Does this mean you’ve made a religion of your support for the war on terror?
Very, very smoothly done. It reminds me a little of Dave Barry’s tips on how to argue like a veteran married couple, specifically his example of the kind of crashing non sequitur to avoid:
She: Honey, would you mind not leaving your socks on the coffee table?
He: Oh yeah? What about your old flame Bill?!
She: Huh?
You know, Pableaux, when I get into a heated debate on the intardtubes I often put on a CD that I’ve got with a bunch of ABBA and other bubblegum pop. It’s hard to get too angry when you’re listening to riduculous stuff, and it’s a funny soundtrack for the activity.
That guy is probably not angry about the faller finding God so much as he’s dismayed that this yokel is so narcisisstic and self-centered that he actually thinks the universe intervened divinely on his behalf, because he’s so “special.” He’s just declared himself better than everybody else. Yuck.
It seems our reality based friends are just being consistent, Dan. Being amused is being bent out of shape, laughing is whining, quoting is smearing, etc…
actually, you’ve got it all wrong. I happen to agree with Jeff, and Dan a large majority of the time. My goal was certainly not to flame. If dan has simply said, ‘this guy cares way too much about what some stranger thinks,’ well, thats a very common viewpoint.
But it’s hardly one which describes what goes on here every day. All we do is spend time talking about what other people believe and why we think they are right or wrong. So to talk about this guy like he’s crazy because he gets worked up about someone’s religion instead of thier politics strikes me as odd.
On a semi-related note, here in Florida, some town’s city manager is apparently seeking a sex change. The only problem is, he apparently hadn’t told his wife and kids yet when the local paper reported on it.
The “person” in question, in order to undergo the operation, must live as a woman for a year – he plans to call himself “Susan” and will come to work in dresses for that year. The town’s mayor is “standing behind the decision” despite the fact that about 3/4 of county workers indicated they’d be uncomfortable being managed by a tranvestite. Rather than just fire the city manager, the city plans to provide counseling for those people who are unable to successful handle the manager’s “transformation”
In order to “be who he is”, he plans on ruining the lives of his family and jeopardizing his position at work. Class Act.
Well each to his own. But the logic leap is disturbingly reminiscent of alfi.
semm’s got a point, you know. I’m a hypocrite.
Carry on.
What’s interesting is that the fundamentalist atheist actually cares enough to wax wroth about it. I mean really, is it any of his business what the lucky drunk believes? Why this anger? Is it because he finds another person holding an opinion that differs from his own so galling that he has to get in touch with his inner stalin; or is it because he isn’t very secure in his beliefs and finds the slightest challenge to them to alarming because his fragile self-worth is in danger – from a total stranger’s statements.
Or maybe it’s a little of both.
The ‘logic leap’ referred to semm, not the crazed tranny. Nor the aspirant suicide. Words can be so difficult, do you find that?
Words are very buggers, furriskey. Which is probably why we all get on so well.
As long as he’s not trying to impose his faith on the rest of us, I couldn’t care less. And I don’t see any “getting bent out of shape” in this:
Do you?
Well, maybe not OL, Pablo.
Dude I’m covering for molesters too. I’m a serial molester–of hot (mostly) consenting adult chicks. Is that gonna be a problem?
I’ve never heard, “God is booze.” I do remember the Tom Waits line, “There is no devil, there’s just God when He’s drunk.”
Aren’t these more accurately referred to as “hens”?
TW: Keepin’ it real53% of the time
“Do I sound like that guy?”
Uhhhh ….
We all do. It’s okay.
OMG:
It’s “normal”84.
Creepy.
I doubt very much the SNAPperheads will keep going after the Baptists for very long. There’s just not enough money to be made bankrupting small congregations.
He probably installed the awning.
“oh fuck, that had a lifetime warranty!”
Guess you don’t have an answer for the atheist’s point, then, do you. No, ad hominem attacks are so much more persuasive.
What’s with the Right’s crusade against atheists lately? You really want to drive us all into the arms of the left?
I have a wee blog and I point out things I think are silly or dumb; sometimes this might include someone who, rather than asking why their God didn’t have the builders put stronger glass in the windows, or why he didn’t trip on the rug during his run, instead thanks his lucky stars he hit an overhang 15 stories too late.
A lot of times the silly and dumb things have nothing to do with religion. Sometimes they do (for example, teachers in Florida blessing students’ desks with holy oil before a state assessment).
Dan’s indignation at the original blogger’s post is amusing only in that he’s engaging in the same sort of point and laugh behavior.
That said, how did this idiot get confused by the reflection in the window? At night, when looking out a window from a lighted room, you generally see your own reflection. So, Mr. Drunk Guy sees himself running at himself and – thinking maybe he’s had a twin all these years and lamenting all the growing up they missed together – goes barreling out the window?
Believer or not, he’s not very bright.
Okay, but I didn’t catch the laughing part, andy.
brett, I don’t think that we here, at least, are “crusading” against atheists. I just think that it’s the proselytizing kind that turns us off, almost as much as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
I prefer the ones who come to the door, because I can pretend I’m not home.
The ones who sue to remove “In God We Trust” from the coinage, not so much.
What’s with the Right’s crusade against atheists lately? You really want to drive us all into the arms of the left?
I don’t feel persecuted.
But then, I don’t think hating and disrespecting religion is an essential part of being an atheist.