A leader in the New York State Republican Party (admittedly not a powerful domain) recently concluded a dinner presentation with the following joke:\u00a0 \u201cTo those of the Christian faith, Merry Christmas!\u00a0 To those of the Jewish faith, Happy Hanukkah!\u00a0 And to those of no faith, good luck!\u201d<\/p>\n
LOL.\u00a0 Let us be grateful for this theological kissy-wissy between Christians and Jews, a trait that is particularly pronounced among conservative defenders of religiosity, but that characterizes virtually all of Western life today.\u00a0 \u201cJesus the Son of God?\u00a0 No?\u00a0 Hey!\u00a0 No prob.\u00a0 Whatever.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 This easy amicability would have been unthinkable when Religion ruled the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for the fate of non-believers, possessing faith does not seem to provide much protection against disaster during earthly life.\u00a0 God allows the daily slaughter of the innocents to claim believers with as much indiscriminate abandon as non-believers.\u00a0 Church vans appear to be particularly prone to fatal accidents, I have noticed; avalanches<\/a>, like earthquakes, floods, fire, and crippling genetic abnormalities, show no solicitude for victims of faith.\u00a0 As for the afterlife that believers hold so dear, if God would consign to eternal damnation a moral, generous, and honest human being simply because he has not bent his knee to God in worship and supplication, you\u2019ve got to wonder about the Divine One\u2019s fragile sense of self-worth and the impartial justice with which He allegedly governs his creation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, on this Christmas eve, we can all celebrate the marvelous world, so filled with uncountable comforts and beauty (including Christmas traditions and all its music), that men have built for themselves, whether through their own innate hunger for knowledge or with divine assistance.\u00a0 Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A leader in the New York State Republican Party (admittedly not a powerful domain) recently concluded a dinner presentation with the following joke:\u00a0 \u201cTo those of the Christian faith, Merry Christmas!\u00a0 To those of the Jewish faith, Happy Hanukkah!\u00a0 And … Continue reading