"Michael Gray" <mikegray@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:grb6m3h918g3799restpkvp1tbakeo1g3t@4ax.com...

A CURRENT TRAGEDY

James Randi writes:

http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/141/1/#i2

From frequent contributor P. T. Quinn:

"I'm sure you're aware of the shooting at the New Life Church
in Colorado Springs that left five dead Sunday including the shooter -
the very same church that Richard Dawkins featured in his documentary
"The Root of all Evil." At the time of the documentary the then-pastor
Reverend Ted Haggard had a conversation with Mr. Dawkins that didn't
end very well. A bit later the Rev. Ted lost his position when it was
revealed that he had indulged in meth use and homosexual behavior -
distinct no-no's for evangelicals.

That aside, it was a true tragedy that the 24-year-old gunman
shot dead two young girls before being killed himself by a female
security guard. It turns out that the gunman came from a deeply
religious family and was rejected from "Youth on a Mission," a branch
of the New Life Church. The news services have reported that it was a
revenge shooting, also involving another fatal shooting at an earlier
related location, and the shooter had claimed to hear voices.

Even though the guard acted properly in stopping the shooter,
I find it a bit disturbing how many times in her statement she
mentioned that God had guided her. I didn't count, but maybe it was 25
or 30 times. In my view, this demonstrates how dangerous religious
fanaticism can be, and I think Mr. Dawkins is absolutely right in his
assessment about the many unfortunate consequences of it. I used to
hold the view that evangelical Christianity was rather benign,
especially in comparison to radical Islamism, but now I'm not so sure.
In fairness, though, evangelical Christianity doesn't have the same
kind of violent numbers. Check out the link of the guard's statement
and perhaps you'll agree. Something seems wrong about her mindset."


Perhaps a better move for God - if I may be so bold - would have been
to direct just one of the guard's bullets to a leg or a shoulder, just
to stop the rampage. That guard fired multiple rounds at the crazed
man, though we now know that it was not her shots that killed the man!
He turned his own gun on himself and committed suicide, so God didn't
even have any part in the action! God would have been a failure at the
OK Corral.

Not in the eyes of the believer! No matter how many different outcomes one
could postulate in regards to the outcome to the gunfight at the OK Corral,
'God' would get credit for the most correct, the most 'right' one -- no
matter the outcome. 'God' would receive credit for generating the 'perfect'
outcome because 'God' is incapable of making a wrong decision, 'right'?

And *especially* when this 'God' gets to decide which outcome is the
'perfect' one.

Nice 'gig' if you can get it. I wonder what the pay is like. Have to work
Sundays, or No?

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:06:58 +1030, Michael Gray wrote:

Even though the guard acted properly in stopping the shooter,
I find it a bit disturbing how many times in her statement she mentioned
that God had guided her.

Yet god couldn't guide the crazy guy's bullets to miss everybody...