God Told Me To Do It! I Must OBEY!

[NonMetro]

This whole Kim Davis thing was a tipping point for me.

I don't mind when people express themselves religiously. It's a free country.

But, when people start telling the rest of us that they "Know" what "God" wants, claiming to obeying a "higher authority", that does it. These arrogant people don't "know" what "God" wants. "God" has never talked to any human being on this planet, and "God" never talked to people hundred or thousands of years ago who wrote these "holy" books, either. "God" doesn't give special instructions to priests or ministers, either, and it doesn't matter how many degrees they might have from seminaries, or how many millions or billions of people they represent. They don't "know" anything more about what "God" wants than the guy who picks up the trash around here every week - and he doesn't know anything about it, either!

It's all bull. Kim Davis and her kooky attorney are full of crap! "God" did not tell them they can be exempt from any laws they disagree with, and that they need to obey a "higher authority". They're frauds, all of them. They're hucksters trying to excuse the bigotry, and their anarchy, by claiming to have been inspired by "God"!

It's a fraud! They're stupid, and they're liars! And they invoke "God" because they are trying to establish their authority over the rest of us.

[Hortensis]

1. Many millions of Kims out there believe God created America,

that the meanings of the constitution have been secularly distorted, and that God's will needs to be restored to the nation he has chosen to lead in the reestablishment of his kingdom on earth. According to Pew Research, some 30 million Americans are actually looking forward to the destruction of our world as we know it. They believe we are in the end times and Satan is at work in America right now.

They also not only believe this will inevitably involve us in a global holocaust centered in the Middle East but are actively promoting this holocaust. It may all be bull, but voting rates are extremely high in these groups, and that particularly ardent 30 million is only one part of the right-wing who feel we will inevitably have to destroy Islam and who object stridently to negotiations instead of ground troops -- lots of them, "before it's too late and they destroy us."

[NonMetro]

8. There Was A Time When These Paranoid Things Were Laughed Out Of Existance!

Even by other religious people!

[Hortensis]

10. Actually, no, NonMetro!. Mutually Assured Destruction was the hard right's

baby. It wasn't too crazy for many, and they fought every single nuclear test ban and missile step-down treaty that came after, sure that every diminution of our nuclear power meant the eventual destruction of the United States. These are the same people who are against the Iran deal today, sure that will lead to our destruction.

These people have always been with us, have always been violently nationalistic, have always looked for enemies both within and without intent on destroying our nation. And they're not just a tiny fringe. The worst may raise our eyebrows, but, although most strong conservatives seem more reasonable, they always want military action over negotiation.

Back when their lunatic fringe leaders went too far and declared Eisenhauer was a Communist, they lost many official supporters in both the GOP and Democratic Parties (southern conservatives), as well as the John Birch Society and others, BUT those less paranoid sympathizers, ordinary conservatives, didn't actually go anywhere. They've continued voting and reproducing themselves and are very alive and just as anxiously determined to save the U.S. from destruction by its enemies today.

And that's BEFORE adding in all the religious nihilist nuts. Fortunately, there's a great deal of overlap in the groups.

[NonMetro]

12. I hadn't thought of it that way, but you have a point. I'd say:

Spot On!

[Hortensis]

19. I love the internet and Information Age, but there was a time

I imagined there was a lot less "craziness" too and was happy in my delusion.

My husband and I were just discussing that, with all the problems in the Middle East, what we have to protect those people from above all are the third or so of our own people who WANT to use our nuclear weapons to destroy "the muslims" and, even more scary, almost as many more less extreme people who believe it may be necessary and would support it if we elected the wrong leaders.

[sharp_stick]

2. It's what their preachers

want them to believe.

The church wants to be back in power and you can bet that the front line fundie preachers are all for it. When you say that you're doing what god wants you to do all you're saying is that your preacher wants you to do it, after all who's telling you how god is speaking to you.

Fundie worshipers are a very easy to mold when they think the instructions are coming from the all powerful sky wizard.

[NonMetro]

7. Yes, Fundamentalists Are Easy To Mold!

But, aren't all religious people? I think so. Even those we recognize as normal, rational human beings believe their imaginary friend tells them stuff, and their priests and holy men and women "remind" them from the pulpit every Sunday of the things "God wants" them to do, and these priests, pastors, ministers, spiritual leaders, whatever, don't "know" what "God" wants, either!

[MiniMe]

3. Especially recent converts

[Downwinder]

4. I don't dispute that they are hearing voices.

But, how do they know it is God's voice?

They should get an evaluation. There are Doctors that specialize in that.

[NonMetro]

9. Yup. There Is A Fine Line Between Religious Belief And Mental Illness!

And sometimes no line at all? Personally, I think Mike Huckabee lives in la-la-land! So does Ted Cruz, and some other Republicans who are - Gawd! - running for president of the United States! That would be laughable if it wasn't actually true, and it's sorta laughable anyway!

[mr blur]

5. But... but... Pope Awesome™ agrees with them!

Why, anyone would think he was a hypocritical bigoted liar!

[NonMetro]

6. Exactly!

I'm still PO'd about the Pope standing in front of our congress, and our supreme court and admonishing them to "protect life at every stage of development". Excuse me, but that dude doesn't "know" what "God" wants, either, and I don't care if he is the leader of a billion religious people who all go along with him like automatons! And I know they all don't, because I've known Catholics all my life. But it is also clear that most of them do, and it is also clear that they excuse his bigotry because, well, well! that's church doctrine! Who gives a crap? Church doctrine doesn't "come from God" either! It's all bull!

[HughBeaumont]

11. It's utterly hilarious that this country takes invisible beings seriously.

It's utterly hilarious that a book of mythology takes precedence over laws, science, culture and societal norms.

It's utterly hilarious that we're the only industrialized nation that cannot seem to separate fact from fiction on a large-scale basis.

[NonMetro]

14. Very true!

People have been giving religion a free pass on their superstitious beliefs, and that's OK when we have separation of church and state. We stay out of their business, they stay out of ours. But when they start defying our laws, trying to put their version of "God" into our government, putting themselves in the middle of our political processes, claiming, like the ignoramuses they are, the this is a "Christian" nation "founded" on the bible, they have crossed the line, and that makes the rest of us free to call them out on their fantasies and fraudulent belief systems, and ridiculous mythology.

Of course, we can still go to the creation museum to watch Jesus ride his dinosaur into Jerusalem!

[hifiguy]

15. 100% agreed.

The other developed nations of the world have to be laughing their asses off at the ignorance and childish superstition of the "average" 'murkan. And they should.

[Bucky]

13. God told me to run for president

But then again, he tells everybody that. I suspect it's a scam of some sort.

[NonMetro]

16. Yup! Ever Since The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, The Emperors Of Rome, And

The aristocrats of the middles ages who also had "God" on their side!

Now, we have dudes like Ted Cruz, whose father, some kind of holy roller or something, said Ted was "anointed" by "God" to be our leader, and turn over the treasury to the priests. I still haven't heard Ted deny it!

[mmonk]

17. Maybe she got a phone call or something.

Instead of an I Phone, call it a G Phone.

[fadedrose]

18. After a death, looked for god everywhere

I read the bible, criticisms of the bible, different translations, the pseudepigrapha (as many as I could stand before my eyes crossed, there's a lot of them) and I read Catholic books and Christian books, and should know god pretty well by now, but the more I learned, the less I knew.

But nothing explained the Hindus, Buddists, Native American, Mormans, Church of God, so I figured the Bible was not the only thing to look at and that one should go with a religion that gives them peace. Also, nothing explains the different races or the gays who are born gay.

I pray, but it's like, if Anyone hears please don't answer....

There is Something, but I don't know What or Where.

[NonMetro]

20. When I Finally Moved Away From All Religion,

I found that very liberating. It was like escaping from an intellectual jail, opening a window to the universe. Religious people operate in a very narrow corridor of the universe, enclosed by impassible walls, i.e., they can only go "so far" and no further, because to "go further" would be to defy "God" and invite, not merely earthly damnation from other believers, but even eternal damnation after you die.

Enlightenment truly is escaping from religion and once people do, the fear, of everything, including death itself, is gone, too.