Comments

1
Right, Constant is the books editor, but he addresses so many subjects on Slog. He has a watered down understanding of comic movies, twitter, republicans, his penis, geniuses, etc. Charles has a narrower focus. But you Dan concentrate mainly on two things, homosexuals and Christians. Any religious matters seem meant for you, IMho
2
Dear Dan,

No.

(heart,)
Paul
3
Ask for the review copy anyway, keep it out of a gullible person's hands.
4
Dear Paul Constant,

Thank you.

(heart),

lolorhone
5
Here's my review:

"There are no gods."

-end
6
A "rod of correction", maybe....on the other hand maybe god just made a be bet with satan to see how you would react to a famine, death, punishment and pox. After all, it wouldn't be the first time (see, Job, book of).
7
I'm going to right a book entitled "What to do when you realize you're happy and fulfilled in life while other equally worthy (or better) people struggle and god has shit all to do with it: congratulations you're an atheist".
8
Then I'm going to write the sequel: "So you think you're blessed by god: please explain why god chose you and shat all over everyone else you pompous dickbag".
9

According to the author, God sends us various unpleasant life events as a "rod of correction". Interesting theory. My biblical reading indicates that it is just as likely that the famine, death, horror and pox in your life is a direct result of God's wagering with Satan as to your reaction to punishment. For a brilliantly executed example, see the book of Job. In Job, God strips Job of all his wealth, kills his wives and children all to prove to Satan that no matter how he punished Job, Job will continue to worship him. Guess what? God was right, Job was faithful! As a reward, God gives Job lots of new wealth, new wives and healthy new children! Job is once again totally wealthy and happy--Clearly demonstrating that a) God is great, b) Job is faithful and c)wives and children are totally interchangeable, if God kills a few for sport, he will provide new ones.

I think the author's failure to do real biblical research and understand all of the many reasons God punishes people really limits her book's usefulness. Readers would be better served to by close reading of the Old Testament to better understand the many and varied punishments that God meets out-- some for actual offenses (looking back at Sodom, pillar of salt thing) and sometimes just for sport.
10
@4: Hugs! (If you saw the dozens of press releases for books that I ignore on a daily basis, you would be the most grateful human being on the planet.)
11
I don't spend very much time pondering why bad things happen to faithful Christians.

Mostly because there's no reason to expect that faithfulness will get you anything, except possibly help from other Christians. And even that's not guaranteed, depending on the nature and severity of the problems.
12
Paul could pass this along to Mudede.
13
Ok, I have to confess...I'm not even on the left coast...I'm in Virginia, and this name sounds frighteningly familiar. VaBch is such a nightmare of right-wing-militarist-xtianist-nutbaggery it's frightening and sad...and entirely unsurprising this writer is from there.

Also: I have personally been up Crazy Woman Creek and while you are enticed in by the the Crazy Sexy, it is worse than being up the proverbial s???s creek, paddle or not.
14
Could somebody explain to me why Dan is posting this? So this sort of uninteresting book on Christian morality got sent to him instead of the books editor...I don't *think* it comes of as some kind of passive-aggressive dig, it seems to just not relate to him at all. I get lots of email that doesn't relate to me, and I just delete it. What am I missing?
15
@7, 8 The second one sounds funnier. Kickstarter time!
16
How to live a life free from spiritual famine, while working for a defense contractor.
17
@12 FTW
18
God is not the problem. Right-wing a-holes who think they can interpret God for everyone are the problem.
19
My understanding is that if you are not wealthy, happy and healed it is solely because your faith is not strong enough, you apostatic piece of shit.
20
If a person were suffering from a famine, today we would conclude that there was no money for food since we do not each raise our own. Therefore, wtf is that person doing buying a book? Wouldn't it be more practical to use the money to buy something to eat, thereby ending the famine? Or maybe, since it's a christian, the starving person should pray rather than getting up and doing something to get some food, even if it's just to stand on a corner and beg. Just don't eat the book - it contains no nourishment.
21
I noticed on my ex-husband's wife's facebook page that they both lost their jobs this months. Lots of comments from her friends praying for her. LOL Sounds like god's sending some famine their way :)
22
I noticed on my ex-husband's wife's facebook page that they both lost their jobs this month. Lots of comments from her friends praying for her. LOL Sounds like god's sending some famine their way :)
23
First post in 6 months and I double-post. stupid stupid stupid!!!
24
yeah.

no god.

no 'famines'.

only AIDS.....
25
Dick Cheney is all the proof I need that if there is a God, he's a sick twisted piece of divine shit.
26
I think that anyone thinking that this "God" entity is doing any specific and personal to him/her at all, when God clearly has an entire fucking UNIVERSE to run, ...is really pretty self-centered.

(I mean seriously, have you seen how big the Universe is? There are stars that are like 10,000 times the size of our own Sun, zillions of "miles" away. To think, O Speck of Dust, that God has picked on you, as opposed to, say, any particular microbe living in your gut, or a Blue Whale, or some amino acid floating in a primordial soup millions of light-years away from Earth, is ridiculously myopic.)
27
@24: By your logic, Darwin hates Africa the most. Surely God doesn't hate Africa the most. That would be...problematic for your theories, right? I mean, queer-hating is one thing, but eugenics and the Curse of Ham are just distasteful, right?
28
@26

Best representation of that argument that I've ever seen, found here.
29
@ 20, what I got from the press release is that it's not *real* famine, but spiritual famine, which probably means starting to wonder what the point is of worshipping this being you are beginning to suspect is imaginary.

Because of course real famine is just for some black and brown people far away who deserve it because they're not doing religion right.
30
Being a devout Christian is a SYMPTOM of a disastrous, disordered life, not a cure for it.
31
Couldn't find a single person to write a quotation for her book? Had to take the reviews from Amazon? Pitiful.
32
@23 That's just Gawd punishing you for being mean-spirited at 21/22
33
@26 Treacle, right on.
34
@28- Thanks, Knat! Excellent illustration that I shall trot out during my next argument with a christian.
35
This reminded me of reading "When Bad Things Happen To Good People" by Rabbi Harold Kushner, back when I was in college...during the stone(d) age. My take away from it that has stayed with me through the 3 decades since was along the lines of:
Bad things happen to ALL people. When bad things happen to bad people, no one gives a fuck.
What's that? Adolf Hitler has pancreatic cancer?
Oh dear, I think that the dog needs a walk.
36
"The Hiss from Hell Only Women Hear." I can't even think of any way to make fun of that, it makes its own comedic gravy.
37
Stating the obvious, maybe, but the best part of the whole thing is that she sent it to Dan Savage by mistake. Ahhh! Irony! I was choking at "Dear Mr. Savage... stuff about your good Christian readers...." Could she have found a *less* receptive person to send a moralistic and religious self-help book pitch to? Obviously, she doesn't read the column- she'd probably have to gouge out her eyes as penance if she read the smut on here! (for sticklers, this is dramatic irony: we know something she doesn't know that is big and important, this type is often found in theater pieces)
38
(I know I've not been too brilliant this year with Homocentric August posts putting as much [homocentric] spin on HA posts as Sr Nadal does on his topspin forehand, but this one doesn't seem too bad. I'll just explain to the non-regular M? Indy that, as you didn't specify your own gender, the point of Homocentric August is to presume as much homosexuality as possible and everyone who doesn't specify is gendered accordingly.)

[HA] - I almost want to ask Mr Indy of the double post not to give Ms Winfrey a sad, given her recent adventures involving Swiss purses. You know she doesn't think it's acceptable for LG people to feel worse when their B partners leave them for an S. (Her argument was that getting dumped s*ed so that there was no point in saying a particular dump s*ed more. I was always torn between a reply that would refer her to Ms Farrow and another imagining Ms King's suddenly exercising some sci-fi option to pass as Caucasian and re-ordering her whole life around white privilege with all white friends. It was not that I wanted to encourage LGs not to form relationships with Bs, but a cross between not thinking it appropriate for a marginalized person with privilege in this particular area to tell other marginalized people how to and how not to feel, and not being an admirer of what I term Linnet Ridgeway's Guide to Life in which Attraction must always sweep all before it whatever the cost.)

But any such stricture (and this is very HA) applies only to Mr Indy's ex and not to the ex's wife, who is clearly a Conniving Straight Hussy who enticed him away with the promise of Natural Children, so that he would be able to afford the three he's always wanted instead of just the one. Mr Indy has our full approval for being as delighted as he pleases over HER being out of employment. It might be a bit too much to hope that the couple could still be indigent when a baby arrives, and that Mr Indy and his new (and greatly improved) husband might adopt the bairn, but there does seem to be a bit of karma about it.
39
Is the entirety of the book the sentence, "Abandon the Just World/Universe fallacy"?
40
I do indeed wonder why crummy things happen sometimes.

Then I shrug, say, "fuck it, nobody wins all the time," and try to figure out what I can do to make things better for myself. (And hopefully anyone I come into contact with.)

Please wait...

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