Now not far from me on a quiet semi rural road is a church. It's one of those Christian Churches that has it's own name. There are many "branches" of Christian Churches these days that call themselves all sorts of things and interprete The Bible in all kinds of ways. I'm happy for them to do what ever they want as long as they don't come knocking on my door (as some do).

This Church doesn't come knocking which is good. I pass this Church every day on my way to work. They kind of advertise what's on on a sign out the front. And I also quite enjoy their often clever "sayings" that they put up there every few weeks tho they don't apply to me.

Now normally I read these with amusement and think about how clever they are to come up with these sayings, but on Thursday as I drove by and read the latest one I kind of got a feeling that it was maybe a little offensive.............so I thought who better to ask how they would see it than my friends here who come from a multitude of angles of this, spiritual or not!


Here's what it said...........

GOD DOESN'T BELIEVE IN ATHEISTS

SO THEY DON'T EXIST

Now as I drove along ruminating on it (after kind of getting a shock when I first read it) I thought ..... wouldn't that be the same as if you replaced Atheists with say....Catholics or Muslems or Buddists or Jews or Mormans etc etc.
Now Atheism isn't a religion as such, but neither is Buddism.
So how would you read it or interpret it?
Am I being picky, do you think I'm seeing it the wrong way. I'm I right to see it as offensive to some people? I know we see many so called Christian people waving all kinds of nasty signs and stuff about homosexuals and people who choose to have abortions or want to choose their own time to die, I know this is nowhere in that league but it kind of stood out after many years of driving down that quiet road and finding amusement and nothing offensive in that little community before.

Let me know what you think. By the way I don't call myself anything really. I just try to be a good human being, be thoughtful to other living things and I love the spirit I feel in Nature.

Can God make something that does not exist? Why would he not believe in his own children?

I think they're saying exactly the opposite of what Jesus said.

I think they do exist even if God didn't believe in them. If they are alive, then they'd have to exist...

I think they do exist even if God didn't believe in them. If they are alive, then they'd have to exist...

Sounds like an "if you're not with us, you're against us" philosophy, similar to a certain lame president's. Probably have their heads up the same part of their anatomy as Bush does as well.

Yeah, it would be offensive to some people. There are many religions out there that believe it's their way or the highway. Is the sign correct? Not in my opinion.

If a bear farts in the woods, and nobody is there to hear it, does it smell?

Yep, let's see if it'll explode into a ball of flames! where's the matches?

the sign seems to try to answer a really challenging question with a silly
soundbyte...
...no doubt some will find it offensive...
judgments, judgments, judgments...oh, what we do to each other...
...c'est la vie ...

Well, it has been said by military people that there are no atheists in foxholes. And I would assume that God might not "believe" in anything, since he knows all.
Things like this only bother you if they bother you. So don't let them. The worst way to combat intolerance is to be intolerant. I know this even though I'm guilty of it. Mostly I'm intolerant of intolerance. Ya know what I'm saying?

yer right Lar, I guess it's not really big enough to be bothered about and like I said above it doesn't rate up there with some of the more serious offences.
but I guess I just got a shock in that particular instance and as these sort of ways with words can sometimes be taken the wrong way I was interested in the thoughts of all here.

Tom Paine summed up Patriotism and religion to me with these words outside the Local U.U. Church, "The world is my country and my religion is to do good."

Who Is to say what is in the mind of God?

God's analyst? Seems to me that who/whatever it is, they've got a lot of issues.