Religious nut Senator Tom Cotton claims slavery and holocaust were necessary

[Frau Holle]

Can anyone imagine God drawing up plans for a complex contraption:


and showing the design to his fellow deities from other universes?

Thor: I'm not too bright, Yahweh, but what goes on in this yellow bit, where one marble knocks into another resulting in a wheel spinning around?

Yahweh: Ah, that's where I plan on more than 5 million people being tortured to death

Loki: I approve, I approve!

Thor: Is that absolutely necessary?

Yahweh: Of course. This is the best possible marble machine. Far better than Odin's design with all those frost giants.

Loki: You're just too stupid to understand the explanation, Thor

Thor: So you keep telling me, Loki Fárbauti's Son

I am not sure Nordic references to religion would be helpful here.

For one , Odin didn’t design the ice giants lol, but more importantly- Odin is not there to be the loving and gentle father figure in Christian’s version of God.

If you ask Odin for strength, you had better be prepared to suffer more than you ever have to get it.

If you want knowledge, a sacrifice of yourself, to yourself is needed.

If you want power, you have to be willing to take everyone else out.


If Odin had designed that, just about everyone would die trying to get out.

[Pjmm]

People are so much more complex than a simple set of questions.
Now that you mention that, I would probably get that answer “right”. We don’t believe in casual dating and my kids will date when they’re looking for someone to marry. And yet, I’m not even a Christian.
There’s no one size fits all beliefs. As an Orthodox Jew I hold certain values for my way of life, but I also live in a multicultural society and have to deal with its influences even if they clash with my beliefs. I have enough common sense to find a healthy middle ground and contrary to what many people say, it’s really not that hard.

I don’t either. Heck I took a quiz “are you can evangelical” I got a 10 out of 31 lol. It had questions about dating etc. I guess evangelicals don’t date in high school since that was a question and since I hit yes I did it counted it as a wrong answer.

A lot of question had to deal with books or movies. One question was what was your first R rated movie. The “correct” answer was Passion of the Christ. My answer was other since mine was a horror movie when I was like 10. Passion of the Christ came out when I was 16 I think.

I would have had to watch no R rated movie all my life. Idk the year it came out but I think I saw it in 2008 or 09...I was in my forties I think. As far as Israel goes I've never heard of supporting it from a religious pov unless you're Jewish. I'm Roman Catholic though. My opinion is both sides have plenty of blame to go around and it will take the second coming to bring peace to the middle East. I also can't believe only Christians are saved assuming the bible is true so there's that. If Jesus does show up I expect Him to be completely baffled by what we've done with his lessons and his words.

[Aletheia]

Some people believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone who was tortured, raped, killed and set on fire had it done to them in the unfolding of a plan that had already been decided before time began.


The belief that humans have free will and at the same time will have their every move foreknown is not a contradiction, it’s a belief based on small glimpses of knowing your child will make a mistake, but allowing them to learn on their own because the lesson is more important than the pain.

There's a difference between letting a child burn a finger on a hot saucepan so that particular child, later in life, might avoid greater harm...

and allowing a child to be killed horrifically so that A DIFFERENT child might learn a lesson from it.

[Aletheia]

Imagine a parent who takes a hungry 8 year old, places them in the middle of a room surrounded by wonderful freshly cooked food, then leaves them alone and unsupervised for several hours.

The 8 year old touches one of the cakes then licks their finger. The parent then shoots the child in the foot.

Yes, sure, the child did something wrong and knew it was wrong. But the parent predicted it would happen - everything went according to the parent's plan.

Whose bears most of the moral responsibility for the child ending up with a maimed foot? The child or the parent?

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For those bad at analogies, I'm going to spell this one out:

If God not only created humans, but also human nature, the universe and the laws by which the universe would ensure that human nature could result in things like the Holocaust happening, and God also was able not only to predict that things like the Holocaust would happen before he even placed Adam&Eve on the planet, but he also made a plan that RELIED upon the specific event, "The Holocaust" happening...

Then God bears the moral responsibility for the resulting pain and misery at least as much as the worse of the concentration camp guards.

Yes... that is the belief. It’s hard to understand for many people, and strange for them to accept that others believe this. But it is true.


Some people believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone who was tortured, raped, killed and set on fire had it done to them in the unfolding of a plan that had already been decided before time began.

Is the phrase "Religious nut" really an unfair description of such people?

[Lemons]

If God not only created humans, but also human nature, the universe and the laws by which the universe would ensure that human nature could result in things like the Holocaust happening, and God also was able not only to predict that things like the Holocaust would happen before he even placed Adam&Eve on the planet, but he also made a plan that RELIED upon the specific event, "The Holocaust" happening...

Then God bears the moral responsibility for the resulting pain and misery at least as much as the worse of the concentration camp guards.

Yes... that is the belief. It’s hard to understand for many people, and strange for them to accept that others believe this. But it is true.

Some people believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone who was tortured, raped, killed and set on fire had it done to them in the unfolding of a plan that had already been decided before time began.

Believing that everything happens because of a plan decided before time is bizarre but understandable that some people would believe that. Cotton took it a step further by claiming the Holocaust happened as part of a plan to save Christians at the end of days.

[Frau Holle]

Some people believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone who was tortured, raped, killed and set on fire had it done to them in the unfolding of a plan that had already been decided before time began.


The belief that humans have free will and at the same time will have their every move foreknown is not a contradiction, it’s a belief based on small glimpses of knowing your child will make a mistake, but allowing them to learn on their own because the lesson is more important than the pain.

There's a difference between letting a child burn a finger on a hot saucepan so that particular child, later in life, might avoid greater harm...

and allowing a child to be killed horrifically so that A DIFFERENT child might learn a lesson from it.

What is the difference if you think humanity is an entity ? The “plan” that these religious people are referencing is one that has been in motion since the earth began, it’s almost irrelevant what a single person goes through in the grand scheme of things so long as it is God’s will.

There is no reason to think that human experience of pain, sadness or torture would be even limited. That is what people would choose for themselves, but that has no bearing on what God would choose for us.

[Frau Holle]

Yes... that is the belief. It’s hard to understand for many people, and strange for them to accept that others believe this. But it is true.

Some people believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone who was tortured, raped, killed and set on fire had it done to them in the unfolding of a plan that had already been decided before time began.

Believing that everything happens because of a plan decided before time is bizarre but understandable that some people would believe that. Cotton took it a step further by claiming the Holocaust happened as part of a plan to save Christians at the end of days.

That is what he believes.

So now, the question is no longer “is he right”. That doesn’t matter.

The question should only be “ How many people believe him”.

[Frau Holle]

Imagine a parent who takes a hungry 8 year old, places them in the middle of a room surrounded by wonderful freshly cooked food, then leaves them alone and unsupervised for several hours.

The 8 year old touches one of the cakes then licks their finger. The parent then shoots the child in the foot.

Yes, sure, the child did something wrong and knew it was wrong. But the parent predicted it would happen - everything went according to the parent's plan.

Whose bears most of the moral responsibility for the child ending up with a maimed foot? The child or the parent?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those bad at analogies, I'm going to spell this one out:

If God not only created humans, but also human nature, the universe and the laws by which the universe would ensure that human nature could result in things like the Holocaust happening, and God also was able not only to predict that things like the Holocaust would happen before he even placed Adam&Eve on the planet, but he also made a plan that RELIED upon the specific event, "The Holocaust" happening...

Then God bears the moral responsibility for the resulting pain and misery at least as much as the worse of the concentration camp guards.

Yes... that is the belief. It’s hard to understand for many people, and strange for them to accept that others believe this. But it is true.


Some people believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone who was tortured, raped, killed and set on fire had it done to them in the unfolding of a plan that had already been decided before time began.

Is the phrase "Religious nut" really an unfair description of such people?

It would imply a lack of “most often publicly thought”.

[Lemons]

Believing that everything happens because of a plan decided before time is bizarre but understandable that some people would believe that. Cotton took it a step further by claiming the Holocaust happened as part of a plan to save Christians at the end of days.

That is what he believes.

So now, the question is no longer “is he right”. That doesn’t matter.

The question should only be “ How many people believe him”.

I would guess evangelicals believe him. Extreme right Christians.

[Frau Holle]

That is what he believes.

So now, the question is no longer “is he right”. That doesn’t matter.

The question should only be “ How many people believe him”.

I would guess evangelicals believe him. Extreme right Christians.

Extreme means not typical.
This is a typical belief.