Scornful Skeptic Award #6
Posted by RazorsKissJan 4
This is not only in bad taste – incredibly bad taste – but irredeemably caustic.
Take a few looks at it.
A hilarious atheistic satire highlighting the futility of prayer had to be scrapped late Tuesday night when twelve West Virginia miners miraculously failed to suffocate to death as expected.
A satire? His “original” satire was about how futile it is to pray to a God. It was to mock the faith of the victim’s families. To use real, just announced deaths as a cheap shot in favor, supposedly, of his viewpoint.
His satire, he says, “failed” – because the people were announced alive. So, of course, he posts the satire of the satire anyway – because now it applies again. They died, and God didn’t save them, yadda yadda.
It’s reprehensible.
It gets worse.
TRA said the discovery of twelve corpses would have been particularly funny to those who read his original piece, which was going to predict a “miracle” similar to the one credited for the survival of nine men from a flooded mine in Quecreek, Pennsylvania in 2002.
Funny? FUNNY? That isn’t even morbidly funny. That’s just ham-fisted gallows mockery.
TRA took solace in the fact that one dead body was found, but said it wasn’t enough to save the parody. “Maybe if five or six of them had died, I could have done a bit about how the survivors’ families were gloating about the selective ‘miracle’ that spared only the rigtheous,” he said. “But it wasn’t to be.”
“Nearly a whole hour wasted,” TRA said. “Is there no God?”
What an unadulterated, swilling stream of drivel-mouthed bile. I wouldn’t countenance that sort of comment on anyone. Anyone at all. It’s sick, it’s morally repugnant, and it’s an absolutely reprehensible thing to say.
You, sir, (and I use that term loosely) have truly “earned” your “award”. I refuse to call it “misguided”, or anything of the sort. It’s simply repugnant, and a discredit to anyone calling themselves an atheist. I can respect a person, regardless of their beliefs – I can’t, however, respect someone making a morally abhorrent comment like that.
What possesses people to heap scorn on an already painful situation?
7 comments
Comment by Mookie on January 5, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Maybe you should complain to god for not saving the miners. TRA is an attention hog, so by posting something like this, you are doing him a favour.
[If you post again without a real email address entered, per the commenting and trackback policies, your comment will be removed. – RK]
Comment by Tony on January 5, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Right on, brother. One thing our atheistic friends don’t seem to understand is that God is not a magic genie sitting around waiting to grant us wishes (answer our prayers the way we’d like Him to).
GK Chesterton put it well: “I know that God will always do what’s best for me, I’m just worried about how much it will hurt”.
Comment by brycenine on January 5, 2006 at 2:25 pm
I didn’t find TRA’s post to be particularly funny or tasteful. But I also don’t think he was gleeful about the discovery of the miners’ deaths, as you imply. Please understand atheists’ lose/lose situation in these matters. I watched television news reports in awe Tuesday night as actual jounalists were spouting the “miracle” line. Experts were saying all along that the miners would have a chance if they got low enough to avoid the carbon monoxide. But once the reports came in that they actually had survived, science and chance were thrown out the window; instead, prayers were answered.
Such is always the case in life/death matters, even if the chance of someone surviving is greater than, say, a two-touchdown underdog winning a football game. The survival is a “miracle” and the football game is matter-of-fact, even though the football outcome was statistically more improbable. The atheist usually silenty endures these boasts of divine intervention, but occassionally will point out that chance applies to car crashes and mining accidents just as it does to football and dice. At best, the theist will smile and shake his head at such stubborn denial of God’s obvious influence. At worst, the theist will accuse the atheist of actually rooting for a different outcome. When chance goes the other way and a person doesn’t survive a car crash or a disease or a mining accident, you don’t generally see atheists shouting, “Where is your god, now?” because to do so would be crass, inappropriate and, yes, scornful. Like I said, lose/lose.
So when theists shout, “MIRACLE!” after hearing of the miners’ survival, and an atheist says, “apparently not,” after hearing of their deaths, it’s not because the atheist wanted them to die. I’m fairly sure TRA was not glued to the television with fingers crossed waiting for news of the miners’ fate, as if the announcement of their deaths would somehow add evidence to his argument. But it is natural — however misguided — for him to poke fun at theists who would use the announcement of their survival as evidence of theirs.
In review:
survival — theist: MIRACLE!; atheist: COOL!
death — theist: bummer, but god’s plan; atheist: bummer
Comment by godsarefake on January 5, 2006 at 11:29 pm
While I have sympathy for the survivors and sorrow for those that died (and even for the mine that collapsed), I find it difficult to understand your extreme outrage directed at The Raving Atheist. Are you having a hard time separating your own emotional response to this disaster from your thoughts on the unrelated message that this satire delivers? The Raving Atheist is simply expressing his position on prayer, using satire to make his point. While his comments use this disaster as the framework for his satire, he is not mocking the event itself; he is mocking prayer. Your extreme outrage makes me think you may have mistakenly assumed something far more sinister behind his words.
I also accept that you may be more easily overwhelmed by tragedy than TRA or myself, and therefore may find it difficult, if not impossible, to find humor during times of tragedy. However, realize that this is your shortcoming and not a shortcoming for those of us who aren’t hobbled by our emotions during such times.
Comment by Brad Mills on January 6, 2006 at 12:11 am
Thoughtful comments Bryce. Thanks for explaining the awkwardly hidden meaning behind TRA’s obviously horrifying joke. When morals lose all value I guess anythings game.
Comment by RazorsKiss on January 6, 2006 at 7:40 am
Brice:
I don’t find them funny or tasteful, either.
But, you don’t think that he was gleeful? What he wrote says differently.
Their failure to die was “heart-breaking”, because it ruined his post. Poor baby. “[T]he discovery of twelve corpses would have been particularly funny”, he says later. Then, he “took solace in the fact that one dead body was found”, and then “Maybe if five or six of them had died”, he could have saved his parody.
That sure sounds gleeful to me, considering the circumstances. He can go on and on about how “it might spur me into doing some sort of penance”, and “shame myself into behaving better”, and “I hate to waste time” – but, really. If you know it’s wrong, and do it anyway, as he has indicated time and time again – that’s still just that – wrong.
He goes on to say in his latest “apologetic” for his post that posting something like this takes some sort of “courage”.
No, RA, I couldn’t. Writing it is bad enough – publishing it once you know 12 of the 13 miners died is reprehensible. Especially reprehensible because you’ve shown, by your comments, that you know it was wrong. That’s my whole deal with this. It’s not that he’s mocking God. Galatians says not to be deceived – God is not mocked, regardless of the attempts to do so.
The problem is that he is scoring points off of people’s deaths, and trying to make it a sign of some sort of courage to do so. It is nothing of the sort. It’s called pushing the limits of acceptable behavior, and he passed them up quite handily. Jesus’ General does the same constantly, and I’ve confronted that site about their not-funny satire previously as well. Some things just aren’t funny, and never will be.
godsarefake:
I’m not “more easily overwhelmed by tragedy”, nor am I having trouble separating his comments fro mthe disaster itself. My outrage, as you call it, stems from the fact that he’s trying to score points off of tragedy, and that he considers death to be funny – because it mocks God, supposedly. I’m not a milquetoast hand-wringer. It’s just wrong.
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