Along came a Stink Bug

A somewhat mundane thing happened to me this morning, but after thinking about it for a while I realized that similar circumstances might cause some folks to assign deeper meaning to such events.

To set the scene, I was watching the movie Dubya on tv, with all its emphasis on the former presidents born again relationship with Christianity, juxtaposed with his aggressive attitude towards stirring up war in the Middle East, when the doorbell rang. I paused the movie and answered the door to find a nicely dressed mother and young child. I recognized right away that they were going door to door with a religious message, as it is Sunday and this happens every so often. I dont mind obliging them, so long as they keep it short and sweet, which has been my experience in the past, and I gave them my attention. The mother was very polite and stated their purpose, and asked her son to give his prepared message.

This kid was really young, and clearly just learning how to read. He read a very short and choppy message he had written on a pad of paper. The message was so simple that it only took about five seconds for him to spit out, and the message was just asking if I would mind accepting a pamphlet from his church about God. I said of course, and as he reached toward me to hand me the pamphlet, a stink bug dropped from the door frame and landed right on his hand that was holding the pamphlet. The stink bug clung to that poor kid as he was wildly trying to shake it off, completely freaking out. I couldnt help but laugh, but I could understand how unnerving that would be for him. The bug eventually fell off and the kid was fine, and they thanked me and went on their merry way.

I went back to finish the movie, but the irony of the situation hit me quickly a young boy in the midst of religious indoctrination, being accosted by a prickly bug the moment he hands a religious pamphlet to an atheist. When the movie was over, I decided I would post an article about the incident for shits and giggles. My thought was to go back and see if the cold weather had stunned the stink bug enough to still be laying where he landed, so that I could take a picture of the pamphlet with the bug on it. However, the bug was no longer there, so I looked around the house to see if I could find another one to pose for the picture. To my surprise, there was not another single stink bug in the entire house that I could find. That just made the whole situation even more hilarious to me. The one stink bug in the house was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and chose to release itself from its nice warm position in the house to go out the door into the cold and land on a childs hand which was delivering a pamphlet containing information that runs extremely contrary to the beliefs of the receiver. It would not have been nearly as unique of an event if the house had the dozen or so stink bugs crawling around the tops of the window frames, as is the usual condition in this area.

Here is the message in the pamphlet:

God is the creator of life. The Bible calls Jehovah God the source of life. (Psalm 36:9; Acts 17:24, 25) The One who gave life to all living creatures is certainly capable of restoring life to someone who has died.

Yeesh what is that supposed to mean? Many an evil person has been brought back from death with the aid of doctors and medicine, and many of the most devout and faithful have lost their battle to stay alive, even with the aid of doctors and medicine. I guess thats where the phrase God works in mysterious wayscomes in to complete the circular reasoning for anyone willing to believe this statement.

God has resurrected humans in the past. The Bible reports eight instances of humans young, old, male, and female who were brought back to life on earth. Some had been dead for a short while, but one had been in a tomb for four days! John 11:39-44.

These supposed incidents were back in the days when medicine and health practitioners were not the least bit capable to assist in such a miracle, so one could reasonably ask why the heck He no longer performs this service. Are modern humans that much less deserving than ancient humans?

God is eager to do it again. Jehovah hates death; he views it as an enemy. (1 Corinthians 15:26) He has a yearning to conquer that enemy, to undo death by means of the resurrection. He longs to bring back those who are in his memory and to see them live on earth again. Job 14:14, 15.

This one is just plain baffling. It flies in the face of the first two. Were still talking about the infallible and omnipotent entity, right? This is the same God that ordered death to happen all throughout the Bible, right? This is the same God that is reported to have drown the entire world, right? Isnt the kingdom of heaven supposed to be the just reward for a life of virtue here on earth? Why would He want to deprive anyone worthy of that, by not releasing them from mortality? I have a million more questions that I could ask about these claims, but I wont bother. These claims are truly indefensible, so arguing them, or Christianity in general, is a complete waste of time.

Heres a few more lines from the pamphlet that pretty well describe the intentions of Christianity:

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS

There is going to be a resurrection. Acts 24:15, New World Translation

WHAT THAT CAN MEAN FOR YOU

- Comfort when loved ones die. 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4.

- Freedom from a morbid fear of death. Hebrews 2:15.

- A real hope of being reunited with your dead loved ones. John 5:28, 29.

We are all mortal, thus we are all going to die someday. There is no way around that. Why is that something to fear? Because the same religion that brings you this nonsense also brings you nonsense about the existence of hell. Its a self-fulfilling prophesy, and the more people that can be influenced, then the more robust the religion machine will be. There is an entire economy and politics that thrives on the machinery of religion. Different versions of this machine are entrenched into every corner of the world. Living a life outside of this machinery is so much less of a burden than trying to manage life as a cog in a machine.

Funny how the act of handing a person a bit of dogma can have the exact opposite effect than intended.