Alabama Burning
Whether you believe in God/heaven or not, burning down a church can't be a good idea.
There's been a string of church fires in central Alabama over the past few weeks, and police are still looking for the suspect.
I once had the misfortune of stumbling across a church fire in Mississippi, just off the Natchez Trace. My (now) wife and I were riding around between classes when we saw a plume of smoke rising from the ground. Since there was a small airport in the area, we thought maybe a plane had crashed.
Instead, we came up on a picture I hope to never see again. A beautiful old brick church (later I would find out that it was the oldest historically black church in Hinds County) was going up in flames. Not having a cell phone, we had to run to the airport to call 911. Quickly returning- five precious minutes had passed- we waited for the fire department to arrive.
It is amazing how much heat a fire of that magnitude generates. I've seen movies where a man rushes into a burning building to rescue someone, but I would bet that such a thing rarely happens in the real world. Even fifty feet away one could feel the skin start to blister and cook. If a human were lucky enough to avoid getting burned, he would certainly be baked.
The fireman came and I gave my name and contact info to a firefighter before leaving the scene. Later on, my wife and I returned to see if they had put out the flames and two FBI agents instantly approached me with a dossier of information that probably surpassed what I knew about myself. They quickly ruled me out as a suspect, I think, but it was scary how quickly they could get a LOT of information about an individual.
I think they eventually caught the guy who did it, but I'm not sure.
Back to my main point- I felt the heat that day, and I wouldn't want to be the person responsible for that fire when Judgment Day rolls around. Something makes me think that their punishment will make that oppressive blaze seem like a cool winter's day indeed.
There's been a string of church fires in central Alabama over the past few weeks, and police are still looking for the suspect.
I once had the misfortune of stumbling across a church fire in Mississippi, just off the Natchez Trace. My (now) wife and I were riding around between classes when we saw a plume of smoke rising from the ground. Since there was a small airport in the area, we thought maybe a plane had crashed.
Instead, we came up on a picture I hope to never see again. A beautiful old brick church (later I would find out that it was the oldest historically black church in Hinds County) was going up in flames. Not having a cell phone, we had to run to the airport to call 911. Quickly returning- five precious minutes had passed- we waited for the fire department to arrive.
It is amazing how much heat a fire of that magnitude generates. I've seen movies where a man rushes into a burning building to rescue someone, but I would bet that such a thing rarely happens in the real world. Even fifty feet away one could feel the skin start to blister and cook. If a human were lucky enough to avoid getting burned, he would certainly be baked.
The fireman came and I gave my name and contact info to a firefighter before leaving the scene. Later on, my wife and I returned to see if they had put out the flames and two FBI agents instantly approached me with a dossier of information that probably surpassed what I knew about myself. They quickly ruled me out as a suspect, I think, but it was scary how quickly they could get a LOT of information about an individual.
I think they eventually caught the guy who did it, but I'm not sure.
Back to my main point- I felt the heat that day, and I wouldn't want to be the person responsible for that fire when Judgment Day rolls around. Something makes me think that their punishment will make that oppressive blaze seem like a cool winter's day indeed.
posted by Yorick at 7:18 PM
4 Comments:
well, if you don't believe in that god, then you don't believe in judgment day, and then you're not worried about hte punishment, and then burning a church is only not good for the fear of being caught and punished by humans. it's just another building. wood and nails. that's it.
if someone is motivated by hate to do *anything,* then i personally believe that the universe will catch up with them in one form or another, but not at all because it was a church.
I understand your point, but I think it's taking a needless risk. No one knows with a hundred percent accuracy if God exists, so you would think it would be best to hedge your bets.
For example, I don't believe that Buddha is a true God, but that doesn't mean I burn Buddhist temples or deface his statues. By doing so, I lose nothing and potentially avoid upsetting a mighty powerful being.
I heard this syllogism once, and I'm pretty sure it's airtight:
1. Atheists believe there is no God.
2. In order to know everything, one must be God.
3. Atheists, if they know with 100% accuracy that their is no God, must by defintion be God.
This is why atheism holds no water with me- agnosticism I can appreciate, because at least it recognizes the limits of human understanding.
I'm just saying that if I hated something/somebody, I'd try to avoid upsetting that something if it might (potentially) mean an unsettling end.
I also believe in "kharma," but I don't think it's a perfect system. There are too many people who do terrible things and never receive their comeuppance. And there are FAR too many people who give selflessly of themselves and struggle their whole lives with turmoil and strife.
Please, continue to post- I enjoy a healthy debate.
but see, Karma follows a person from life to life. it is a companion to the idea of multiple lives. so perhaps the nasty person who never received his comeumpance in the life of nastiness is the SAME PERSON who is struggling despite selfless actions.
I understand your viewpoint, but I cannot agree with it.
Take Hitler, for example. According to your notions of karma, he would return as another life and "balance" out the evil deeds he committed.
Even if he were to invent a vaccine that saved 6 million peoples' lives, he wouldn't be at "zero" on the morality scale. The two columns don't add together. He would have committed a very horrible act and a very noble deed- the two don't cancel each other out. Morality is not a mathematical formula.
If I kill someone, no amount of good deeds is going to bring that unique individual back- I'm simply a human who has done both good and bad things.
Secondly, this makes evil actions implicity "okay" by making the assumption that they'll pay for it later. Go ahead, kill 6 million Jews- you can make it up later. Karma will equal everything out.
Our past actions cannot be erased or balanced out by noble deeds- in this life or any other.
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