• My Story
    • Early Life
    • The Questioning
    • The Conversion
    • Coming Out
  • The Amish
  • My Philosophy
    • Epistemology
    • Ethics
    • Metaphysics
    • Mind
    • Religion
  • Breaking Amish
  • Other
  • Guest Posts
  • About Me
    • FAQ

X Amish Atheist

~ fighting dogma from behind the lines…

X Amish Atheist

Tag Archives: hell

Why Christians should be Killing Babies

07 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by xamishatheist in My Philosophy, Religion

≈ 68 Comments

Tags

Christianity, God, heaven, hell


Every once in a while I exercise my right to post something that most people find utterly repulsive. This is one of those posts.

Most Christians believe in a God that judges people for their sins and sends them to eternal heaven or hell based on his judgment. Let me show you how it logically follows from those beliefs, that we should kill all newborns.

To the Christian I ask, do you believe that a newborn goes to heaven if he or she dies? If not, then you cannot claim your God to be a benevolent God. What did a newborn ever do to deserve eternal hellfire?

I’m going to assume that you believe newborns go to heaven if they die. Here is the problem with that belief: Since living life beyond the newborn stage increases the chance that a person sins, thereby reducing the chance that he or she will get into heaven, shouldn’t you take it upon yourself to kill all newborns to ensure their eternal happiness? Sure you would go to hell for your troubles but wouldn’t it be the right thing to do? Wouldn’t it be better for one person to go to hell for killing thousands of babies than for half of those babies to grow up as sinners and go to hell when they die?

The beliefs that; 1) God is benevolent, 2) God is more likely to send grown people to hell than babies, and 3) One shouldn’t kill babies, is not a coherent set of beliefs. At least one of these beliefs must be wrong. If you disagree, please tell me where my reasoning is faulty.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Is God Evil?

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Other, The Conversion

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

dream, evil, God, hell


Visualizing the Amish God as evil – as something I never wanted to associate with, was helpful in my transition from a questioner to a full-blown atheist.

Here is an appropriate little graphic that I put together from a variety of images I found online.

God's Dream About Hell

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Truth about Rumspringa

11 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in The Amish

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

amish, hell, rumspringa


Every time I hear the word “Rumspringa” I cringe. There’s no such thing! It’s time that someone sets things straight!

Well, actually it’s not that definitive but probably 90% of the idea of “Rumspringa” is mythical. If I’m not mistaken, it was “invented” by some TV show – perhaps Amish in the City?

“Rumspringa” literally means “running around” or “run around” depending on the context. It is actually a concatenation of two Pennsylvania Dutch terms; “rum” and “springa”. “Rum” is usually pronounced with a long ‘uh’ as in the word “put”. “springa” is usually pronounced “shpring’-uh”. “Rum” means “round” and “springa” means “run” or “running”.

Anyway, here is the idea;

A young Amish boy or girl lives a nice God-fearing life, obeys his or her parents, and abides by the Amish interpretation of the Bible. Then, when the boy or girl has reached a certain age, they are allowed, nay, encouraged, to leave the Amish on a journey of self-discovery. This journey is known as “Rumspringa” and ends at some later time when the young adult has discovered himself or herself at which point he or she decides to return permanently or leave permanently.

Here is what really happens;

A young Amish boy or girl is a typical boy or girl except for the environment he or she is growing up in. Sometimes the child does what its parents teach it to – lead a God-fearing life, obeying its parents, and abiding by the Amish interpretation of the Bible. Other times, the child rebels and is punished by the parents. The parents want the child to remain Amish. For many Amish parents, it is a horrible fear of theirs that their child will grow up and leave the Amish – and burn forever in hell for it. They love their child just like any other parent and don’t want the child to be tortured for all of eternity in the fiery pits of hell. Once a teenager, the young Amish person typically chooses to become a member of the church to live his or her life according to the Amish beliefs. A small percentage of Amish teenagers rebel. They start dressing in “English” clothing and some will even go as far as buying a motor vehicle. Mind you, this was never permitted by the Amish parents. In some communities, the rebellious teenager is allowed to live at home despite owning a vehicle. The parents hope that the child’s rebelliousness is just a temporary stage. Sometimes the teenager returns to the Amish and sometimes he or she doesn’t. If a male teenager returns to the Amish you can pretty much bet that there was a girl involved (way more Amish males leave the Amish than do Amish females). In most Amish communities, though, if a teenager has the nerve to buy a motor vehicle, the parents will unequivocally kick the child out of their home. That is, after asking the child where he got the money to buy the car. The child is generally not given an invitation to return. In many cases, communication between the child and the parents and the child and the remaining Amish siblings stops completely.

So there’s your real life Rumspringa: A child develops the courage to leave the oppressive grip of the Amish, despite knowing that he will possibly lose his entire family. There’s no “Rumspringa”. There’s only ‘leaving the Amish” and “not leaving the Amish”. Of course, if you do leave the Amish, you are generally allowed to return as long as you agree to live by their rules.

As for myself, I was lucky in having Amish parents that are a little more loving. When I got my first vehicle I was no longer allowed to live at home but I was still allowed to visit home as long as I didn’t park my vehicle on the property. Even now, living thousands of miles away from my family and not seeing them for over a year at a time – I still don’t have the nerve to park my rental car on their property when I return to visit. Part of it is that I’m not sure my Dad would allow it and the other part is out of respect for their beliefs (I don’t want to “flaunt” my worldliness).

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 885 other subscribers

RSS Feed

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Follow me on Twitter:

  • @DBarrett2082 I haven't seen it, but my Amish friends say it's even worse than the original when it comes to realism. 9 years ago
  • College and the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund wp.me/p2mgWY-bx 9 years ago
  • @JanetOber I am alive and well but busy with school. Thanks for asking! 9 years ago
  • Penn is my #CelebApprenticeMVP 9 years ago
  • God Exists Because the Alternative Sucks? wp.me/p2mgWY-bl 9 years ago
Follow @xamishatheist

Top Posts & Pages

  • TLC's Breaking Amish: Jeremiah's Girlfriend, Iva
  • Update on Breaking Amish: The Scandal
  • The Truth about Rumspringa
  • TLC's Breaking Amish: Is Kate Fake too?
  • TLC's Breaking Amish: The Scandal of Jeremiah Raber
  • TLC's Breaking Amish: Episode 2 Brings us More Lies
  • TLC's Breaking Amish: Timeline of a Scandal
  • Suicide: Exploring the Afterlife
  • Ex-Amish Unite in Vicious Protests Against TLC's "Breaking Amish"
  • FAQ

Latest Posts

  • College and the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund
  • God Exists Because the Alternative Sucks?
  • Why Christians should be Killing Babies
  • Thoughts on the Semantics of Free Will
  • The Illusion of Free Will
  • Amish Mafia: Fact or Farce?
  • Life through the Eyes of an Atheist
  • A Letter to my Friends
  • The Semantics of my Atheism
  • Despising God

Top Rated Stuff

Archives

  • July 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012

Tags

Abe and Rebecca agnosticism amish atheism atheist belief belief system Bible big bang Breaking Amish breaking amish fake Christianity coming out contradiction death death penalty delusion dowsing dream education epistemology ethics evil evolution ex-amish faith free will friends gay girlfriend God heaven hell humanistic values hypocrite ideaology ignorance intelligence invisible Jeremiah Raber knowledge learning life logic Mennonite monster morality murder music nonexistence omnipotence Ordnung pantheism philosophy philosophy of mind pragmatism psyche radio rationalization reality reality tv redemption relationships religion repentance rumspringa scandal skepticism theory TLC TLC Breaking Amish truth water divination water witching worldview

Blog Stats

  • 1,180,806 hits

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • X Amish Atheist
    • Join 203 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • X Amish Atheist
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: