Next up on day of comments is this gem from Icy Cantu.

You have no idea what you are rejecting. You spit upon God’s mercy and grace that was paid for through the death of His only-begotten Son. When you expire, or when He returns (whichever comes first) it will be too late to say “I’m sorry.” His Love is a free gift. Do you always smear those who love you the most? God is so close to you and knows so much more about you than you ever will…until your ungratefulness is shown to you as in a mirror. Repent and believe in the Name of the only One that is able to save your soul from eternal death – Jesus Christ.

And on we go…

You have no idea what you are rejecting.

Neither do most Christians. Less than 10% of them have read the bible (as confirmed through various Christian pollsters, like Bill Keller Ministries).

I, on the other hand, have done what over 90% of professing Christians have not: I’ve read the thing. I’ve read each page. And then I did it a second time. And a third. So you are simply wrong that I have no idea what I’m rejecting. You’re also probably wrong that most Christians would have a better idea than I.

Let me tell you just a few of the things I’m rejecting.

1. Someone rose from the dead. I’m rejecting that. Like bears eating porridge and giant beanstalks, people rising from the dead does not happen. No person saying it did should be taken seriously. Anybody saying they’re certain that it did and basing their life around it should be taken less seriously.

2. Talking snakes. See bears eating porridge and giant beanstalks.

3. Someone being turned into a pillar of salt. Modern day chemists in a lab can’t do this, so it’s a pretty safe bet it didn’t happen thousands of years ago. You may respond, “But god can do anything!” You need to realize that there is no story so ludicrous, so transparently false, that it cannot be defended by saying that your beliefs aren’t bound by reason. If you have to jettison reason so your beliefs can live, you not only need to rethink your beliefs but you need to seriously reexamine your intellectual priorities.

4. The idea that killing someone for working on Saturday was ever moral (see Exodus 35:2). The only way to avoid the conclusion that your god is immoral enough to make Dracula look cuddly is to say that at one time killing people for such a superfluous reason was moral. I wholly reject this. Any morally decent person should.

5. I reject the idea that the earth and the universe were created at the same time or that mammals preceded reptiles (see Genesis 1). We know these to not be the case.

5a. I reject the idea that any god with the competence to construct a universe would be so shitty a communicator that he could say the things he says in Genesis 1 but mean the exact opposite.

I could go on long enough to asphyxiate.

Now, let me tell you what I’m not rejecting: eternal life/god’s love. Why am I not rejecting them? Well first off, I’m rejecting eternal life like I’m rejecting millions of dollars from some random person who emailed me from Nigeria: the money isn’t freaking there. It’s an empty bargain. I’m rejecting the reliability of the person telling me the money’s there, just like I’m rejecting the reliability of anybody selling a book that says all the shit I rejected in the section above (and more).

I know precisely what I’m rejecting, and it’s something you should be rejecting as well.

You spit upon God’s mercy and grace that was paid for through the death of His only-begotten Son.

I can’t help but notice that even though you know you’re speaking to atheists, you pass right by the assumption that god exists and that Christianity is true without lifting a finger to provide any evidence. That seems a little disingenuous, don’t you think?

As for god’s mercy and the sacrifice of his son, even if it were true it wouldn’t even come close to resembling mercy.

When you expire, or when He returns (whichever comes first) it will be too late to say “I’m sorry.”

You didn’t provide any evidence, but you sure as hell were ready with threats.

Some will think you are being kind by trying to rescue us from hell. But if you were really trying to rescue us from hell you’d be giving us some reason to believe, not just telling us what would happen if we don’t. Instead, you are threatening us. You are saying we must accept what you say, despite not having a single reason to do so, or suffer eternally. This is evil. You have just come here and threatened me. This is not nice, it’s heinous to the extreme. I almost want you to try and lecture me on morality now so I can laugh at the irony.

As I recently wrote:

When I was driving to the Reason Rally I couldn’t go 30 minutes without seeing a billboard threatening me with hell for disbelief. There was a conspicuous absence of any billboard saying, “Come to our church, we have evidence!” Evidence, reason, winning honestly…these are not the weapons of faith. Bullying, social consequences, and fear are their tools.

And you just proved my point. You should be ashamed of that behavior. What’s more, it should tell you something that such tactics are considered to be a noble way to serve god. That god is a monster and, if you think threatening others is a way to show love, then so are you.

His Love is a free gift.

…that only costs your free will, a lot of fun activities, tithing, as well as time spent worshiping. Bullshit it’s free.

What’s more, god’s “love” has taken the form of requiring me to believe absolutely insane things without evidence (a situation you haven’t helped, choosing to go with threats instead of evidence). He’s created a situation where accepting god’s love is the same thing as being monumentally gullible. And if I don’t want to feel like I’m abandoning my checks against being taken advantage of? Then it’s burning for eternity without god so much as batting an eyelash in distress, all because I rejected his “love”.

Do you always smear those who love you the most?

No. But that’s not the god you’re describing. The god you’re describing is a jilted lover who says I can love him or die. That’s not love, it’s obsession and greed.

It’s even worse than that, because the god you’re describing is saying I can love him and believe a bunch of ridiculous stuff or die. As if I could just choose to believe in ridiculous stuff even if I wanted to.

This god of yours made cancer, AIDS, earthquakes, tornadoes, Insane Clown Posse, and thinks leaving hell in operation is a swell idea. The Christian god is the one who advocated for genocide, murdering people for non crimes (like working on Saturday), and proudly murdered almost every person on the planet because they were as broken as god made them. You should be thankful there’s no evidence to support his existence, not wondering why I would smear such a callous tyrant.

I’ll tell you who I do always smear though: I do always smear people who threaten me, whether those threats are empty or not (in your case, thankfully, they’re empty). I also smear comical beliefs taken as true. We should smear those things.

God is so close to you and knows so much more about you than you ever will…until your ungratefulness is shown to you as in a mirror.

And you know this how?

You realize that earlier in your comment you imply that god is perfectly willing to send me to hell for my honest opinion. Then, three sentences later, you boggle at how I could possibly be ungrateful. Well Icy, even if I did believe (which I don’t because Christians like yourself always seem to have left their good reasons for believing in their other pants), I still wouldn’t be grateful to the god you are describing.

All these Christians who believe god wants them to visit my site, yet god never sends the ones who give me evidence.

Repent and believe in the Name of the only One that is able to save your soul from eternal death – Jesus Christ.

What you just said is silly. That you said it with such conviction makes you look silly.

I also sympathize. It must suck being so controlled by fear. I don’t wish to live that way, and so I reject your invitation to be controlled by fear: especially when you give me no good reason to believe a word of what you say and since you have nothing but fantasy with which to threaten me.