The Devil made you do it

Chapter 3 of my brother the Atheists book starts with a discussion of the cop out a lot of people in the world take when it comes to personal responsibility. “I sinned because Satan deceived me”; “I killed that group of Jewish people to fulfill my jihad as outlined by Mohammed”; “I shot at those Muslim’s because they’re on land given to me by God”; “I decided to molest those boys because that’s what I learned in Catholic school”. Ok, that last one was a cheap shot – I might want to leave the cheap shots to my brother the Atheist. But you get the point. Do we really do things without knowing we’re doing it? When I lie, is it really a surprise to me? What about when I commit another sin? If someone cheats on their diet is it because they didn’t have self control, or did some other worldly being temp them? I’m one who believes people make their own decisions – right or wrong. For Christians it’s called free will. For everyone it’s called having a brain and thinking for yourself. Even if someone tells you to do something, you still have to act. His chapter on this starts light and funny, and then gets into a scary story related to why he wrote the book in the first place. It’s an awesome example of misguided Christianity, or a person deciding to justify their behavior by blaming Satan. C’mon, do these people really still exist? I guess so. When I think about it we all probably do it to some degree – it’s a form of self defense so we don’t have to admit that we’re basically evil beings on this planet with our own agenda’s. No matter how hard we try we’re still sinful beings.

Mohamed Bashing?

I'm not an expert on religion at all - but I do know that around the world when Mohamed is disparaged or even drawn in a political cartoon, there tends to be serious repercussions. However, is this response true in other faiths? If I draw a cartoon making fun of Vishnu, do Hindu's come looking for me? I know when people speak ill of Jesus it bothers me, but not to the point of jihad. So what's the deal? If Mohamed sacred to the point of killing other human beings? What about Alla? What about the other prophets in Islam? Is it just the one guy, or all guys are untouchable when it comes to humor? The Simpson's make fun of all faiths - except Islam. The same with South Park. Is it because if they cross the line and depict Mohamed in a negative or humorous light a jihad will be declared on them and their families? Can we have firm political discussions about faith without it leading to violence? For example, if I believe that Christianity is the true faith, and have this discussion with a Muslim, is he expected to get violent if I think Mohamed was just a guy vs something more? Man, getting clarity on this would help go a long way to preventing my Brother the Atheist from getting killed for things he's putting in his book about Islam and Mohamed...