Can Your God Answer the Phone? (Born an atheist?)

Rummaging through boxes of old photos, letters, and newspaper clippings in the basement, I came across a copy of a letter my mother wrote to her parents when I was just four in 1943: 

“I tried to explain to Rickey some things about God. I told him God is everywhere and takes care of him all the time. He thought about that for a few minutes then said, ‘If God takes care of me, why do you get babysitters when you go out?’ 

Well, that did make God seem ineffectual, so I replied,  ‘That person is here to answer the phone.’ Rickey said, ‘If God is so great, why can’t He answer the phone?'”

Oh my.

7 thoughts on “Can Your God Answer the Phone? (Born an atheist?)

  1. Tabitha says:

    I’m a solid atheist. I’m the kind of atheist who won’t tell someone that I "respect their religion" because it is not true. I don’t respect religion. I think it is madness and one of the most destructive components of the human race.

    I was born and raised Christian, and so you can imagine the sorts of discussions I have with my mother about this. We also have lovely family friends who are ordained. Years of asking questions of these people have always lead to the same fundamental answer: blind faith.

    I think that blind faith must be nice if you can get it. But it’s also incredibly selfish.

    Born atheist? I believe we are all born good and born atheist. It is the fear-driven belief systems that our societies live by that contaminate those who refuse to question.

  2. Rick says:

    Thanks Tabitha,
    Couldn’t agree more. Religion is driving the human race off the cliff into oblivion. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

  3. jim hunolt says:

    yes, we hopefully each come to a comfortable reckoning within ourselves as to why we exist, what has value, what are our possible contributions, in a vast universe…..religion can play a role, but is not necessary…..for my spirit religion is limiting, and yet there is an instinctive consciousness that embraces a spiritual aspect of life that exists everywhere in our universe…..how we access it, or how it functions in our own consciousness is absolutely subjective…..i see it everywhere alive in our biosphere, a harmony always in motion, always changing, always seeking balance, and continually embrace it as an aspect of beauty, an aspect of truth…..it’s all so simple….resist what is dark, embrace what is light….

  4. jim hunolt says:

    yes, we hopefully each come to a comfortable reckoning within ourselves as to why we exist, what has value, what are our possible contributions, in a vast universe…..religion can play a role, but is not necessary…..for my spirit religion is limiting, and yet there is an instinctive consciousness that embraces a spiritual aspect of life that exists everywhere in our universe…..how we access it, or how it functions in our own consciousness is absolutely subjective…..i see it everywhere alive in our biosphere, a harmony always in motion, always changing, always seeking balance, and continually embrace it as an aspect of beauty, an aspect of truth…..it’s all so simple….resist what is dark, embrace what is light….

  5. Ann says:

    I’d say that in the earliest years and in the latest years it’s possible to "get it" that the world is a shockingly wondrous place and that’s we’re all connected to all of it and that’s enough. In the m middle years we’re too busy.

  6. Michael Sizemore says:

    Tabitha, I think the comment that religious people refuse to question is a huge over-simplification, kind of like a politician saying all Muslims are terrorists. I am a Christian and I question everything. I just keep coming back to the answer that I believe. I, for one, respect everyone’s beliefs, including atheists, up to the point where they hurt others, It’s true that organized religion has often been evil. However, that has nothing to do about whether God exists. Organized religion was organized by humans, no matter what they might tell you.

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