God is on our side

[valis]

The comment from the Aussie gentleman about leaders invoking God is something that has always bothered me.

I would postulate the following:

People have a lot of inherently evil tendincies and the "God is with us thing" works in the opposite direction of what atheists are always proposing.

Evil dictator or whoever has the urge to kill, rob, rape pillage whatever and then comes up with religion as a cover for his urges. Religion of itsself does not cause people to do these things. People do these things and then use God's will as an excuse.

Also if you add a couple of extra Gods you can sing God is on our side to the tune of the old Rolling Stones song Time Is On My Side, thusly:

God, God, God
Is on my side
Yes he is

Now you always say
That he doesn't exist
But all that your doing
Is making him pissed!

[rwguinn]

Originally posted by valis
The comment from the Aussie gentleman about leaders invoking God is something that has always bothered me.

I would postulate the following:

People have a lot of inherently evil tendincies and the "God is with us thing" works in the opposite direction of what atheists are always proposing.

Evil dictator or whoever has the urge to kill, rob, rape pillage whatever and then comes up with religion as a cover for his urges. Religion of itsself does not cause people to do these things. People do these things and then use God's will as an excuse.

Also if you add a couple of extra Gods you can sing God is on our side to the tune of the old Rolling Stones song Time Is On My Side, thusly:

God, God, God
Is on my side
Yes he is

Now you always say
That he doesn't exist
But all that your doing
Is making him pissed!

to quote somebody--the actual source is lost thru repetition, I fear-- "God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery"

or the Terry Pratchett philosophy--Believing in gods only encourages them...

[Zep]

Another viewpoint:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance26.html

[Pixel42]

Originally posted by rwguinn
to quote somebody--the actual source is lost thru repetition, I fear-- "God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery"


In Robert Heinlein's novel The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress the narrator prefaces this quote with "As it says in the Bible ..."

I've always assumed Heinlein was paraphrasing the story of David and Goliath :)

[rwguinn]

Originally posted by Pixel42
In Robert Heinlein's novel The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress the narrator prefaces this quote with "As it says in the Bible ..."

I've always assumed Heinlein was paraphrasing the story of David and Goliath :)
That was where I recalled the phrase ( :p ), but I have heard it in other places, too. I merely assumed that its roots are buried in antiquity.
But RAH used a lot of stuff, attributing it to one of his characters. Some made-up, some "stolen" :D

Roger

[valis]

I have seen it attributed to Napolean.