Would anyone care to explain/defend this video? Here's the YouTube explanation:
Answers in Genesis is an apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry, dedicated to enabling Christians to defend their faith and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively.For those whose security settings don't allow them to watch videos, the complete text of the brief (15-second) video is "If you don't matter to God, you don't matter to anyone."
My interpretation is that "it is o.k. to kill atheists" (or perhaps non-Christians, depending on how "God" is interpreted.
Via Pajama Pundit.
Addendum: A decent explanation found by Allen C. McBride:
They seem to have meant, if God doesn't matter to the kid with the gun, why would you? And apparently they thought "If you don't matter to God, you don't matter to anyone" was equivalent to "If God doesn't matter to you, no one matters to you." Such an obvious logical error might seem unlikely until you consider what group we're talking about here.
It could be taken a step further and interpreted as, "Because you do matter to someone, God must exist."
ReplyDeleteTo me, this is an awful attempt at Christianity defense. It's confusing and the point that it tries to make is foggy and vague. I'd love to see more from these Answers in Genesis people so I'll YouTube and Google them.
Full disclosure: I'm a Christian (a Catholic more specifically) and I'm always curious to hear religious arguments with atheists. This, however, should be kept on the bottom shelf.
As always this makes for interesting discussion so thank you for the post.
I've been puzzling over this since I first saw it yesterday. I'm trying to imagine what the Christian message might be. Here's the best I can come up with:
ReplyDeleteOne core Christian belief (of course, not unique to Christianity) is that God cares very much about each and every person. A contrary message is that, if God exists, God certainly does not care about individuals.
Another Christian belief is that we are only capable of loving because God has given us that capability. "We love because God first loved us." (1 John 4:19)
("We only exist because God chose to create us" is another, related Christian belief.)
A sort of corollary is that those who do not believe in God must live lives of desperation and fear. I don't particularly agree with that, but some do. Anyway, this sort of life of un-love leads to acts of violence and hate.
Many churches today use video to supplement their services, and aid in the preacher's message. I can imagine the short video used as an attention-getter to start off a message based on some form of the ideas above.
But, standing on its own, it just come across as eerie, or worse. Even as an attention-getter, it's over-the-top.
Make any sense? I'm not sure, myself.
I'm afraid the message behind this video is vague. I can't believe that ANY legitimate Christian Organization in today's age would ACTIVELY promote violence of this nature. So I must assume that the video is actually saying "you THINK you don't matter to anyone" as the kid in the video pulls a gun. Then you get the answer...God.
ReplyDeleteAt least, that's what I hope it means. I'll try to contact the ministry and ask.
Whatever the intention, the message is disturbing. I think it may reveal more about its makers' mentality than they might realize (or want).
ReplyDeleteI'll not defend a poorly communicated video, but if I was to hazard a guess as to the intent, I would guess the writer is trying to express the idea that secularism leads to life having no value, while religion values human life. At least that's what makes sense to me. Ultimately, a horribly flawed scare tactic using no intellectual arguments.
ReplyDeleteI think the point is that atheism can be a source of senseless violence. If there is no God then who cares, its just "survival of the fittest" and those who have the most power win. If the young man believes he is not important because there is no loving God (and therefor no purpose for life), then he doesn't care about others either.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the video is still confusing. What is clear to the unbiased eye, however, is that this is not a message that Christians should kill atheists. Give me a break.
If you look at the relevant page on this group's website, their intent makes more sense. They seem to have meant, if God doesn't matter to the kid with the gun, why would you? And apparently they thought "If you don't matter to God, you don't matter to anyone" was equivalent to "If God doesn't matter to you, no one matters to you." Such an obvious logical error might seem unlikely until you consider what group we're talking about here.
ReplyDeleteSo no, they're not saying "murder atheists," they're saying "atheists are murderers." Comforting, right?
I'm a big fan of interpreting based on what you see and hear. Sounds obvious, but it's a challenge to avoid bringing too much baggage.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have is a boy pointing a gun at us and shooting. His expression is ambiguous, but it's not happy or friendly. It's cold. His message: "you don't matter, I will kill you"
I think they mean to say that killers don't believe in God. However, this is silly. Prisons are full of God-fearing killers.
Besides, I don't see why it's necessary to insult atheists or scare believers. It must be hard to be religious.
You can see from history just how important it is to believe in a Christian god. Look at all the things that it has brought to the 'civilized' world. Things like the crusades, the inquisition, racism, bigotry, hypocrisy, the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, to whose god does it matter? What is offensive to Christians might not be to a Moslem. Also, why would anyone want to believe in a god that is so insecure that it needs praise from something as insignificant as a human to make it feel important? Why it human adulation important to something as 'mighty' as a god?