Hi again.

I’m still here.

I’ve just been spending the last month or so dealing with the illness and death of a close member of my family.

I won’t burden you with the gory details. Suffice it to say that it was the sort of departure from this life that I wouldn’t wish on the most rabid hound from hell let alone a fellow human being.

And I certainly wouldn’t have wished it on anyone whom I had created in my own image.

Neither would I have stood by and done nothing to hasten the end or otherwise alleviate the suffering….

If you’re an atheist like I am, you probably have had at least one Christian in your life smugly assure you that your views about gOd and Jesus will miraculously change once you’ve been brought face to face with death and your own demise or the demise of a loved one. I’ve always thought such Christians were full of shit. I can now say that this hypothesis of mine has been put to the test and confirmed.

The events of the last month are completely consistent with a gOd-free universe that operates according to the unconscious and uncaring laws of nature. If one insists on assuming the existence of a supreme supernatural force that created and controls everything, then the events of the last month are consistent with that supreme supernatural force being sadistic, demonic, and evil. As with so many of the events we see unfolding all around the world every day, the events I witnessed are simply not consistent with the assumption of a supreme supernatural force that is kind, loving, or good.

Many people apparently see this as a reason for despair. As I indicated in one of my very first entries, however, it might better be seen as a reason for hope.

Here’s one of the key sentences from that entry: “If the (apparently insane) God of the Bible actually exists, there is no escape from his irrational wrath. My atheism, in contrast, accepts the possibility that current people and conditions might evolve into something better with time – with no obvious upper limit.”

The illness and suffering of my relative isn’t to be understood as the result of the first man’s eating a bit of forbidden fruit 6000 years ago. It’s to be understood as the consequence of natural, physiological processes. Those processes aren’t inevitable or irresistible or pre-ordained to be a permanent part of life but can be better understood and ultimately controlled by science-based medical research (which has a truly remarkable track record). They are not the sort of processes that are ever going to be accurately understood or controlled by the embrace of ancient superstitious nonsense or ardent prayers to imaginary friends in the sky.

The fact that my relative was the most religious and most Christian member of my family only serves to underscore this point. (The fact that the worst doctor we had to deal with also happened to be the most gOdly underscores it again. Sad to say, one of my relative’s favorite neighbors also recently died after being treated by this doctor. Her family intends to file a formal complaint about his behavior with the hospital.)

Once again it seems that Jesus decided to torment and snuff out the life of one of his most devout followers while sparing the lives of countless non-Christians.

To say that Jesus now and forever has a PR problem worse than that of Toyota and BP combined is something of an understatement.

If you’re a Christian who happens to disagree and would like to take a shot at salvaging your personal savior’s reputation, go for it.

I humbly suggest that your time might be much better spent learning more about proven life changers such as the National Institutes of Health or helping to win the worm war.