I once had a preacher of whom I was extremely fond. However, she was a little too fond of fire for my tastes. She once lit a flaming brazier before starting to intone a dramatic prayer. The initial flare up was huge, and it scared the crap out of everyone in the nearby pews. We didn’t try that one again, but every time a church burns down, I wonder …
I thought that was a bad stunt, but this one is worse in every way:
That preacher should be liable for the therapy bills.
(via Dangerous Minds)
I don’t get it. How did this prove the kids were more concerned about “.15 cent” (cheap indeed!) fish than they were about saving souls?
In much the same way that so many things prove the exsistence of a god and not just any god but the Christian god?
Because the children aren’t yapping their faces of about jesus to their friends who don’t go to church.
It’s probably one of them sophisticated theological arguments which us atheists wouldn’t understand.
Yeah. I used to understand all that deep stuff when I was a Christian, but I got stupider. Or smarter, as the case may be.
Indeed, how are they so sure fish don’t have souls and so sure that people do? What kind of person does this to prove a point?
Isn’t there a part in the Bible where god gives everything to man?
The Pharyngula thread
I hope someone reports that preacher for animal cruelty. There are other ways to demonstrate their point other than intentionally harming an living, feeling creature. Little kids have great imagination and an ability to anthopomorphize, so why not use plush animals? :-(
And I need to wake up more before posting. Let me just take out one of those “other”s in there. *headdesks*
So explain to me how dumping out $0.15 FEEDER fish is any worse than tu use those fish to FEED larger fish? Are you a vegetarian/vegan as well? Who’s to say that carrots don’t have a soul? It’s still a living organism, and I personally know at least a dozen “tree huggers” that claim that plants have emotions as well. I’m not condoning the preacher’s actions, but I think you’re getting a little bent out of shape over it.
Why are you so emotionally distraught over the damning of a preacher that could have used FEEDER fish to FEED instead of completely wasting them. As for calling everyone “tree huggers” and part of PETA, why don’t you stop straw-manning and actually address the issues instead of spewing your irrational contempt for people who think this was a disgusting display of indoctrination-via-guilt.
The larger fish need to eat feeder fish to survive. The preacher and the floor would have survived quite handily without using them.
Also, in case you missed it when the state of Virginia brought them up on animal abuse charges, PETA kills halthy puppies and kittens by the thousands every year. So no, I don’t think anyone should belong to that monstrous thing. And no, I am not a vegetarian. I’m a little disturbed that you can’t spot the difference between eating an animal and killing it for shock value.
lol what the heck.
Analogy fail.
Fish are real and we can see them suffering.
God is invisible, silent. and ineffective in the lives of people, so who frickin’ knows?
Ahhh, how I yearn for the good old days, when we could round up some heathen savages and slaughter them while praising the Good Lord accompanied by their screams and death rattles. Those were some sermons!
I can’t imagine someone deliberately tossing hundreds of little fish that are absolutely no use to them onto the floor to die. What would happen if these kids went home and did this to their pet fish, then just stood there and watched the poor things asphyxiate? Wouldn’t their parents be flabbergasted?
Would he have dared to throw kittens in the tank to watch children rescue them? The next Sunday the church would have been empty… or/and he would have been in jail.
I can just hear him now. “they cared more about those free kittens…” *shudder*
I guess the point was the kids’ unholy friends – when they get to hell – will suffer a fate gazillion times worse than the fish, so if you’re not trying to convert your friends, you’re a fucking sociopath.
It does make some sense if one believes in eternal torment of unbelievers. If kids already believe it, this may very well be an effective tactic of indoctrination…
This is what I hate about Christians – their opinion that humans are above all other living creatures. This to me is a moral failure. I hope that this event causes the truly compassionate people in the congregation to never go to that church again.
So if a person is not in PETA they’re automatically a Christian and must be shunned because they think they’re better than all other forms of life on this planet? You line of thinking is very narrow and one sided. That’s what I hate about athiests. You think every Christian everywhere thinks and does the exact same thing.
“That’s what I hate about athiests. You think every Christian everywhere thinks and does the exact same thing”
Re-read that sentence and tell me it’s not funny …
I thought it was funny.
It is good … I’m going to complain about being stereotype by stereotyping people.
Anyway I’m sure that Fjord83 will be back and isn’t just a drive-by troll – that’s so typically of Christians to do and I’ve noticed that Muslims never do that!
^Made of win.
It’s not funny, man. It’s freakin’ hilarious!
You gotta wonder about this dork’s hangups about PETA and “Treehuggers”.
That sound you are hearing Fjord8, thats the point sailing right by you.
Its about the real harm this preacher did to helpless fish and the the helpless children all in the service to his Imaginary Friend. Telling stories about how the Boogey Man is going to hurt them for ever and ever.
It’s the black and white world some people live in – “you’re either for us or against us”. You see it a lot in politics, either you a conservative right winger/uber liberal left winger or you’re a communist/fascist.
This is just giving fish more excuses not to help us out when we fall in the ocean.
Found the guy’s profile through a little bit of looking around.he’s set to private, mostly..but that’s the guy.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Bishop/778039214
That’s awful.
Why is it when religion wants to prove a point something or someone has to die.
Jesus (allegedly) said “Consider the birds of the air. Your Heavenly Father takes care of them. How much more must He care for you”? Even God cares about the birdies and the fishies. This pastor has got a lot to answer for.
It’s cruel and nasty,and maybe proves their point. Then again maybe it proves the oposite. Yet for me what it proves is that if this a way they want to teach a lesson which will lead to my worship of their god. Well, that god isn’t worthy of faith,love or worship when it demands a death..of someone else,and this is done by the preacher. Don’t give a damn about the fish,but how exactly they are used I kind of do. Stupid and useless death is never good.
I’m no vegetarian but I find it a bit disturbing to see the worth of a poor fish’s life determined by how much money you bought it for. If I ran over next door’s cat I wouldn’t say ‘well it only cost you £20 from the rescue centre.’
Dammit, you’re right. I got my dog for free and they even threw in a dog bed and a few days worth of food. That doesn’t mean I want some bastard preacher to slit her throat to make a point to some horrified children.
Well, I say good for you kids!!! You did the right thing in trying to save those whom you could. This pastor is an unfeeling piece of S**T. It was right for them to be more concerned with the fish than with people without christ. Who gives a damn about christ, god or whatever? I certainly don’t and am unafraid of any wrath from an unseen god.
And on the inside, the kids were thinking, “but the fish don’t tell me to f*** off when I try to put them in the tank.”
I love that the preacher calls it a mass execution.
Isn’t it charming?
To a young child, that’s flat out traumatizing.
I’m an adult, and I’m feeling a touch traumatized after just hearing about it.
So basically those fish died for the vanity of the pastor.
I think this is a profound study. Even children are able to recognize the value of something tangible, like the life of a fish, and fail to ‘believe’ in something that is intangible, like a spirit.
This says a lot about the wisdom from the mouths of babes as well as the absurdities from the mouths of the self proclaimed wise men.
Well, it sure beats handling snakes. That pastor is a fool, though.