I often receive email articles or internet links to photos of breathtakingly beautiful landscapes, or pictures of unusual animals, or news about someone who was saved from a catastrophic accident, in which God is attributed as the maker or responsible for saving the life of the lucky one.
If I were argumentative, I would tell my friends that if God is responsible for all the beautiful things in nature, then God must also be responsible for the ugly ones, like diseases, poor African children stricken with hunger, or for the deaths of the people who did not make it out alive from the accident. However, the answer from my religious friends would invariably be that God has a reason for doing what he does, and it is not for us to know why.
This kind of cop-out thinking is pervasive among the highly religious. Once they have don their "God Goggles", no naturalistic explanation that is offered can satisfy them. For them, the answer is always God, and God can do no wrong!
Which is why I like this video from The Thinking Atheist, in which Seth talks about the "Blind Spots" in the religiously afflicted. Seth was a Christian for 30 years - including 12 years as a Christian broadcaster. However, Seth ultimately found the bible's answers to be sorely lacking, and upon critical examination of his religion and to "think" for himself, finally put down his God Goggles and became an atheist. I like this video and decided to link it because Seth's story is not only interesting, I find him very funny, and his talk is highly entertaining.
