God and earthquakes

I see many prayer requests for people suffering in Japan.  I admire the empathy, but why do you have to ask God to help people?  He won't do it otherwise??

I have heard it said that God doesn't make these horrible disasters happen.  If that's your belief, then certainly you believe that he knows these things will happen (at the very least he has knowledge of tectonic plate movement.) and does nothing to stop them.  So he is, in fact, actually responsible for them.  In other words, your loving God is a mass murderer and mass torturer.   It's like setting a baby in a crib with a poisonous snake....not helping the baby unless asked, and when the baby is bitten, not being held responsible and instead being hailed as a loving parent.

In order to believe that ancient fairy tales are real, one has to throw logic out the window.

I guess I'm offensive

     Sometimes I post my opinions on religion.  Sometimes I make a smart-ass humorous jab at religion.   This makes some people uncomfortable because we are all naturally non-confrontational.  Occasionally someone will confront me with their opinion that I should not be confrontational because it is "hurtful" and "disrespectful".   Sometimes they will criticize me for criticizing others, which is somewhat hypocritical. 
     If I criticized a group of people who danced naked in whale blubber in order to get to the secret mothership behind the moon, most would be right there with me remarking on how weird that was.  At the very least I would probably not get scolded for criticizing these blubber-dancers.   Even with such religions as Scientology or Islam, I probably wouldn't get much negative feedback from my friends for criticizing opression of women or alien overlords.   But if I criticize a religion they believe in or the most popular religion of neighbors, friends and family, then I'm being rude and told that I should respect all religions.  Really?  all....or just yours?  Bottom-line, all religions are just as weird as whale-blubber dancers.  Established religions have been around for thousands of years so the weirdness factor has worn off.   Our society see's these as a normal part of the community.  But again, ALL religions are WEIRD and shouldn't be taken any more seriously than aliens or blubber-dancers.  With Christianity there is a talking snake, a talking donkey, walking on water, people rising from the dead, mass murder, abuse, slavery, demon-possessed pigs, etc etc etc.
     I can care about people, respect my friends, but I am not obligated to keep my opinions on weirdness and self-delusion to myself.  Should Democrats and Republicans be required to keep their critiques to themselves?
    Finally, stop telling me to be nice.  Why?  Because I AM being nice.  Sorry I don't shroud my words in flowers and warm fuzzys, but I am nice, and I truly want to hear other opinions.  If I was mean, you would really know I was being mean.  To have an open, honest and mature discussion about such things.  one needs to use honest words.  People become SO offended, that ANY criticism, no matter how it's worded, will be interpreted as rude.  So relax and have an open and honest dialog with me...or ignore me.  But stop telling me what I should or should not say.

Amen
PS.....I am also occasionally accused of doing this because I enjoy it or "get off on it".   People can't see any valid reason why I would criticize religion so I must just reallllllly enjoy pissing people off...just for the fun of it.  MUHAHAHAHAA!  um, no that is not the reason.   I could write a long long list of the reasons why religion is bad (that's for another post), but trust me, the list is long and THOSE are the reasons why.

Living Without Religion - A Campaign by the Center for Inquiry