The Foolish Shadow
It was a gloriously bright and sunny day. Edward was enjoying a casual stroll on the beach. He always enjoyed these days. The sun glistened on the foam-speckled waves, and the wind with its salty flavor blew in the air.
Edward let out a big sigh of relief and mused to himself, “Not much better than the sand between your toes and the sun upon your face. The only way this could be any better would be if I didn’t have this dreaded person walking at my side.”
Edward’s one problem in life was that on every sunny walk he took, a man walked next to him. He grew very tired of the man over the years. He didn’t want him and didn’t need him, yet no matter how hard he tried, the man wouldn’t go away. He glared at him, cursed at him, and even tried to ignore him! But no matter how hard he tried, the man would appear again, every sunny day, without fail. Occasionally, Edward would close his eyes and pretend he wasn’t there, and yet, every time he opened his eyes again, without fail, the man would be back.
“If only I could get rid of this man, life would be truly free,” he declared. “What if you could?” an insidious voice responded.
Edward looked over his shoulder and saw a solo shadow looking at him. He was free. He appeared to be independent; there was no man walking at his side. Edward coveted the freedom he had… and wanted it. “Alright,” responded Edward, “you’ve got my interests; how do I get free?”
The solo shadow said, “It’s pretty simple, just ignore the man at all times; no matter what you do, never give him any acknowledgment.” “I’ve done that for years,” Edward interjected. The solo shadow grinned, a not-so-pleasant grimace if Edward was honest enough to notice, “Not long enough,” his reply.
“For this to work,” the shadow waxed eloquently, “you must ignore the man long enough that your heart is convinced no man exists. You must look to the sun and believe that you exist and live life to its fullest and that no man is present in your life. If you commit to this plan, all your life long, a day will come when you will wake up and there will be no man at your side. You will have thrown off the shackles of this man that you so despise. Instead? You will be alone and free like me, a shadow in the breeze with no substance or security.”
Edward the shadow looked at the man to his right as he walked along the sandy beach and said, “There is no man, just a shadow on the ground.”
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Tags: Atheism
7 responses to “The Foolish Shadow”
Unfortunately, for theists, they can’t show that their “man” exists at all. It’s notable how christians find that they must use fear and ignorance to get people to join their religion.
Thanks for your comment, Club Schadenfreude.
I’d love to hear your interpretation of the foolish shadow.
it’s yet another story invented by a christian to console himself when he can’t show that his god exists. It’s rather like Lewis’ various attempts to blame humans for his god’s failure to show up.
It is a narrative intended to illustrate Psalm 14:1.
Yep, as I said. It’s notable that all cults make this claim, and not one can show that their god merely exists. It’s great how christians try to claim that no one but their particular version does “good”, and how christians can’t even agree on what “good” means.
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.”
You are right, I don’t spend time proving God exists. Why would I attempt to prove the existence of a factual reality that I know to be true and is written in the heart of every human being.
I can’t help but wonder, why do you feel the need to try and disprove God’s existence?
What evidence do you have for the claim that no God exists when the reality of 6-8000 years of human history disagrees with you?
Nice set of baseless assertions, Minister. Unsurprisingly, I know that isn’t true since even christians don’t agree on what their imaginary friend wants. So do show how you know your nonsense is “written on the heart of every human being”. You can’t do what your jesus promises, so you are a great example for why not to believe your religion.
I feel the need to show how your imaginary friend doesn’t exist since your religion causes real harm with its lies and false promises.
Curious how no history shows that your god exists. Where’s the evidence your god exists and hmm, Aten does not? I can show that for every essential event in the bible, there is no evidence it happened. Christians themselves can’t agree on when, where, how or *if* those events happened. At any time proffered for when these events happenend, no one noticed them. Humans went about their regular, non-supernatural lives. No 28,000+ foot deep world-wide flood. No exodus of 600,000+ people and animals from egypt. No babel, no fabulous palaces and temples with literal tons of gold, silver, etc. No battles between hundreds of thousands. No famous miracle worker known throughout the middle east. No guy being followed by a literal roman legion’s worth of men twice in the rebellious province of judea. No triumphal entry into roman-occupied jerusalem. No major earthquake, skies darkening and dead jews wandering around jerusualem during a passover.
Curious how even Paul managed to miss that last stuff.