Comments on: The Pirate King: a parable

By: Nuadha

Nuadha — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:21:35 +0000

I agree with Kit Hadley Day. The parable was very interesting and thought provoking, and details some very good reason why religion and morality are not one and the same (that in fact, an apiratical morality governed by logical and rational hypotheses is favourable to blindly following without reason the morality of the Pirate King) but the story would perhaps be better if you made mention of not only the existence of the multitude of other Pirate Kings or Pirate Councils (Polytheism) but also if it made mention that the followers of this particular Pirate King could not even agree amongst themselves the right way follow Him, and had fought bloody wars that went against His teachings to prove their way was the one and only right way. Of course, then the parable might ramble on somewhat! I’m also sure that the analogy would be then expanded even further until it encompassed every argument ever made about the Pirate King. ;)

By: KitHadleyDay

KitHadleyDay — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:05:00 +0000

I would suggest that the parable does not cover all of the problems with this version of theism. There is no mention of the 1000s of other pirate kings that have all claimed to be the one true pirate king, all with equally well stocked torture chambers.

By: Kodanshi

Kodanshi — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:39:38 +0000

That’s exactly the point. Why, simply because it supposedly created all of existence, does god have to be good? At any rate, I find it impossible to justify a good, merciful and just god alongside the existence of eternal hell for finite sins. Not only sins, but simply spiritually disagreeing with what a supposed ‘prophet’ has said.

By: Chris Swanson

Chris Swanson — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:53:06 +0000

A lovely little parable! I’m most amused/horrified. :D

By: Monimonika

Monimonika — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:29:35 +0000

Good job illustrating the unreasonableness of how the common view of the Christian God works. Although I agree that Constance gets treated unfairly, there is no actual requirement that she must be treated fairly. If the Pirate King as described does exist, well, life just sucks. Unless another force comes into play, there’s nothing stopping the Pirate King and his followers from calling and enforcing what they do as “justice”.

Equally, if there really is an all-mighty jackass of a God that sends people’s souls to fiery hell for the slightest of infractions, tough cookies for the majority of us. It’s like how athiests may view the destruction caused by a sudden unforeseen natural disaster; something sucky that just happened with no reasonable method of prevention.