God's Favorite Country

The one thing (yes, only one) that really gets to me is how fast the religion model breaks down when you think about what it really means.

Since xtianity doesn't have the concept of multiple lives (modern xtianity doesn't anyway), you're pretty much stuck with the life you have and whatever afterlife you put yourself in by your belief in God.
The problem really comes when you look at the sad state of some countries. America is truly rich no matter how you look at it, and some other countries really aren't... no matter how you look at it. You don't have to go any further than say Africa (I know that's not a country, but I'm making a point here) to see just how poor and miserable the human condition can get.

So why are some people born in these horrible conditions while others like us are born privileged? And you really have to agree that pretty much everyone in America is extremely privileged compared to everyone else on the planet. Anyway though...

The usual xtian explanation for misery and happiness is that God is either punishing us for something or rewarding us for something. If something goes wrong in your life, it's probably either because you've done something wrong, or because you're being tested.

And since xtians don't believe in past lives, then where does that leave us? Why are some of us born to live in excellent conditions and the rest are left to suffer their whole lives? Why does God choose to put some of us here and others of us there? It makes no sense whatsoever. Since you haven't even been born yet, you couldn't possibly have done anything so what are you being punished for? And since there's nothing around you and no way to change your situation, then you're not being tested because the only way to test someone is to give them an out to their situation that they can achieve once they meet some specified condition. And in places like Africa that just isn't the case. So there's no way people in Africa are being tested.

And why me? Why do I get lucky enough to be in America? What makes me so special? Am I just lucky enough to have nobody in my family tree to have ever taken it up the ass so there's nothing to punish me for? Does that mean that everyone in Africa is being punished for the anal sins of their ancestors? Bullshit.

So the whole model breaks down pretty fast when you really think about it. Being born in a good country is definitely luck. We all could have just as easily been born in Bosnia or Pakistan. And it has nothing to do with God because that argument can't carry very far at all.