In the last update, I talked about barber poles and barbers. It reminded me of a story I heard a long time ago — it only uses barbers to make a point, but I always thought it was a good story and I think it’d be a good time to write it down in my ramblings….
It seems this man went to a barber shop to get his hair cut. As the barber began to work, they talked about all kinds of things (as barbers are prone to do.) Eventually they touched on the subject of God and the barber said, “I don’t believe God exists.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if there were a God, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there wouldn’t be suffering or pain I can’t imagine a loving God would allow all of these things…..”
The customer thought a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument…
The barber finished and the customer left the shop. Just as he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair — he looked dirty and unkept. The customer turned around and went back into the barber shop and said to the barber, “You know what? Barbers don’t exist.”
The barber was surprised and said, “How can you say that? I am here, and I am a barber — and I just cut your hair!”
“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair like that man outside.”
“Ah, but barbers do exist! What happens is, people just don’t come to me,” said the barber.
“Exactly!” said the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, does exist. What happens is people don’t go to Him and don’t look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”
Believe in God —or don’t. It’s still a good story……
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