seebs

Hmm. That may be; I've had things like that too. On the other hand, I've had things I thought were like that until I thought about them a different way.

It makes a good habit.

Maybe *that's* personal growth.

Sorta, maybe. You have some control over what your experience of a thing is, because experience is as much interpretation as reality in most cases.

Agreed - but it often doesn't, and being ready to let go is important.

Oh, me neither. I just like to point out to people that it's an option, and it *does* help to practice.

I dunno. I always saw it as a sort of dodge; "I don't have to feel bad about these people who are worse off than me, because God wouldn't have made them worse off if they couldn't take it". Maybe God wouldn't, but *people* sure would.

seebs

Well, that was the process by which I migrated from agnosticism to Deism to theism, and eventually Christianity. Worked for me. Can't say it'll work for anyone else; maybe I'm just lucky, or exceptionally gullible, or whatever.

I would agree that your answer in some ways is an easier one, but I'm not sure that makes it "better". See, as long as I'm not convinced that it's *true*, I won't think it's a "better answer"; I am more interested in truth than in ease of further understanding.

THE_LEGENDARY_HQB

Fascinating.

You say you've asked the questions I mentioned, and became a Christian.

I asked those same questions, and deduced that God, at least as defined by Christianity, was a hoax.
Of course, as a Liberal Christian, you at least don't have to conform too much of your image of God to what the Bible teaches.


Say lavee.

And no, I don't consider you gullible.

Stay gold,
The Legendary HQB, Esq.

seebs

I just disagree with some people about what, exactly, the Bible teaches.

Anyway, it took a long time; I gradually became convinced that *something* was out there, and probably friendly, and then gradually migrated over to accepting Christianity as the "best available explanation".

Grad Student Humanist

God gave my father cancer and it handled him all right. Right into an early grave.

Perchance

That's what I've settled on: that what you think about in a way becomes your reality. That doesn't, however, mean that thinking that way necessarily changes reality. Thinking may get holes torn in it and need to be patched up occasionally, and if one has lost sight that one's worldview is only one's worldview and started to think of it as just the way things are, this can lead to intense trauma. I've seen it happen to several people who became obsessed with trying to find out "why this is happening to me" and "what have I done to deserve this," and wouldn't be convinced that sometimes it's just things happening.

So does deciding beforehand that you don't necessarily have to find good in everything, I think .

Maybe- although the "sudden realization of universal peace and love" part was missing .

I think this needs to change to respond to each situation, though, and it also changes from person to person (which is another reason I find the "God never gives us more than we can handle" thing suspicious, as it purports to give universal advice). I have a pretty good idea of what kinds of things I could stand- being paralyzed, going deaf, losing close friends or family members (this last because I know that it is going to happen). I don't think that I could stand never being able to read or write again, having to live with despair the rest of my life, or being convinced that I was a worthless sinner worthy onlly of Hell. On the other hand, probably some people could.

Too, I think there are experiences that fit entirely outside the realm of judgment. Being in a coma is a horrible thing that gives a person absolutely no chance to think of it as a growth experience, given that he or she has no conscious mind left.

Unfortunately, a lot of the people I've known who won't discuss it openly turn passive-aggressive, or complain about the problem to everyone save the person they're have the problem with. "Letting go" is a long way down the list.

Oh, I've heard it before. I simply sometimes find it coming from the most ironic people . My father tells me constantly, "Go with the flow," and he's one of the most impatient, competitive people I know (other than myself, and I know where those genes came from ).

I think it's also a self-comfort blanket: "No matter what happens to someone, or even to me, it has to work out in the end." And, unfortunately, often it doesn't. I find it akin to the belief in poetic justice, and perhaps to the notion of Judgment Day.

-Perchance.

winstonjen

I'm surprised that theists haven't tried to justify it by saying, "They did deal with it, suicide was god's plan for them."

Sad thing is, sometimes suicide is the only way to deal with certain problems. It may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but it is a solution nonetheless, and that may be enough reason to some people.