Grad Student Humanist

Well, in the OT, Jehovah is always punishing the children for the sins of their parents. The most famous example being, of course, the way he curses all of Adam and Eve's descendants for all of eternity for the sin that A&E committed. That jehovah is a bastard!

luvluv

By not being a Biblical literalist?

Maybe the reason you haven't gotten many responses is that there aren't many Biblical literalilsts here.

Opera Nut

I have a very close friend who has an autistic daughter who is about 25, and her mental age is about 5. She plays with Barbies, watches Disney videos, and can speak and write somewhat but she will never be employable. She doesn't interact with other people at all, except her parents. The mother has no idea what caused the autism and neither did the doctors. The mother doesn't think of it as a punishment, but is totally heartbroken that she will never be able to have grandchildren. She has spent this child's life kicking and screaming and threatening to sue the school system to get proper teaching for her child. School districts don't like kids with disabilities because special ed teachers and classes cost more money.

Also, the mother doesn't know who will take care of the childii-in-an-adult body when her parents die. She is in adult day care and comes home at night. Many parents of disabled children have no guarantee that their children will be cared for at all when the parents die. They figure the state will warehouse them in institutions.

If I was in this woman's situation I would be heartbroken at not having grandchildren as well. Some parents consider their disabled children to be a blessing, and some parents have incorrigible, violent disabled children. The stereotype is that kids with Down's syndrome are sweet and quiet, but every kid is different.

Ronin

By faith that The One who allegedly has the power to render instant aid to relieve such suffering simply chooses not to.

Odd how faith in God supplying the means for the suffering to better deal with disabilities and illnesses is exactly the same as not doing jack shit.

The credulity and minddance of even liberal theists will always be a wonder to behold.

The only thing that is overcome is rational thought, Sabine...but, that may have been what you meant.

Jackalope

It's one way of holding your hands over your ears and yelling "LA LA LA LA! CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Instead of dealing with being disabled. I do know some people who use "faith" as a way to avoid thinking about how being disabled affects them. However, that non-thinking attitude can really bite you in the ass if you have a disorder that needs to be carefully managed. Better to be proactive, you're more likely to survive with less damage.

I have a feeling some of our literalists don't really want to touch this one because they already got their asses kicked last time the issue of "suffering" came up. There are enough of us here who are disabled who'll be happy to administer another whooping if they try and tell us that disabilities are part of God's Great Plan.

christ-on-a-stick

Hi luvluv, Actually, we've got a few who are in this forum quite regularly and addressing other topics - Magus, spurly (tho I haven't seen him for a week or so) and Badfish I believe. Magus and spurly have both explicitly stated that disease and disability, etc. arise from the imperfection of the world as a direct result of man's sin - and neither of them has touched this topic.

None of the above were willing to answer the explicit questions on Jamie_L's recent thread Would divine intervention make the faithful go bad? , either.

What are we to think? IMO opinion it doesn't do much for one's credibility to ignore tough question altogether.

christ-on-a-stick

Howdy Jackalope - The "deafening silence" is certainly giving me that impression as well.

Opera Nut

I am wondering about the degree of one's physical or mental impairments -- what would be considered a disability??

For instance, i am helpless and cannot drive a car without my glasses on. I am incredibly nearsighted plus I wear bifocals because of being middle aged. I have been told by a psychiatrist that I am much like a blind person in my not noticing visual cues from other people. And yet I have full color vision and stereo vision.

I take a number of medications that prevent me from having hypertension, stroke, allergy symptoms, death from hypothyroidism. My metabolism is incredibly slow and I don't have a lot of energy, even taking thyroid tablets, but I am not considered disabled.

There are quite a few things I have not done in my life because I did not have the energy to do them, but I am not considered disabled because I can walk, run, and move normally.

Any thoughts on a less than perfect body in many ways?