hezekiah jones

Originally posted by spurly
To God it is just a stepping stone to eternal life.

Or torture, as the case may be.
Child lives a life of disease and torture, doesn't "accept Jesus."
This is less of a tragedy to "God."
To "God," this is simply a stepping stone to ... more torture.

Nice religion you have there.

beth

If church is so sacred and god is so good, why would god allow disease to be spread through her services? Why would she allow people to become infected with fatal diseases through preforming her works?

spurly

Disease is a natural result of living in a world that is fallen. Disease has no favorites, it attacks everyone equally. Whether they are followers of God or not, we are all subject to it. One day this will not be the case, but today that is the way life on planet earth is.

Kevin

lpetrich

spurly:
Is a relationship with God ineffective against disease. No. That relationship can bring comfort through the pain, strength where there is weakness, hope where there is despair.

In effect, Marx was right about religion being like some sort of drug. Note that spurly indirectly concedes the total ineffectiveness of such a supposed relationship in curing disease.

Down here, we see death as much more of a tragedy than God does. To God it is just a stepping stone to eternal life. To us, because of finite limits, often it is seen as the end, when it is really only a transition to a whole new beginning.

Then why not send oneself to that "new beginning"? Why act as if one was afraid of it?

lpetrich

What an excuse for gross negligence!

A god who does not protect his/her/its favorite houses of worship is rather negligent.

Spurly, I suggest that you read my posting about guilt by omission.

Sabine Grant

Do you also keep a distance from a HIV positive person? a mask will protect you from contamination in the case of SARS. I can think of more rational reasons why an individual would avoid attending church with sick individuals than the fear of getting sick. But as a Health Care worker, the fear to be contaminated by anything does not keep me away from sick folks thanks to universal precautions.

sakrilege

But it would be like Megan's Law since we know who the bad people are since the cosmic forces lump them together in misery, we can avoid them so they don't negatively influence us.

sakrilege

I don't see a natural death at an advanced age as a tragedy. I prefer nothingness over the thought of spending eternity kissing god's arse. Truly I do.

sakrilege

But why do animals suffer with disease? Do they also have free will that they violated and are being punished for? Certainly, disease could be a human only condition. I can only conclude that god is either mean or inept.

sakrilege

First, SARS can be highly contagious to the casual bystander as compared to AIDS. Second, per the news story and therefore are contaminating people who are unaware the person is infected. Third, knowingly seeing a sick person knowing beforehand how to prevent infection is NOT the same as being exposed unawares.