DMB

I note that this thread appears in one of the so-called philosophical forums. Perhaps we should reinstate "Rants, Raves and Preaching". :notworthy

Amie

Hi lpetrich
its interesting that you would bring up this issue, I was just having this conversation tonight with one of my nieces. Her friend Joshua just killed himself a couple of weeks ago here . Its very sad and she is starting to get a feel that "no one is watching over us" and questions "where was God" and "blames God" and asks if he was able to intervene then why didn't he? This is the first time in her life she has experienced this type of pain and doubts and as much as I attempted to offer any comfort tonight none worked and rightly so. Sometimes things make no sense to us and we just have to work through them. Sometimes shit happens, we are here living our lives and bad things happen but I dont feel these events give me any sense of abandonment and I don't feel blame can be put on God for not "intervening" after all I believe he is the one with the plan so I trust in that...

Yellum Notnef

Amie,
All you`ve done is shrug your shoulders and make baseless assertions about angels and some unknown plan.
It`s hard to imagine how anyone could find these answers sufficient.

It might also interest you to know that I do not feel abandened by a god who was never there to begin with.

Amie

For some people who believe no explanation is necessary, for some people who don't believe no explanation is possible.

Its not that I shrug my shoulders Fenton its just that I cant convey my faith on to you.

Infinity Lover

If everything happens for a reason, there also has to be a reason why there doesn't seem to be a reason for so many things that happen.

For me purpose is found in what we make of life, not in how it ends up getting destroyed. Every death that doesn't teach us to honour life is in vain.

I prefer to find continuity and comon ground between believers and non-believers, rather than division. I hope both points of view can agree, that the problem's never what some 'god' failed to do, but what we fail to learn.

Old Man

Think back to AD70. The nation of Israel was the most religious nation in the world. Then over one million of them were wiped out in the space of a few years.

Moral: being seen to be religious never protected anyone from God's wrath.

ju'iblex

belief is not a choice. no matter how hard i try i cannot choose to believe trent reznor is standing behind my back willing to present me with 5 fabulous women for the taking. no matter how hard i try, i cannot believe my hand has been dipped in black paint. no matter how hard i try, i cannot believe that 500-700 people are not dying of AIDS in africa per day. and no matter how hard i try, i cannot believe there is anyone or anything with a pretty plan for my life.

belief:Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something

choice:The act of choosing; selection

choice means to weigh up the pros and cons of an already seen selection and to accept one as truth, belief is to put faith in a selection which may or may not have been seen and declare it to be true.

belief, again, is not synonymous with choice. thats why belief and choice are spelt very differently and have very different roots.

Amie

I never said it was the same thing. And none of the examples you gave applied to my statement of "people have the choice to believe in God or not". People can choose to believe, people can choose to not believe. The choice is always there.

ju'iblex

if you think that, then my point has obviously gone straight over the top. I dont see how i could have made it any clearer personally.

Yellum Notnef

So it is God who causes bad shit? I thought Amie was just telling us that "shit happens" on it`s own,but now you`re talking about "Gods wrath".

Moral: How can you expect me to believe you when you guys (Christians) can`t even get you answers straight?

So if being the most religious people doesn`t protect you from "Gods wrath" whats the point of all the prayer breakfasts,national days of prayer and general daily religious overkill in this country?