Tragedy and God's Will

cultBgone

It's utterly amazing to me how religious belief in an omnipotent deity shapes some people's thinking.

One woman whose family missed the Air Asia flight which crashed stated that it was God's will to give her father hepatitis so that she canceled her family's vacation trip on that flight. She says she believes God saved her family and protected them. However, she later mourns the fact that she lost friends on the flight...so does she believe God deliberately planned for them to die?

Twisted, nonsensical thinking = religion?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/31/world/asia/airasia-missed-flight-fortunate-ones/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

AndDontCallMeShirley

"...it was God's will to give her father hepatitis so that she canceled her family's vacation trip on that flight."

What a great god. And yet, people will believe in and worship such a person. Amazing.

St. Teresa of Avila once told god, "If this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few."

"The dice of God are always loaded." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"God is indeed dead.
He died of self-horror
when He saw the creature He had made
in His own image." -- Irving Layton

DJS

Theists really have no rational, reasonable response to these types of incidents and the reactions of the believers. Other than simply feeling and believing. It is irrational to the highest degree, and there is no rational argument that can support it. Belief in a deity falls so far down the evolutionary scale that it shames me to think our species is so pathetic and weak and that I was one of them for so long.

And so it goes.

Joe Grundy

I was interested to hear/read of Bart Ehrman's story. He is a renowned NT scholar, author, etc. and well-worth checking out on youtube.

Despite his academic work which identified the inconsistencies etc. in the NT what led him to become an agnostic/atheist from being a fully-committed BAC was the issue of 'suffering'. Worth looking at the interviews on yt he's given on this.

confuzzlediam

This has always bothered me. How is it that God is willing to save one person from getting on that plane and yet all those who did get on it had to die? Is he that selfish that he needed more angels up in heaven as some would think? Maybe some need to believe that their loved ones are needed by God in heaven, but this goes against anything I was taught about God being a loving God. Not one that would purposefully take a loved one because he wanted another angel in heaven.

I'm also not a believer in the "power" of prayer. Why is it that some who pray regarding loved ones have their prayers answered, yet others who pray have their prayers go unanswered. Is this because one person was worthy of saving and the other was not? Was it one person's time to go and the other's not? When my SIL was dying in hospice, she begged to die, asking for us all to pray that God take her. She was done. She did not want to suffer any longer. Yet, she suffered horribly till her last dying breath. BTW she was a faithful servant of God who started pioneering after she was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma cancer. It's all a farce, in my opinion. But I may be bitter...

Downtowner

What gets me is when there's tragedy for example a bad car wreck where there are survivors you hear "God was with so-and-so who survived" as if He wasn't with the ones who died? When I hear that it gets under my skin.

KateWild

Things like this do make me think harder about my beliefs. I have already accepted that God is not benevolent.

But I am still hanging on to a creator. I am happy with this belief, but I might change.

Kate xx

shortfuse

Yes it is sad that some people see the survival of one and the death of another as "Gods will". This is due to lack of scripture knowledge. Gods will is that none should perish but come to the knowledge of His Son, Jesus who gives life. One thing you should remember, all people, at one point or another will die, the cause is not the tragedy, it's the fact that you WILL DIE is the tragedy, regardless of the manner. What did the people in the Twin Towers due to deserve death in that manner? The moral of the story in all areas of death is......are you ready to die? It's not a question of if, it's a question of when, my dear friends. When you do die, your spirit will continue, this earthly flesh that you wear is not you, it's just the suit you wear, your spirit is what carries the life of you, that's why none of us ever thinks about dying or thinks we will die. As you can see, what you think and what reality is are two different things.

DJS

Shortfuse,

You are preaching to the used-to-be-choir. We got it; we used to use those arguments. They are circular, specious, shallow, irrational, un-supported by the evidence and require a suspension of common sense and the use of one's brain cells, not to mention a large dose of credulity and burying one's head in the sand.

But we used to be you. We understand. Keep believing.

AndDontCallMeShirley

Gods will is that none should perish... all people at one point or another will die

So god's will is that no one should die, but we WILL all die. Got it (oy vey).

.... when you do die, your spirit will continue

And you know this how? (real evidence please, not scripture).

Tragedy and God's Will

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