faith in god ?

[anneasquith]

watching the rescue of the chillean miners, some have thanked god and their faith for assisting them in coping underground for such a long time and being rescued. would you thank god ?

[naomi24]

Sorry AB, is playing up tonight. I was typing and suddenly - zap - it posted. That should have read .....

Zabadak, You suspect? Your suspicions are irrelevant. And why thank God for what men did? Your God did zilch so how does that enhance the value of what those men did? Children have imaginary friends but adults should have the courage to abandon their fantasies and face reality. Is it really that difficult to find a modicum of honesty and give credit where credit is due?

[Zabadak]

Naomi: credit where credit's due: part of my piece spoke out of my own experience and what I feel, about which I have no suspicions at all. I stand by what I said: I think fro many people, giving God thanks for what they did is enhancing, affirming and welcome, not diminishing or credit stealing.

[naomi24]

Just read your last to Jomifl - so you just pick and choose. Oh God(?). What a mad world this is!! Bedtime methinks!

Night all.

[Redheadthere]

may well be that God allowed them to be trapped in the first place so that ppl would remember him when they are freed

[naomi24]

Just read your last Zabadak - and all I can say is ditto to my last. Good grief!!!!!!!! - and goodnight.

[askyourgran]

237, You are right, people do pray, very hard indeed in some cases when their situation feels helpless. The hope that someone could do something to help them in their hour of need is very real. People post Novenas to St Clare in newspapers convinced that their prayer has been heard and help has been given. Theirs is the faith that keeps their life on an even keel.

[237SJ]

Interesting, askyourgran, that nobody in this thread apart from you has answered my question!

[askyourgran]

They like to hear the sound of their own egos 237, no-one elses opinion counts but theirs. pity.

[Zabadak]

Night Naomi. And no, not just pick and choose. It depends whether you start with an understanding of God and assess what happens in the light of that - this is a God kind of thing, this isn't - and or attempt to live your life in the light of that understanding. It helps if you have some of that understanding in common with other people.
I am well aware that some people (for example) like to knock aeroplanes out of the sky in the name of a "merciful" "peaceful" God. It just doesn't match my reading of what God is like and I feel free to say that I disagree with them on a profound level. I'm also aware that other people will disagree with them without reference to God. I don't think that's a measure of how "grown up" or otherwise any of us are.

[Zabadak]

237SJ sorry, it's quite hard to keep up when people are throwing questions at you! My answer is yes, which is why I had no difficulty earlier on in saying I was firmly with those who were giving thanks to God alongside the miners and their rescuers.

[naomi24]

But Gran, face facts - it's real people that help people in dire need - not imaginary friends. Where would those miners have been be without real people? DEAD!!!!! And that includes your scenario 237SJ.

Zabadak, you cannot understand God because you have no conception of what God may be. All you know is what other men have told you - and they know no more than you, so what they're telling you and what you are believing is in fact absolute nonsense. There are none so blind............. and all that.

This place is compulsive at times but I really do have to go to bed now - really. Night all. x

[237SJ]

Sorry, Z I wasn`t alluding to you

[Zabadak]

Naomi, I think you must be getting tired. There is no way in the 20 universes that you can say with absolute certainty "you cannot understand God because you have no conception of what God may be. All you know is what other men have told you - and they know no more than you, so what they're telling you and what you are believing is in fact absolute nonsense." Piffle.

[237SJ]

Sorry naiomi. Not sure what scenario you mean regarding me. However, with regards to my earlier comment, have you ever been in an extemely live threatening situation where you want to pray to someone, anyone just so you can feel you have some control over the situation you are in? I have.

[Stargazer]

I am with those who place their trust in God and that all the amazing work and effort and pulling together that enabled the successful rescue of all these men was because of the altruistic motivation of their saviours. The source of their antruism and love for their fellow men comes from the very essence of God which is love.

[flobadob]

I'll go out on a limb here and say that 90% of atheists, when suddenly placed in a seemingly life or death situation may well turn towards God. Of course there's no way to know until it happens, and with God's blessing/with any luck, that situation shall never arise.

[237SJ]

flob - it arose with me and your percentage is right - about 90%

[askyourgran]

Naomi, we are talking about people who find themselves in a predicament, God didn't put them there, accidents happen. These are people who have been raised with a faith from childhood, and that is hard to shake off after a lifetime of prayer, unless you have totally moved on from your family and its structure. Todays lawlessness and selfishness can be laid right at the door of the move away from Christianity. Rightly or wrongly, religion is made for the masses, it keeps them humanly decent. It keeps the more simple people/nations childlike in their fear/reverence of a greater being bringing vengeance upon them.
How are you so sure that there is no-one, nothing at all after death. When millions more are sure there is?

[flobadob]

It's a bit like a thread I posted at the time of the floods in Pakistan. A woman was on the news and she said, and I quote "It took years for God to build me a house, and now the floods have washed it away". I'm gonna look it up because at the time I think some people thought I was taking the mick but what I was questioning was that warped belief of good things being attributed to God but bad things aren't. http://www.theanswerb...y/Question924827.html

[dotty.]

yes