RANT: "This is the life He wants you to live."

• Adelynn wrote on 2010-11-10 16:53
  I don't mean this in an offensive way, but there are plenty of good forums that are capable of getting into deeper discussions than this without **** hitting the fan. I don't believe in god, but I have faith in people, and I think people on this forum are perfectly capable of conducting themselves. Blame those that commit the fault, and only if it actually happens.
  
  As long as it's "I disagree with you because...." instead of "OMG HOW DARE YOU NOT AGREE WITH ME YOU BLEEPING BLEEPITY BLEEP BLEEP" I think we should be fine. XD
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-11-10 19:54

  Quote from Pocoyo;211011:

  I think this thread should be locked.. Its just that this whole religion stuff is a very touchy subject.. I can tell something bad is likely to be said.

  
  
  Unless someone says something offensive, there's no reason why we can't have discussion.
  
  

  Quote from tink;210537:

  I've always struggled with this thought. I believe in God but I always hated how the Christian mentality seemed like "win-win" to me: they survived, it's a miracle. They died, it's God's plan. I can't really explain how I feel about it, but I dislike this thinking so much.
  
  My dog's dying of congestive heart failure caused by heartworm (I suspected my dog had heartworm years before, spoke to my parents about it and they did nothing until recently when he began bloating), and now the vets say he'll die within the month and the best thing to do is euthanize him. I've had my dog for 7 years and half of his life shouldn't be over yet (his breed can live 15 years or longer) and I refuse to stop praying about it. I've mustered all the faith I could to pray for my dog and I hope to God he gets better, but if he passes I'll be so disappointed. I refuse to believe it's "God's will" for my dog to die such a painful death or as young he is :x

  
  
  This is how I feel.
  
  We can't blame God for it, since we don't know God. But then I blame all these people who say that they know what God's plan is. Truth is, if God is real, we know nothing about him. Not one thing.
  
  The Bible was written by Man, not God. And God's not coming to me at night anytime soon to tell me what his Great Plan is.
• Zid wrote on 2010-11-11 19:25
  Only argument I can say about those kids suffering in Africa is that God left freedom of will and choice within humanity's hands to do what humanity wants. When a life ends, He judges that life and sends that soul in the place He deems fit. Other than that, I think God can't really intervene in earthly activities such as poverty or conflict. He can show signs and tell His followers what to do, but can't intervene, for it would be breaking His original plan with humanity, the freedom of choice.
  
  One can argue the poverty/ill-stricken humans don't have a choice, but their fate lies on the hands of their own race, not God. As least, that's what I believe. As far as I'm shown and drew my conclusion as my faith, God created things and life to exist just to experience existence, and gave life the power of choice to carry on. When the time expires... I'll just leave it at that.
  
  I call Heaven/salvation a "paradise". What I believe the paradise is, is another story. Very different than what most people think it is.
  
  

  Quote from Yogurticecream;210568:

  Don't mind me sharing my perspective on this, but this is why I think people feel it is wrong.
  Because everyone expects life to flow smoothly. When something falls out of the puzzle piece, they think it is odd.
  In truth, and in life, when there is a rise, there must be a fall.
  It's the law of balance that nobody really understands. I don't blame God for it.

  
  
  This is very touching. Hits the nail on the head in terms of what I am thinking of. +rep
• Juno wrote on 2010-11-12 01:36

  Quote from Magenera;209400:

  looking at the contribution religion has made I would say, that the reason we are at the age of reasoning was because of science. No one here has yet to say anything bad about religion anyway. This I think is a popular topic that pops up from time to time, as to why there is suffering in the world.

  
  
  I don't know about that ._.
  
  Nothing's been really direct, but just in the past page or so I recall people being called 'closed-minded' and of course the insinuations that believing in something you can't touch puts you on the intellectual level of a child who waits for Santa every christmas eve.
  
  

  Quote from Adelynn;211156:

  I don't mean this in an offensive way, but there are plenty of good forums that are capable of getting into deeper discussions than this without **** hitting the fan. I don't believe in god, but I have faith in people, and I think people on this forum are perfectly capable of conducting themselves. Blame those that commit the fault, and only if it actually happens.
  
  As long as it's "I disagree with you because...." instead of "OMG HOW DARE YOU NOT AGREE WITH ME YOU BLEEPING BLEEPITY BLEEP BLEEP" I think we should be fine. XD

  
  
  Reasons have been scarce and the premise of this thread lends itself more to general, albeit veiled, religion bashing.
  
  If the goal was to discuss why god does this or that, a specific god needs to be mentioned or at least people should let us know who they're talking about in each post.
  
  If the goal was to take potshots at religion in general then no god must be specified so that no matter what sort of reasoning is given you can always say 'this unspecified god is a jerk/illusion/etc." which is basically what's going on here.
  
  There's no learning or even much in the way of worthwhile discussion. It's basically a free-for-all sitting-around-the-campfire-with-a-bong style of light jabs and brushing off any offered answers.
  
  
  However, it hasn't been hostile per se so there's no reason to lock it. It's disappointing, especially given that, like you, I've seen people really dive in with this kind of stuff. But people are allowed to talk about almost w/e they want as long as no one makes a huge fuss about it.
• EienNoTsubasa wrote on 2010-11-12 21:26
  I guess I'm a little late, but anyways...here's what I think...
  To say that "This is what God wants for you" is wrong. No one can even speak to God (anymore, depending on what you believe) then who are you (no one specific) to say that "Oh yes, this is what God wanted for you." It annoys me quite a bit, especially when people are miserable.
  If we take the Africa example, there is no way that God said "Okay, let's see...I want Africa to be miserable sooo...I'm going to X Y and Z~"
  Look back at who made Africa the way it is! European imperialists that were way too greedy! Imperialists = God? I think not. Humans have attacked and made other humans miserable. I don't think (as I could be wrong) it's God's responsibility to fix everything that people screw up.
  
  If you look at the garden of Eden, even, no misery existed, no pain, no hunger, no violence, no conflict. Heck, even lions were vegetarians. I think it's appropriate to attach the word "perfect" to that. Then what happens? Man comes and screws it up. Then, boom.
  As to why God even put the forbidden fruit there in the first place? How should I know, I'm not God.
  
  Addressing the point of what Christianity is...
  Christianity, according to Christianity, is a relationship between the individual and God. You (again, no one specific) have sinned (in some way, shape, or form, at some point in his/her life, a person has done something wrong) and need forgiveness and salvation and the rest. In short, it's the stuff about "Jesus died on the cross for your sins so you could go to heaven if you believe that he died for you and rose again on the third day."
  Then there's "Love your neighbor as yourself." Which, to me, means "GO AND HELP PEOPLE!"
  I think those points are (or at least are a part of) the core of Christianity.
  Is there anything wrong with believing that "Jesus died on the cross...(ellipses cuz I'm lazy)...day."? I hope not, it's not hurting anyone else by believing in that.
  Is there anything wrong with "GO HELP PEOPLE!"? I surely hope not.
  
  Then why do "Christians" do such "Un-christian" things? Because people, being imperfect as we are, screw things up, but believe we're brilliant and go do a bunch of things that are totally opposite of what God says to do. *cough* funeralcrashing *cough*
  Are we right to attack those "Christians"? Well, if we do that, we're no better than they are. I think a good way to deal with this is point to the place in the Bible where it says "Love your neighbor as yourself" or "GO HELP PEOPLE" (not in those exact words, of course) and say "Compare that with what you're doing." Then steer them into the right direction instead of exploding in their face and saying "WTF ARE YOU DOING?! GTFO!", which would be counterproductive to say the least.
  
  I am a Protestant, so what I said may be biased. Therefore, I'll leave the rest of you to be the judges of that~
  
  EDIT: whoa, I did not realize that I just produced a wall of text O_O