Quote:
Originally Posted by CDSmith
Actually I don't see where it hurts for them to pray. Is it retarded or are they exploring all options? I've known plenty of people with life-threatening cancer including several members of my own family, and have some understanding in me about why they would choose to pray for help.
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ok... i know i am very cynical, but i was being serious.
just like the congregation that is praying for someone to get better... they are doing so because they believe God will hear their prayers and heal the person. thats the very point of it. thats what prayer is. thats why people pray.
the idea and basic appeal of all of this is that you now have some indirect control... "you do XYZ and things should work out just find because God loves you"
the difference is that reasonable, rational people ALSO realize that its not going to be the deciding factor.
my point was this
1) she murdered her kid. sucks.
2) its also not that big of a stretch in reasoning for her to think God will heal her based on the teachings of christ and christianity.
i wasn't trying to defend it.. i was more pointing out that its a very scary consequence of religion and it presents some interesting arguments "there is no god", "well God will help, but only if you do xyz", "your faith just wasn't strong enough or God would have cured her diabetes" etc etc. i think is quite logical for her to believe god will take care of her child and heal her because they are good and honest christians, living according to the word of God. its "logical" but religion has been forced to also infuse a little reality into the situation to account for the fact that bad stuff happens to bad people and tweak the message a little to say that "God helps those who help themselves" to blur the God line a little more.
the problem with religion is that religion is often the device that people use to make sense of the world around them. it provides a lot of very simplistic, cut and dry answers to overwhelmingly complex questions. I dont think we can hold people morally accountable for how they interpret that message. its huge, its complex, its confusing, its often contradictory, it doesn't jive with real life or science, but at the same people are being unfairly told that their eternal salvation depends on it
totally reasonable to expect a hic-up here and there
