Justin Stressman said...
Of course your God would necessarily have been the one to have stricken you down in the first place, and caused you to live in fear for your life for the past 7 or 8 years now.
And it was modern medical science that was to thank for saving you...
But I don't expect you to acknowledge those points.
Why does God do bad things to good people. If God was real, why would he do this to you (the ant under the magnifying glass). If medicine alone saved my life, then medicine or science caused my heart attack (Fatty foods, preservatives, etc.).
Before I answer Justin, I will say that I have not lived in fear for my life. Yes I have had more heart problems then the ordinary man, but I don't live in fear of death, for all of us will die sometime, but I rejoice in life. I don't compare myself with the Jones', but celebrate the things I have.
Now I will say something that will get some people so mad that they will jump up and down and maybe shake their heads in disbelief." I rejoice in the things that have happened to me." . I will now explain my statement without biblical or scientific evidence, just what I believe.
I believe that God gives us all a different trail to follow thru life. If we all traveled the same road, had the same education and experiences, and we all believed the same, this would be a very boaring existence. Life is an adventure. Why in the world are we here? I believe it is to experience life, to travel that winding road, and to share it with others. If you want to go thru life fighting it, it will fight back, and if you go thru life ignoring it, it will ignore you. I rejoice in people with different opinions. I don't need pages of science to show that Justin does not believe in God. I like the simple approach. A simple,"I don't believe" would be ok with me, because it is your life and your right. The problem I have with some athiest is not the fact that they don't believe there is a God, but that they are so angry that everyone else don't share their opinion. What would I gain if someone has a different opinion then mine and I were to minimize their opinion.
I heard a minister once gave a sermon that was 45 min. long. He had many and great references. He waxed eloquent and made me marvel in his public speaking abilities. The biggest problem, he made his point after 20 min and didn't know when to shut up. He quoted people he thought were experts because they had written a book. He also missed one major point, the fact that others may think different. His road traveled was different then others, but not necessarily better or more correct, just different. If I have a higher IQ then most people, does that make me smarter then most? No, just like if Einstien was so smart, why didn't he invent perpetual motion, or why couldn't he throw a curve ball?
Is God "Picking on me"? Has science caused my problems or solved them? Once I know all the answers, I will let you know. In the mean time I will live the life that God puts in front of me.
Life in general
4 comments:
If you consider, as we Christians do, that God has our best interests at heart, why would he not give us challenges, fears and difficulties? A successful parent is not the parent who shields their child from all that is hard and difficult, but one who supports them while they face challenges, and comforts them when they fail. In the same vein, wouldn't it follow that a better God is the one that gives us both challenges, and the means to face them, while also giving us comfort and strength?
God gives us strength to face any trial, and often gives us trials to face as well. Science gives us challenges, but expects us to find our own solutions.
Dad, I think we got the better deal here.
There is no evidence whatsoever that any god has your best interests at heart etc.
Why do you have heart problems and I don't? When you are pious and I am an atheist?
Because there is no God in the first place to have to explain why he's making you suffer through greater trials than I.
It's the same reason why we don't have to make up excuses for why children suffer and die horribly and the most wicked people can have wonderful lives getting everything they want etc...
You people are the equivalent of abused wives making excuses for their husbands beating them; "But I deserved it... he really loves me, he just wants me to be a better person... it's my fault for angering him..." etc.
It's very easy to imagine a far better god than the one you worship.. and that still wouldn't make it real.
Now to cover some of the insanity you mention...
"If I have a higher IQ then most people, does that make me smarter then most? No, just like if Einstien was so smart, why didn't he invent perpetual motion, or why couldn't he throw a curve ball?"
Actually yes, having a higher IQ means you're more intelligent than most. Of course you need to actually study and gain knowledge to fuel that superior engine. Potential doesn't magically equate to actual knowledge and smarts any more than having a great engine in your car is going to give you the fastest car if you don't put any fuel in it (education based on sound information and principles), or put the WRONG kind of fuel in it (religion) etc.
"just like if Einstien was so smart, why didn't he invent perpetual motion, or why couldn't he throw a curve ball?"
Einstein didn't invent a perpetual motion machine because he was busy laying out the laws of the universe that PREVENT such a machine from existing.
Conservation of Energy.
Notice Einstein's name right there in the second paragraph? THAT is why. And if you STUDIED like I did, you'd understand these things and not constantly make incredibly stupid and ignorant nonsensical arguments to try to defend your idiocy.
And being able to throw a curve ball doesn't even have anything to do with intelligence. Stephen Hawking sure as hell can't throw a curve ball these days, but he's one of the smartest men on Earth. Manual dexterity has nothing to do with intelligence or knowledge. Just another of your usual fallacious red herring attempts at misdirection.
(continued next comment)
"Is God "Picking on me"? Has science caused my problems or solved them?"
If God existed, then yes, he would be tormenting you. Pretty much by definition... and you're sitting here making excuses as to why you deserve it and rejoice in suffering just like Job etc. (when in reality you just got a bum genetic rap and there's no greater mystery to it than that... nothing to rationalize away to explain why some god would make you suffer more than the next man etc.)
"Once I know all the answers, I will let you know. In the mean time I will live the life that God puts in front of me."
NONE of us will EVER know all the answers. But that doesn't mean that we can't make educated decisions based on all that we DO know. And all that we DO know continually shows that people like you and your son are delusional morons in denial of the facts.
(Don Jr. at least tries to be educated and rational, but sadly still falls painfully short as he's too stuck on wanting to be right and can't recognize all the logical shortcomings of his arguments, or the fallacious reasoning he uses when he tries to assert his superiority and then runs off before the debate can really bear itself out because he can't stand to not feel superior. It's honestly a lot more sad for me to see him investing such energy into delusions because he has the engine I previously mentioned... he's just got a few of the wrong parts in it and keeps filling it up with the wrong fuel...)
Anyway... I'd honestly walked away from all this insanity, but a buddy of mine asked me about Don Sr today and on a whim I peeked over here to see how things were going and this post raised my hackles.
And Junior... science doesn't "give you" anything. Science is merely a method for understanding the objective truths about the world we live in. Of course you have to find your own solutions based upon it. It's kind of stupid to imply that it could be any other way.
Sorry, but killing a little child with a painful cancer or something isn't some glorious thing by any stretch of the imagination.. not some benevolent little test for the faithful to overcome... it's just terrible... and in reality there is no god behind it that we need to make excuses for... it's just nature... nature doesn't care one way or the other because it's not some childishly imagined anthropomorphic father figure benevolently watching over us with our best interests at heart while striking us down with sicknesses and injuries and heartbreak and suffering... all for our own good etc.
Man... I'm just shaking my head sadly when I read stuff like this... especially when I expect Junior to be smart enough to be able to see and grasp the very clear shortcomings of his own reasoning and arguments.
Back to work for me. Good luck guys.
Oh, and to follow up one of those comments... about God making you suffer... YES.. if your God existed, by definition he would be the one making you suffer... and by extension Science would be what enabled the doctors etc to save your life and continue to keep you alive today.
Your God tried to strike you down and the fruits of science saved you and kept you alive.
"Science" didn't cause your problems. It's a method for gaining understanding, not some BEING with a conscious drive to do anything.
You keep trying to equate "science" to being some conscious being that is out to get you... or that CAUSES things, or puts you through trials, or "gives us challenges, but expects us to find our own solutions" etc.
"Science (from Latin: scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about nature and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. As knowledge has increased, some methods have proved more reliable than others, and today the scientific method is the standard for science. It includes the use of careful observation, experimentation, measurement, mathematics, and replication — to be considered a science, a body of knowledge must stand up to repeated testing by independent observers. The use of the scientific method to make new discoveries is called scientific research, and the people who carry out this research are called scientists."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method
MAYBE YOU SHOULD READ THOSE AND THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT WHAT I JUST SAID.
I've pretty much given up hope on you senior, but I expect junior to be able to wrap his head around these things if he can stop and be honest and mature enough with himself to not let cognitive dissonance send him running in the other direction to preserve his delusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
Post a Comment