When I was a kid I was in a foster home and I had foster parents who were hard core Christians. Even then I didn't believe in god and I still don't now. It has nothing to do with how you're raised, it depends on the type of person you are.
I believe we live on our own and if we want something we shouldn't "pray" to a god in hopes we'll get it. We should go out and get it ourselves. It may be easier for some people to believe in a wizard that will fix all your problems but I think that's just living with your head in the clouds.
Hell, I had a friend with CF(Cystic Fibrosis) and when we were kids he would cry and tell me he hopes god will let him live a long and normal life.(He was a serious Christian too) He died at 17. He prolly believed in god more then I could imagine. He still died young.
I agree with this 100%. I come from a mother who is a strict Catholic, my half brother and sister are both Catholic. My father was a laid-back Methodist who actually got issued out of his home church for calling the priest on giving out misinformation. My father has a humerous outlook on religion at best, but he is deeply spiritual and I know he believes (though does not really say) that Christ is his Lord. I chose to seperate from the Christian Faith at the age of 11 because I found; A) no comfort in it, B.) too many things that seemed to contradict themselves, C) it gave me no hope.
His father, my grandfather, died when I was 5. He was my best friend, still is. He was one of those heads of the family types that really everyone looked to. We were close-knit and I still live 2 houses away from what used to be my fathers childhood home. When it was explained to me why he had to leave, my mother said 'God decided it was time for Papa to come home to him'. Now, I knew these words were comforting to her and maybe to my brother and sister, but not to me. To be quite honest, that scared the shit out of me. I was 5, who can blame me? In the course of two weeks God decided to take my perfectly healthy Papa, hospitalize him, make him deteriorate so quickly and so effeciently that they wouldn't allow me to see him in his hospital room only to let his heart fail because of weakness... and thats the forgiving and loving God I was told about? Even at a young age I thought it was bullshit.
We can't asign things as "God's Will" and just expect everyone to accept or understand that. We can't sit and tell people that 'if you pray, you'll be favored by God and given a good life'. Now, some of that is eerily true. My brother-in-law's grandmother for example. She prayed every day, was a good Polish Catholic woman and I swear to god, had the Pope on speed-dial. She lived a good life, had a fantastic family and was just a beautiful person. She died content and surrounded by the people she loved. Now, is that God's Will? Or just the course of living by guidelines to be a good person?
Those who subscribe to the "God's Plan only" doctrine would say "yes, that was God's Plan for your friend, and his reward in Heaven is greater than could be imagined here on Earth for his suffering". While that may be the case entirely, it's a detailed version of the "good die young" adage and doesn't necessarily console anyone down here, and does easily breed cynicism.
Now, not knowing your friend, I don't know what level (if any) of medical treatment he and his family pursued. There are entire families and churches and sects that outright refuse medical treatment of any kind because of their "faith" that God will make it all better. Hopefully, it wasn't the case with your friend.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are those who feel that they themselves can go it alone the entirety of the way, without any intervention, hope (or want of hope out of a fear for false hope), or the like. Those would be just as bad in my humble opinion than those who rely entirely on anyone (or any deity) to do everything for them.
People like this are just asking for an accident or tragedy. They're the doggedly loyal christians that are like 'We never got help for the espestos in our ceiling, we just prayed, but now my 2 young sons are dead and my husband is in the hospital. We prayed for a miracle and it just never happened, but God will repay us'. No, you moron, just no. These are the idiots that live in 'Tornado Alley' in Kansas and say their trailer park won't get destroyed in an F5 because they're a 'good Christian'.
Tristam Green said:
As for me, I'm a firm believer in two things: God doesn't do things for us, He gives us opportunities to help ourselves; and that He doesn't help those who don't at least make an effort to help themselves (effort being as small or grand as you like). Most importantly for my first stance, and at the risk of "cherry-picking a scripture" as Excal eloquently (couldn't have thought a better term) put it, "Don't put the Lord to the test". For my second stance, I could sit on my butt and pray all day long that God would give me a full-time job, but if I don't at least make the effort to find one, He's not going to plop one in my lap anytime soon.
A man was stuck on his roof in a horrible flood. He prayed to God for help for a very long time, begging God to save him. A man in a boat came by: Climb in! He called out to him. "Nope, God will save me!" the man replied, so the boatsman rowed away. The man continued to pray, as the water rose to his waist until another boat came by. "Holy cow! Climb in man, we can get you to safety!" the boatsman cried out, grabbing a rope. "No thank you, God is going to save me!" The man cried back over the rushing water. The boatsman rowed away. The man on his roof prayed until the water was up to his neck, when he saw a bright light. A man slid down a ladder from a helicopter, "Grab my hand! You're going to drown!!". The man on his roof simply shook his head and told the helicopter rescuer he was going to be saved by God, and he watched them fly away.
The man from the flood woke up found himself at the Pearly Gates. When he entered he walked up go God and said, "Lord, I prayed and prayed for you to save me in that flood but you never came!" God simply looked at him and cracked a smile, shaking his head softly. "My son, I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what else did you want me to do?"
It's an old joke, but its pretty accurate in the description of some common believers. I once said, within a grouping a friends while we were discussing religion, that Christianity was the religion for "Sheep" (sheep meaning those that cannot think on their own, but just want to be lead). In some cases, that is completely true. In others, it isn't.
I don't understand the idea behind faith being a good thing. I think it's one of the worst things ever created by man. It's nothing more than trust that hasn't been earned. I see people with faith and it saddens me. To have absolute true faith in anything is to set yourself up for disappointment.
Faith is for people that don't care how things work. I can't accept the answer "That's just the way things are." for anything. It's like a person who drives a car but doesn't know anything about it, except maybe where the gas goes. I can't do that, and I don't understand how anyone can. In my eyes, that is just living with ignorance. But that is being ignorant about something that doesn't matter. Religion is being ignorant about something that consumes your life and every aspect of it.
Normally i don't let the ignorance of others bother me. Religion is different though. It has several negative effects on me (and every other non-believer) directly.
I wish that it was freedom from religion instead of freedom of religion.
Faith is for those that can trust. For those that can believe in something bigger than themselves. For those that have hope and for those that do not believe that everything is destined for failure. This country was built on freedom of religion. Your right to practice, or not practice, what ever you want. If people try to tell you otherwise, fuck them. They're infringing on your basic rights as an individual.
Just because people adhere themselves to the laws of a Higher Power, does not make them ignorant. The people that adhere themselves so strictly that they become raving maniacs? Yes, they're ignorant. Those Baptist people down south, the people that were in Waco, Islamic Extremists, certain sects of Goddess Worship (just... wow) and any other form of religion you can think of. When you start posting signs on the edge of the parking lot of your place of worship that says 'The battlefield starts here', we're going to have issues. If you think I'm ignorant because I chose to find comfort and hope in bowing my head to the Moon, facing only East and kneeling in prayer twice a day or spending 90% of my Sunday in a humid, old building with 9000 old people, whatever. One persons beliefs are none of another persons business. It's the fuckers that try to push things on you and change you to their liking that have basically fucked this entire thing up.
Sometimes, I just want to rub my friend’s nose in the bible and go “BAD HUMAN! BAD!” and snap my fingers a couple of times.
If it can work on dogs, it can work on idiots.
BAD HUMAN! BAD! People are allowed to believe what they like, it doesn't make them idiots just because you dont agree.
