Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by oneinfinity on May 29, 2011 at 7:24pm

all the time :( last week i took the state real estate exam and passed both parts and my mom says, "i guess all the praying i did for you paid off." grrrr

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Permalink Reply by Jim Scotti on May 29, 2011 at 7:48pm

...not to mention all the studying you did.

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on May 29, 2011 at 9:31pm

Daniel Dennett wrote about more proper ways to be gracious.

 

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/1716

 

Daniel's words and the point he makes is what comes to my mind whenever people thank gods.  Often, I am offended when people they should be thanking go unthanked because people are falling all over themselves to thank their god.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan E. Hoffman on May 31, 2011 at 1:29pm

that was a great speech. Thanks for posting that.

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Permalink Reply by Lyndi Rogers on May 30, 2011 at 8:49pm

I have an older sister that was born with birth defects.  Many of her doctors thought she would die soon after she was born.  She lived and is now 36 years old.  My father and aunt still frequently discuss that their prayers and God's mercy saved my sister and that that is proof of God's grace.

 

I have argued with my dad countless times about it.  The fact that the DOCTORS saved her life and that they wouldn't have needed to if she wasn't "given" the birth defects in the first place.  She lives now with a man-made bladder and is frequently in the hospital for kidney infections.  Yet, I am the one who is ungrateful for her presence and not recognizing the goodness of the Lord for allowing her to live through the hardships HE has forced upon her.

 

By the way... my sister is an atheist.  Uh, yeah thanks.  :-)

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Permalink Reply by Katie Ernesto on May 30, 2011 at 10:02pm

A similar thing happened with my family. My grandmother fell down the stairs and I was told to "thank god" because she survived. Why not thank the man who found her and the doctors who helped her?

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Permalink Reply by Derek on May 30, 2011 at 10:10pm

I remember reading a story about a tornado that hit a church, completely destroying it. Nobody was killed as the people slavishly thanked god. But it looked to me as if Yahweh went bowling for Christians and missed.

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Permalink Reply by Justin Humphrey on May 31, 2011 at 5:25am

Haha that made me laugh.

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Permalink Reply by Boatman on May 31, 2011 at 11:47am

If Yahweh goes bowling and throws a gutterball, does this mean he is not omnipotent?

 

And if he is not omnipotent.......?

 

Are the Xians deliberately creating these openings?  If so, thank you!!

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Permalink Reply by Susan W. Johnson on May 31, 2011 at 3:26am

Peeves me to no end also, and I've also seen it come out of the mouths of people who I know are not religious, as just something to say when things go your way. This is annoying, too.

 

I wait tables for a living, and two of the guys I work with thank god when they get a good tip. And I don't mean in the casual way as mentioned in the paragraph above. I mean..."Oh! Look at this tip! Thank you, Lord! God is so gracious! God is looking our for me today! Crap like that.

 

The most recent winner of American Idol thanked the lord for winning. Well, that's cheating! You had GOD voting for you? Like we could ever vote as many times as him!

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Permalink Reply by Lyndi Rogers on May 31, 2011 at 3:52am

Also, when you pray for your team to win, you are praying for the other team to lose.  That's awefully nice isn't it?  "please God, make THEM lose."  So dumb.  Of course, both sides are going to have people praying for their team to win.  Who gets the W then?  The side with more people praying?  Or the "better" Christians?

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Permalink Reply by Freek on May 31, 2011 at 3:28am

The most difficult thing about all this to me is this:

When things go well, believers thank God (sometimes because they prayed, sometimes because he 'is just so good'). One can't really argue with them because "The good thing we prayed for happened, right?"

And now the problem: when things go bad (people who are being prayer for die and all that) I feel terrible for calling them on their failed prayer (so I usually don't) because it feels like kicking a crippled puppy (now I feel even worse for just that image).

And if I wait for things to calm down and to get better, I lost my window because "Well, God made it all better after all, right?"

But I agree, I also really don't like it when God gets all the credit for other people's hard work.

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