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Originally Posted by John Hamilton
It's possible I was confusing you as being in league the people here that are like that guy who just said that it's the victim's fault for being raped; even if the victim was just a little boy. That philosophy infuriates me to no end; it is absolutely VILE and DISGUSTING in every sense of the word. ....
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I understand your point. Nonetheless, the True Christians here are simply messengers. The Bible is the message they are conveying. They are nice people; they simply are very literal in their understanding of the Holy Bible. Don't shoot the messenger. Rather, give the message another read, and you can decide for yourself whether the True Christians here are exaggerating or not.
I know you stated before that the Bible is a work of people, and therefore not infallible. But that's the problem - if it is not the Word of God, but just some ramblings of random people, then we are back to square zero in the whole "does God exist" question. The Bible says that God exists. If the Bible is not correct occasionally, how can we trust it when it comes to the existence of God?
And if we reject the Bible as proof of God's existence, then what other evidence of God's existence is there?
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For me, I'm trying to become more spiritual because the evil of the world gets to me too much, and I become wrathful and full of hatred, and I don't like those feelings; I don't like what those feelings make me do. So I try to be better. It's NOT easy by any means; sometimes, it really seems like there is more evil in this world than there is good....until of course you start looking for the good, and casting the evil out of your mind.
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So basically what you are saying is that spirituality helps you deal with own feelings. I am not a psychologist, but maybe being spiritual is the way you are dealing with life. It's a cane that you need for support, or at least you think you need it.
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There's still goodness in the world. Having good friends and family in your life helps ease the burden a lot too. I'd rather continuously strive to be more spiritual and find inner peace, stumbling over the obstacles in my way, rather than just give up on trying to be a good person, succumbing completely to the evil of the world, doing whatever the hell I want. Some say that's what separates the humans from the animals.
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Well, looking at the news and stuff, religious people are about as likely to commit evil as non religious people;
you might enjoy reading this peer reviewed article on the subject. In fact, strongly religious people are often worse than non religious, as very religious people tend to be more intolerant of other people's beliefs, and thus more likely to act violently against other people. Living in the Midwest, I'm among rural white people a lot, and they tend to be very religious, racist, and bigoted. Not all of them, obviously. Young people are the hope of this nation and I've known many students who had to go against the wishes of their families to study at a university - with their families saying, "why would you want to go to a university? All of your answers are in the Bible!".
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I don't believe God gives cancers to babies. Cancer and death are just a part of life. I don't think anyone is to truly blame for Cancer in general. Life will always come with tragedies and blessings; God isn't necessarily orchestrating things the way you imply; at least I don't personally believe He is.
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So you don't believe in Intelligent Design but accept the scientific theory of evolution. That's great, but if God did not interfere with the naturally occurring evolution, where does He come in? What did He create?
Or maybe He did not create anything simple because He does not exist?
Because He is just a cane you created to deal with your traumatic past?
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Not necessarily. God is willing to help anyone who is sincere in following His lead....but that doesn't mean He's going to interfere with fate to spare you from a tragedy which may very well make you a stronger person in the end.
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So how exactly is He helping, if He is not helping? How is He helping if He is not interfering but allowing all of the natural disasters and human cruelty to occur?
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You seem to imply that worshiping Him is something that people do just to get stuff out of Him; maybe some people don't ask God for ANYTHING at all....yet still worship Him? Think about it.
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Doesn't everybody want something at some point? Do you know people who would
never ask for anything?
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With a lot of difficulty, that's how lol. It took me a long time to stop being mad at God and blaming Him for what happened in Utah. That was before I truly know in my heart that God is Love; and God is Good; he performs NO evil Himself.
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What's you evidence for knowing that?
You cannot use Bible as evidence because you said yourself it's a pile of literature compiled by people, you cannot use creation as you seem to agree with evolution in which God is not interfering.
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I can only assume that the reason God didn't save me (at least when I asked Him to anyway...he did save me way later lol), is because He needed me to experience those years of agony in order to prepare me for a greater purpose; the purpose of making sure that what happened to me doesn't happen to any other child. WITHOUT all that suffering, I'd never have acquired the will power necessary to see it through to the end;
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1) You don't know that. You don't even know if God exists, so you cannot know what that hypothetical entity might want from you.
2) That would be incredibly cruel of Him to make you suffer so much,
as a child. What kind of a God tortures children like that?!
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to literally do everything I can to end their reign of terror, even if I have to spend the rest of my life behind bars, it would all be worth it if it meant preventing those unspeakable tragedies from ever happening again; I don't even care if I have to die for it, just so long as it's finally done........Maybe.....just maybe, I am God's Wrath.
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NO. If you really cannot live without your cane, listen to this: this is
not God whispering this to your ears, it is the Devil. The God you imagine is all love and compassion, right? So He would not ask you to do anything stupid, which would send you to jail in this life and to Hell in the hypothetical afterlife - especially after already making you suffer as a child.
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....Natural justice....but none of it would have ever been possible if God had decided to interfere with Fate and redirect the course of Destiny. I'm sure it pained Him greatly to see me suffer, crying out for Him. I'm sure he WANTED to with every fiber of His being....but alas, He couldn't...because then there'd be countless others after me, and I wouldn't have been turned into such a perfect weapon for God to use against them....
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NO. A loving God does not torture children.
A loving God does not make tortured children into wrongdoers.
If He were able to interfere but chose not to do so, it doesn't matter why He chose not to do so. He could have prevented these people from torturing you or anyone else in a million of ways. If He could have intervened but chose not to do so, despite yours and your family's prayers, then He is
not worthy of your worship.
And if there is no God, violence is not justified either. There are other means of bringing justice.
Violence is not justice. As history teaches us, violence can only bring more violence. More suffering. You do not want that. And you certainly don't want to be another example that religious people can be extremely violent.
What you
should do, however, is seek professional psychological help. Seeing a good therapist could help you deal with your traumatic past without needing to create imaginary friends.