"...it wasn't luck it was God.... so... 'Gody'"

[LostAngeles]

I used to regularly read Something Awful's (http://somethingawful.com) Weekend Web. (Please note, SA isn't exactly work safe. By "exactly", I mean "not at all.") Eventually, the despair that comes with realizing how stupid TEH INTARWEB is, starts to crush your soul. However, if it looks like a particularly entertaining topic, I'll take a gander of as much as I can. This week featured the "Christian Anime Alliance." I'm only on page two, and I think my head is about to explode.

See here, (http://i.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/spokkerjones~11-28-04_21.gif) here (source of my post's title), (http://i.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/spokkerjones~11-28-04_22.jpg) and here. (http://i.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/spokkerjones~11-28-04_33.gif)

I don't get it. I don't freaking get it. Why don't people such as these credit their doctors, the paramedics, the people performing CPR, the natural instincts of theirselves and drivers, the fact that there are some honest people in the world, and whatever natural forces kept the branch from falling? Why is it always God when something remotely good happens to these people?

I can't find a syllabus, but I did stumble across the solution to a seemingly tough problem. Should I be praising God for that and then ask Him to find my syllabus? Should I praise God everytime my Pap smears come back without a dysplasic result? Should I praise God that the T.V. hasn't fallen onto the bed and broken my feet or that the numerous Angelino drivers who run red lights haven't hit me? What about the broken lightbulb on the building stairwell that my bare feet missed many times over a two week span?

When a child is born stillborn to a devout Christian couple, is that God at work? When a horribly bus accident happens, is that God at work?

What the hell ever happened to "God helps those who help themselves?" Wasn't that basically saying, "Look you rubes, don't rely on me for everything and don't thank me for everything?"

It's stupid stuff like this that bothers me about some religious folk. It's one thing to believe in and worship a God. It's another thing to attribute that cluster of cat hair on the bedsheet to God's Great Will.

[aargh57]

I recall one time that my father got his overalls caught in the power take off on the farm and my stepmother (my Dad concurred) said that angels held him down making him resist the urge to get away and the overalls ripped away from him leaving him uninjured rather than getting caught in it himself. (Apparently my 6'4" 350 lb. father who worked on a farm his whole life and was considerably strong needed the angels help.) I don't remember the specifics, but another instance a roof either collapsed or almost collapsed and my stepmother could just "see" the angels holding it up. Then when my father had a stoke about 18 months ago and he went into a coma the doctors told my stepmother that he wouldn't come out and she said "won't you be surprised when he wakes up." Of course, God in "his mercy" took him. You can't win for losin.

[aargh57]

That's "stroke" with an r.

[Beady]

Originally posted by LostAngeles

When a child is born stillborn to a devout Christian couple, is that God at work? When a horribly bus accident happens, is that God at work?

Why am I seemingly the only person in the world, whether skeptic, believer, faithful or pervert, who knows that even Jesus said, "S**t happens"?

Well, not in so many words, although it can be interpreted that way. See Luke 13:4. It sure looks to me like that's what he's saying. You never hear it quoted, though. Instead, you get a lot of "God doesn't always tell us His reasons," or whatever.

[Brahe]

Originally posted by Beady
Why am I seemingly the only person in the world, whether skeptic, believer, faithful or pervert, who knows that even Jesus said, "S**t happens"?I think it's simply because "s**t happens" is very much at odds with an interventionist god who's out to help his followers. It's even more at odds with a god who answers the prayers of his followers. We're used to people trying to help others out and failing because humans are limited, but Christians want their god to be omnipotent. So from their perspective, if something bad happens, it's because God wanted it to happen that way. But why on Earth would God want bad things to happen to people, especially his followers?

As far as the gods being mysterious and inscrutible, this seems to be little more than a rationalization. It allows believers to assume gods and then attribute various characteristics to them and still believe even when evidence shows that the gods cannot hold these characteristics.