Guest guest Posted July 5, 2001 Report Share Posted July 5, 2001 Linda: This has always been a reason people have questioned the existence of a " God " , 'when bad things happen to good people'... However, there are far too many factors involved in analyzing why things happen to assume that they happen because there isn't a Creator or that if there is one He/She/It is particularly neglectful of your personal desires. For one thing, we live too much in the premise of innocence and guilt, of who deserves what as far as " luck " is concerned... why shouldn't a child get ill... why shouldn't a criminal win the lottery... it is our perception of " fairness " that displays most clearly our inability to stay out of judgement, our strong desire that if we are good we will be treated well, and vice versa. We further put that onto " God " , saying that if there was a God, He/She/It would be just what we want Him/Her/It to be, generous and kind and never letting anything awful happen to us, only to " bad " people. I hate to say it, but that is Santa Claus, not God. It is said that the most powerful prayer is " Thy Will Be Done " and the second most powerful prayer is " Thank You " . We can't see what is around the corner, so we can't properly assess what is " senseless " , can we? If you live on the premise that we are here to learn something from the human experience, that we have chosen on some level to be here and live human lives, then pain and sorrow are part of that, part of growing. We don't have to moan and cry about it, or at least, once we finish venting we don't need to have a pity party ;-) As the saying goes, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. A child who dies may be teaching her parents a valuable lesson in the brevity of life, how to grieve and how to let go of attachment. A bad partnership may be teaching a person how to develop healthy relationships, how to forgive. If you go through life screaming " Damn my luck, why doesn't somebody give me a break " then you are certainly not likely to notice the blessings in your life, or to be more critical of anything that " goes wrong " as a failure by God to protect you, rather than an opportunity to grow and learn. You might want to pick up a copy of the book " When Bad Things Happen to Good People " , and read this poem I've posted up at my website by Thich Nhat Hanh: http://www.geocities.com/nrgbalance/truenames.html Blessings, Crow Linda F Shepherd wrote: > > Hello Everyone, > > This is my first posting to . I ask the question IS > THERE REALLY A GOD, because of the things that I see happening > in my life. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 5, 2001 Report Share Posted July 5, 2001 The people of Israel confront the holocoast horrors in the context of this question, some of the survivors quited the beliefs. it might sound too simplistic. In my opinion and from my narrow limited point of view the creator " needs " our feedback, our echo - in a way. i think he wants our gratitude Like a big big talented artist who needs the feedback of the audience. the more he invested in his masterpiece - so grows his need to feedback. I do not understand this clearly. if course every thing is foggy here because we are the creation. it's like expecting a computer to understand the mind of it's engeener. about feedback - i only know that the more we appreciate the good in our life, truly appreciation and gratitude - the more blessings you get. this is the equation. and i know it works. if you send bitter waves of venting - you invite something negative. if you feel deep gratitude for what we usually see as for granted - than you are starting to recieve positive hints. I think we have to be ambitious to alter our state of mind so it will be a state of gratitude... truly living this feeling. this is my dime. i am too small to understand and the ideas are too deep to percieve. however Miracles do appear, how can we explain them? Anat PS. i am not trying to convince or to persuade or preach. not at all. if you meet such people you might suspect them that their belief is not so strong and they are trying to persuade themselves. - Linda F Shepherd <lshep76 éåí çîéùé 05 éåìé 2001 19:05 Is There Really A GOD??????? > Hello Everyone, > > This is my first posting to . I ask the question IS THERE REALLY A GOD, because of the things that I see happening in my life. > > My niece's little boy, Tanner was only 31/2 years old when he was diagnoised with Leukemia. He went through the most painful operations with his mother and father standing outside the doors of the operating room listening to him screaming in pain when they performed the bone marrow's. > This was an innocent little boy that continued to receive these operations and went through remission but only to slip back into worse conditions. He endeavored these painful operations for about a year with hope from us all that he would pull through with all our prayers. Tanner lost his battle with this terrible disease and past away. > > How does one continue to believe there is a GOD when something like this happens to such an innocent and loving little boy? > > And then there is someone that is so evil and verbally abusive like my X husband to be and nothing ever happens to this person. And he continues with his life like he has done nothing wrong. He feels that people owe him so much. He has been abusive and a liar all through our marriage of 23 years. My 4th of July was spent listening to him yelling and cursing me with my 16 year old son to witness this. The things that this person has said to me are so evil and hurtful. He proves to me by doing these things that he knows deep down that he has done wrong. When will his day come? I am told by my mother which she is a big believer in GOD that he will be sorry one day that GOD watches everything we do. > > I ask you again IS THERE REALLY A GOD??????????? > > > > > ____ > Get Paid... With Your Free Email at > http://www.zwallet.com/index.html?user=lshep76 > > > > **************************************** > Visit the community page: > For administrative problems -owner > To , - > > All messages, files and archives of this forum are copyright of the group and the individual authors. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 5, 2001 Report Share Posted July 5, 2001 Hello Everyone, This is my first posting to . I ask the question IS THERE REALLY A GOD, because of the things that I see happening in my life. My niece's little boy, Tanner was only 31/2 years old when he was diagnoised with Leukemia. He went through the most painful operations with his mother and father standing outside the doors of the operating room listening to him screaming in pain when they performed the bone marrow's. This was an innocent little boy that continued to receive these operations and went through remission but only to slip back into worse conditions. He endeavored these painful operations for about a year with hope from us all that he would pull through with all our prayers. Tanner lost his battle with this terrible disease and past away. How does one continue to believe there is a GOD when something like this happens to such an innocent and loving little boy? And then there is someone that is so evil and verbally abusive like my X husband to be and nothing ever happens to this person. And he continues with his life like he has done nothing wrong. He feels that people owe him so much. He has been abusive and a liar all through our marriage of 23 years. My 4th of July was spent listening to him yelling and cursing me with my 16 year old son to witness this. The things that this person has said to me are so evil and hurtful. He proves to me by doing these things that he knows deep down that he has done wrong. When will his day come? I am told by my mother which she is a big believer in GOD that he will be sorry one day that GOD watches everything we do. I ask you again IS THERE REALLY A GOD??????????? ____ Get Paid... With Your Free Email at http://www.zwallet.com/index.html?user=lshep76 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 5, 2001 Report Share Posted July 5, 2001 Linda F Shepherd wrote: > Hello Everyone, > ... > I ask you again IS THERE REALLY A GOD??????????? > Such an easy question to ask during difficult times. Ask God to grant you the Wisdom and strength to help you to understand. And I'm sure there will be others of us praying for you, too. Helen Keller once said, " Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened; vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. " Peace, Lynn -- ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* " I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. " ~ Michaelangelo ~ mail to: lcokie ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 6, 2001 Report Share Posted July 6, 2001 Jung's _Answer to Job_ may help put this into some sort of perspective for you. Karen Sellars Linda F Shepherd wrote: > Hello Everyone, > > This is my first posting to . I ask the question IS THERE REALLY A GOD, because of the things that I see happening in my life. > > My niece's little boy, Tanner was only 31/2 years old when he was diagnoised with Leukemia. He went through the most painful operations with his mother and father standing outside the doors of the operating room listening to him screaming in pain when they performed the bone marrow's. > This was an innocent little boy that continued to receive these operations and went through remission but only to slip back into worse conditions. He endeavored these painful operations for about a year with hope from us all that he would pull through with all our prayers. Tanner lost his battle with this terrible disease and past away. > > How does one continue to believe there is a GOD when something like this happens to such an innocent and loving little boy? > > And then there is someone that is so evil and verbally abusive like my X husband to be and nothing ever happens to this person. And he continues with his life like he has done nothing wrong. He feels that people owe him so much. He has been abusive and a liar all through our marriage of 23 years. My 4th of July was spent listening to him yelling and cursing me with my 16 year old son to witness this. The things that this person has said to me are so evil and hurtful. He proves to me by doing these things that he knows deep down that he has done wrong. When will his day come? I am told by my mother which she is a big believer in GOD that he will be sorry one day that GOD watches everything we do. > > I ask you again IS THERE REALLY A GOD??????????? > > ____ > Get Paid... With Your Free Email at > http://www.zwallet.com/index.html?user=lshep76 > > **************************************** > Visit the community page: > For administrative problems -owner > To , - > > All messages, files and archives of this forum are copyright of the group and the individual authors. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 6, 2001 Report Share Posted July 6, 2001 Anat: The " computer and engineer " analogy struck me. It brought to mind, when you started talking about affirming what you want, that old computer term, " GIGO " ... Garbage In, Garbage Out. You can't put a cow patty in the oven and expect a cake to appear! Maybe prayer and affirmations are like reverse psychology; if you want a person to be nice, for instance, you act as though they are already nice, you treat them as you would treat nice people. It's a mixed bag as far as results, but optimism can be its own reward. What we invest in energy and attitude into a situation does have great bearing on the outcome. Sometimes things don't come out like we've " planned " (I can attest to that from the results of many of my craft and cooking 'experiments') but I have learned to accept what happens, just like parents love a child that wasn't as " perfect " as they imagined it would be. I still struggle with perfectionism, which comes out as procrastination. I remember when I was younger, one of my teachers asked me to recall a situation in which I had failed, and I couldn't think of anything. I was quite happy about that for a minute, until she said, " Why don't you try anything you might fail at? " <LOL> I had been taking the wide road, the easy path. Everything was on my terms. I avoided true challenges. I started moving out of my " safety zone " and got many mixed blessings, including loss and failure. But along with those come the nascent skills to cope with them, to make lemonade out of lemons. When I let go of the wheel, the ride got more exciting, more scary, more difficult... but when I quit trying to drive, I was able to notice the scenery, and stop worrying about where I am going so much. If I keep on the path I will get there. Isn't it all about the journey anyway? Blessings, Crow pine wrote: > > I do not understand this clearly. if course every thing is foggy here > because we are the creation. > it's like expecting a computer to understand the mind of it's engeener. > about feedback - i only know that the more we appreciate the good in our > life, truly appreciation and gratitude - the more blessings you get. this is > the equation. and i know it works. > if you send bitter waves of venting - you invite something negative. > if you feel deep gratitude for what we usually see as for granted - than you > are starting to recieve positive hints. > I think we have to be ambitious to alter our state of mind so it will be a > state of gratitude... truly living this feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 7, 2001 Report Share Posted July 7, 2001 is there really a God? yes and no. i believe that there exists a force, any force, whether it be God or nature, or the force that drives our own lives. Furthermore, I don't believe that any force could dictate our lives. I believe in God, not for religious reasons, but for human reasons. I don't know of anyone who i can openly talk to about anything and everything, so God is my escape. I never turn to Him to change occurances in my life, i simply go to Him to reflect on the occurances in my life. Either way: whether there is a God or not, you shouldn't lose faith. there's always a force out there to help you see your way through, unfortunatly we often live our lives like the blind and don't get the chance to see things that are not so obvious. I read a book titled, Many Lives, Many Masters. It discussed reincarnation and it stated that we go through live to learn a single lesson and in our next lifetime we learn another lesson, and so on until we have no more lessons to learn and then our soul is cleansed and we go to another level. Essentially, it tells you that we all our God, or rather we all could be a force similar to God. And remember, we all have someone watching out for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2001 Report Share Posted July 11, 2001 , LILMONA68@a... wrote: > is there really a God? yes and no. i believe that there exists a force, any Yes Lilmona, Why not keep the prospect of a higher being alive? Our brain is incapable of coming up with a figure small enough to represent what we know of the universe, and the same goes for our inner world. I must say I don't see order there much, just a confluence of unknowable forces creating unfathomable scenarios. We add our particular lives to the congregation of unknowables and take from it understandings to which we assign meanings. Now all of this sounds rather despondent until you start to get off on the unknowable, and welcome the uncertainty of existence. Then it becomes a thrilling ride, much of it painful, most of it ordinary, but all of it entrancing and potentially healing. Why wouldn't you want to come back and have another go, if this is one's attitude, I wonder. Is God behind all this, or all this behind our creation of God? Just ramblings on life. Take no notice of it. Best wishes Arjuna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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