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Quote by: PatrickHenry At least be honest and cite a real example. |
Actually, Patrick, I am citing a real example. Many real examples, actually. Specifically I was thinking back to the crash of United flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa, in which 13 were unscratched, 172 were injured and 111 died. I was livid listening to some couple explain how their prayers were answered... again, what about the 111 who perished? C'mon, Patrick, answer my question. Did those others not pray hard enough or did God simply arbitrarily allow them to die and others to live?
And let's you be honest. This happens all the time, in one disaster after another. Some survivors, despite the deaths of many others, are always convinced that their specific appeals to God were answered. Do you deny it?
Another example: Serena Williams announcing that Jesus won Wimbleton for her. Now I have no doubt that faith can provide focus, drive and confidence to help someone compete. But do you really believe that God or Jesus stepped into a tennis match to answer one person's prayers but not those of the vast majority who lost? Is Serena's faith verifiably stronger than her competitions?
The only difference in the current example is that no one else died when the two boys survived, yet how many people are swept out to sea and die every year? Certainly a couple hundred thousand during the recent tsunami. What, was God taking a day off at the time?
Did the boy's faith help them through their ordeal? I have no doubt. But I have to wonder what some deeply religious families are thinking, wondering why God chose to save these boys from their own damn stupidity (news reports made clear that the boys made just about every wrong decision they could have), yet didn't save their own loved ones who perished somewhere for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, assuredly despite equally devout prayers to God.
If these boys wanna say that their belief made them stronger and helped them save themselves, fine, I can accept that. But to say that God stepped in and saved them, while allowing thousands of others in similar dire straits to die? You think the fishermen aboard, say, the Andrea Gail weren't praying to God with every fiber of their being? Sorry guys, not good enough.
God working in his mysterious ways again?
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