Mark Richt diagnosed be with Parkinson's
That is very sad.
That’s sad. It’s a terrible affliction potentially… not sure why Jesus didn’t prevent it from happening.
Way to be a dick.
Pardon my bitterness. I saw a close family member slowly die bc of PSP which in the Parkinson’s umbrella. The affliction was not brought about of free will. No god was around to help him or his family. The answer was not Jesus or any other deity. The only way to cope was love of each other and the only way to prevent anyone else from the same suffering is science to try to develop medicinal or surgical cure or prevention. Instead of people seeing Richt’s post and donating to a church it’d be better for all of us if they donated to reputable research or home caregivers or something else actually helpful.
Just because there's a rule against discussing religion here doesn't give you the green light to project your atheism onto others. No one asked for that. State your well wishes for Mark Richt and move on.
This. No idea why you're being downvoted.
I'm not a Christian (I'm Muslim, actually), but this motherfucker needs to fuck off with that bullshit.
Your answer is in your post.
Why would anyone read Mark Richt’s post and decide to donate money to a church!?
Instead of people seeing Richt’s post and donating to a church
I don't know why you injected that.
Objectively, if you just look at the text, I don't think God or Jesus ever promised a pain free rainbow and sunshine life in the Bible. Actually it seems like it highlights A LOT of suffering. I think we project what we think is fair and create our own idea of how a god aught to be. I'm not sure a world without suffering works out very well unless a lot of other aspects of human nature also change. Basically everything invented ever was motivated by avoiding pain or increasing comfort. Anyway, I'm only a koala so what do I know. Not much.
we project what we think is fair and create our own idea of how a god aught to be
Yeah, there's a lot of that, particularly among those that carry Bibles and go to church.
They don't know the God of the book they are carrying. Jesus ran into that all the time.
Samsoccer, if you really want to explore answers to some questions you might have, picking up, Oxford Don, CS Lewis’ books “The Problem of Pain” and “Mere Christianity” might be useful.
Or you could just shut the fuck up. I like that idea.
Yeah, still a dick.
samsoccer7
I'm really sorry about what happened. I can't relate because I haven't had to deal with a long term illness with someone in my family. My dad had pancreatic cancer that spread all across him internally. That was tough when he died. I didn't know the loss was going to feel like that. But it wasn't long and drawn out. I'm sorry you went through that.
But I do know I will see my dad again. He believed in Jesus. We are living in a world full of problems that God didn't cause. Bad things can happen to good people and good things can happen to bad people. I don't know the circumstances of your family. But if I had been there I would have offered my prayers, and any other help I could have.
Romans 8:20-21 For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
When sin entered into the world, so did corruptions such as death, decay and illness. Our only escape from that is what Richt proclaimed - a gloriously perfect body in heaven. Believe or not, it's your choice.
Thought it would take at least four posts to get here. I underestimated MGB.
It’s a fair question. Along the lines of, “Why did Jesus help me find a parking space or Sammy score a TD, but didn’t help the starving child find food or stop the molester/rapist.”
The system setup here is kinda weird….
With that said, I wish the scientists speedy research in finding a cause, cure and prevention for this horrid disease - and for health and well being for Coach Richt. That is a tough road ahead for him and his family.
Fair question maybe but if you don’t believe in god the same data points exist. It’s just a fuck of a lot more hopeless no?
What did God make you such a dick would be another fair question.
Parkinsons and ALS are two horrible diseases I hope we can cure someday. Sooner than later. We know so little about each of them though
Some people won’t like the question and that’s fine, but it’s a fair question. Why does a supposedly all knowing, all loving god prevent X from happening but allow an even worse Y?
I don’t know. I don’t have answers to questions that big, but it probably explains why I’m not sitting in a pew on Sunday morning. I do believe in a higher being. there’s no way we all got here otherwise. I’m just not sure that he/she really cares what happens to us or how we live our lives. I’m not convinced that we’re not just science experiments to them.
It’s like were in the matrix.
noone can prove we r not in the matrix
You can't disprove the Flying Spaghetti Monster either. I think the FSM created the matrix and perpetrated wide spread voter fraud in all of the elections where my candidate lost and slept with your mom 9 months before you were born.* Disprove that.
*Yes that does sort of make you the Flying Spaghetti Monster Jesus in this scenario. Enjoy learning kung fu and fighting the agents. (Sorry just having fun avoiding the start of my work day.)
Original response edited- will leave my opinions out of the board.
Evil is no problem at all for religion or the "God concept" as you call it. Evil is simply a product of man's free will. Evil has been around since the beginning of time and always will be so long as God allows man to have free will. It's funny to me as a Catholic that many incredibly intelligent people are starting to take interest in the "simulation theory", yet condemn people who practice religion as ignorant. Simulation theory is exactly what most religions including mine believe.
Had a big response, but I'll let it go.
Have a great night.
I saw your first response. Agree to disagree. You also have a great evening
Fellow Catholic, you are exactly right. Condemn people as ignorant because they follow a faith. Yet they are following some theory, even if it’s agnostic or atheist.
Anyways, I was very interested in ethics and morality in college. I read a great essay by Tolstoy on faith. Long story short, faith gives meaning to peoples lives, whether ignorant or extremely smart. I’d like to think I have faith AND I’m not ignorant.
Given that Christianity is the leading religion yet less than 1 in 3 people believe in it, the odds say that most of us are wrong when it comes to the specifics of what we believe. While I am generally not shy about advocating for what I believe in, when it comes to religion, I suspect most, if not all of us, including myself are wrong.
The best I can do to give meaning to my life is strive to make the world a better place and be good to my fellow man and treat others with humility and respect, I often fall short of those ideals, but striving for them provides me with plenty of meaning. I’ve found plenty of people of all faiths and without a faith who share similar ideals.
That commonality across a range of belief systems makes me think there is some force that points many of us in that direction but it also makes me doubt that I am likely to figure out what it is, at least in this life.
While I am generally not shy about advocating for what I believe in, when it comes to religion, I suspect most, if not all of us, including myself are wrong.
Everything about this statement is my sentiment on many things, the "unmentionables" on these websites if you will. Because of this, no matter what your end game may be with religion, we would be better as a whole if everyone focused on being a better person for the sake of being a better person, and not to build a resume for the afterlife.
I’m just not sure that he/she really cares what happens to us or how we live our lives. I’m not convinced that we’re not just science experiments to them.
I agree that life is more complex than we can understand most of the time. But Jesus dying a gruesome and unbelievably painful death on the cross, with all the things that led up to the cross, was a sacrifice for sins that satisfied God, speaks that God is doing far more than a science experiment.
"But God demonstrates His great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8
As above, don't feel like going down this road.
Have a great eve all.
Ditto.
Bad shit and good shit happens randomly. God neither allows or disallows it. I hate it when religion treats prayer like it's a birthday wish. The bible doesn't promise life on earth will be amazing. Everyone suffers immensely in the bible. Religion is not about the avoidance of suffering and/or God finding you a parking spot or him being like "oops, well fuck that family with a tornado. Byee". It's about a relationship with a higher power. Aiming high for perfection that you'll never reach on your own, but God carries you the rest of the way via his sacrifice via his son who lived a perfect life as a flesh and blood human, but then suffered the punishment for all sins on our behalf which was literally suffering/death and nothingness forever. Jesus conquered that death for us and rose again so that we can join him in heaven one day. I'm not even religious, but philosophically, thats the gist from what I understand Christians believe. Atheists kind of miss the entire point when they bitch about God allowing suffering or not allowing something. That's not really relevant. Even if it is all bullshit, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what Christians believe. Life blows a big ole hairy weiner. Christians understand that. They just have more hope in something beyond it.
Coach Richt makes an announcement regarding likely one of the most difficult days of his life.
Most people would choose to reply with kindness, or would just not say anything. But you decide to take the complete asshole route.
Your mother would be so proud.
This is a general respose to the very disturbing responses to the subthread started by Sam.
Sam, in a moment of shared pain, because he experienced a family member suffering through Parkinsons, expressed his frustration with and his misunderstanding of Jesus.
As a man a faith I am disappointed in the reactions. Responses to him include one compassionate response from Ezekiel but mostly insults and stones. I count about 10 including two f’ck yous, a d’ck, a mother f’ckr, and an ass h’le. What happend to compassion, and especially faith, hope, charity, and love.
This reminds me of a parable about a priest, a philosopher, and a psychologist. In this case, they would reply:
Philosopher: Good question Sam
Priest: I see you are in some pain young man, let me comfort you and help you with the struggle we all have with our faith
Psychologist: The human subconscious most violently rejects those external ideas that question our most fragile beliefs
While there's never really a good time to belittle someone's religion or faith, congratufuckinglations on picking perhaps the worst time possible to do so.
Doesn’t any faith that involves the belief that it, and only it, is right, inherently belittle others beliefs?
I find it easy to disagree with someone without belittling them.
If you think someone is going to burn in hell because they don’t believe in your god, it really doesn’t matter the tone of voice you use to convey it. (Not saying you do - but central to some beliefs is the tenet, that if you don’t believe what I do, something bad will happen to you - that seems to suggest that people who believe what you do are in a superior position to all others. I would suggest that this is at least a contributor to many of our major disagreements).
Sorry I missed your reply.
Sorry I missed your reply.
not sure why Jesus didn’t prevent it from happening.
Fuck you.
Well, I don't know if that was really needed.
I'm normally an easygoing person, but insulting any of God's prophets is where the gloves come off for me. Actually, insulting any religion is where the gloves come off for me.
I'm a Muslim, but I would defend a Christian's religion against insults from anyone, even another Muslim. Insults against religion should never be tolerated. It should be seen on the level of denying the Holocaust (which is a criminal offense in some European countries). I don't care if that doesn't align with Western liberal values.
If anyone would openly insult Jesus (AS) or any of God's prophets and think that's okay, then fuck that guy.
Mark Richt has always seemed like a good guy to me.
He has a part in the 2006 film 'Facing the Giants,' which focuses on high school football and the Christian Faith.