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You crack me up 'O'Darbo' or whoever you are this time. We know, and you know, that you can't stay away. How many times have you returned, taken umbrage at something or someone, thrown around insults, and then left again, at the same time threatening once more never to return? And yet you always do. And you claim that we are the predictable ones. Either stay and chat, or go.
Although, I'll admit, this popping up every so often under yet another pseudonym has it's own entertainment value.
In another thread O'Darby called the A&A forum a "cesspool". Which is not surprising coming from a "high road" type of guy like him.
But when you think about it, cesspools are a place where you have to get down and dirty. Sort of like a Mike Rowe type of job. The kind of place where you have to face stuff that is not so nice.
Facing the possibility of death is not an easy task. Anyone with any respect for someone else's dignity would allow them to face death however they would prefer and not insist that their way is better.
How someone cannot appreciate this simple decency is beyond the pale. And it is demonstrative of an arrogance and pomposity that is troubling regardless of anything anyone might believe.
We are within driving distance of Vermont if it comes to that, and no she doesn't want to go through brutal chemo if it's unlikely to succeed or gives her no quality of life. That means she would not likely fight it if it's stage 4.
One day at at time, though.
Surgery is now set for March 1. That will give us preliminary staging, with the finer points and recommended treatment plan some days after. Next week we have to go back up to the cancer center for pre-op testing, etc.
My stepdaughter is flying here on the 1st in part so my stepson doesn't have to be at loose ends alone here at home. She'll stay a few days.
Because you know if your child dies they are spending life in eternity with the Creator - not living with worms in the dirt.
God guarantees nothing to us. A better deal? A great life? No suffering? None of that matters in regard to the belief in God.
Dead people don't live, so a dead child isn't "living with worms in the dirt". They are decaying like any other corpse, but there's no experience involved for them. So this is just an expression of your own ideation, not an actual problem for an actual child.
What is an actual problem for an actual child is the suffering and then loss of life that is all bright promise at that point in most cases. I sat right next to maybe a 14 year old boy waiting for chemo the other day. If I were a Christian and believed he would be in heaven when he dies, I would still have to deal with the tragedy of his life nipped in the bud like that, with his own sense of loss at having his life foreclosed, and with my own sorrow and that of other family members upon losing him.
I never found the teachings of my faith remotely helpful with those things. Indeed, what my faith taught me was things like:
* God blesses the righteous and confounds the wicked
* God heals all our diseases
* God protects us under the shelter of his "wings"
* Call upon God in your hour of need and he will gladly answer
* God is the protector of the weak / meek, which if it means anything, the protector of children
And I would then be obliged to force fit the tragic loss of a child with the above promises and many other very specific and elaborate ones, ON TOP OF normal grief and loss.
This is the kind of thing that I am glad to be shut of when it is time to experience any sort of tragedy.
Because you know if your child dies they are spending life in eternity with the Creator - not living with worms in the dirt.
God guarantees nothing to us. A better deal? A great life? No suffering? None of that matters in regard to the belief in God.
Even of you think people live with God for deternity, isn't that their spirit? Their body is still hanging out with the worms in the dirt. Unless, of course, it has been cremated and sits in a container somewhere or has been dispersed.
You think kids suffering 'doesn't matter'? Because of a 'belief'
How horrible and misguided.
Of course it matters and it's terrible. My son has special needs and has been dealt a bad hand. He has suffered. But my belief is in something bigger. And he and I have grown more spiritually because of it. You choose how you handle situations in life. I choose God and his love, and know that my son's Earthly body is just that. He will be healed in Heaven. Suffering here is temporary.
My issue with the "God heals all sicknesses" or "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" lines of reasoning is that it simply isn't true.
The most common answer for people of faith is that it is "God's will," regardless of whatever happens. It's a default answer that we have no way to disprove.
Of course it matters and it's terrible. My son has special needs and has been dealt a bad hand. He has suffered. But my belief is in something bigger. And he and I have grown more spiritually because of it. You choose how you handle situations in life. I choose God and his love, and know that my son's Earthly body is just that. He will be healed in Heaven. Suffering here is temporary.
I'm truly sorry to hear that your son has been dealt a bad hand.
So did mine in his formative years so I do feel for you. I really do.
But I came to very different conclusions.
I find absolutely zero comfort in the idea that a child's suffering will be somehow made up for 'in heaven'.
My concern is in the here and now and alleviating the pain, now.
Children suffering feels unfair, even when you don't believe in god.
If I believed in god I'd have to assume the 'bad hand' was 'gods hand' because you can't believe in one instance that god had nothing to do with the hand dealt but in the next instance believe that god can alleviate the pain. Either he's involved or he's not. You can't have it all ways.
None of us, not even yourself, can know that heaven even exists.
And I feel bad for saying this, given your circumstances but you are here responding on an atheist forum so I feel compelled to speak the truth when I say that heaven is nothing more than wishful thinking. Sorry. That's my belief. But if it's what gets you through then it's up to you to believe whatever you need to believe .
Similarly, I'm sorry that O Darbo / Darby has once again disappeared and so is not here to defend himself but he said something along similar lines here:
Quote:
We did not believe that my wife's cancer had been visited upon her by any malevolent deity. We did, however, believe that it was God's plan for her life and our marriage and that such illnesses serve God's plan for humanity. Yes, she died at 54 when she might well have lived to 104 (or 14, for that matter). In the great scheme of things as we conceived of it, the age of death is no big deal. Moreover, not only with my wife's illness but with a million other tragedies I have seen the tremendously beneficial effects and ripples of such events. I have no difficulty whatsoever with the notion that the reality in which we find ourselves is entirely consistent with a omnibenevolent deity who has an eternal perspective and plan.
(Yes, we prayed for a miracle remission if it were consistent with the God's will, but with the acceptance that miracles are few and far between. We were in no way disappointed or bitter when no miracle occurred and were very grateful for seven wonderful years and a peaceful passing. We often said those were the best years of our 33-year marriage.)
For all O'Darby's coming across learnèd and well read, and his constant implications that unless people have read the entire contents of the philosophy and theology sections of the Smithsonian libraries AND had several experiences with the beyond, they can't possibly come to any conclusions about god. Yet for all his reading, it all boils down to nothing more than wishful thinking that some kind of 'plan' or intervention is at hand. Reading is never a waste of time of course. But no amount of reading leads to any kind of conclusive evidence of the existence of god. But you know, have at it if it helps you.
And by the way, if god doesn't answer your prayers, what's the point of praying?
Oh except the times when your prayers are answered. That's god responding right? Or maybe just a coincidence.
My issue with the "God heals all sicknesses" or "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" lines of reasoning is that it simply isn't true.
The most common answer for people of faith is that it is "God's will," regardless of whatever happens. It's a default answer that we have no way to disprove.
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