Vote for Jesus

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ May 10 2006, 09:19 PM) [snapback]253321[/snapback]</div>

Windstrings, tomorrow morning you wake up and discover a new and mysterious lump in your testicles. You see it with your eyes, feel it with your hand, and your brain works the hard logic of your mortality.

Will you go see a doctor?

If so, why? What could a doctor possibly provide that your faith and god cannot?

And if you DO go see a doctor, and the only doctor able to help you is a committed atheist, would you still put yourself in his/her care?

I know what you'd be praying: "God, work your goodness through this doctor's hands."
But why would god need an atheist doctor's help to help you? Your faith and god alone should be sufficient.

Right?

What's the doctor providing that god cannot?

Incidentally, both going to a doctor and uttering such a prayer would be exceedingly selfish and self-serving. Who are you to second-guess whatever god has in mind by putting in that lump?

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ May 12 2006, 01:58 AM) [snapback]253973[/snapback]</div>

No one has ever been prohibited from praying or observing their religion in a public school in this country. What is prohibited, and rightly so, is school-sponsored religious ceremonies. That is a violation of the separation of church and state.

I agree- and it is Republicans, Christians, and conservatives (e.g., the "academic freedom" movement espoused by David Horowitz) who are most guilty of this. I find it repugnant that Christians claim to be persecuted when the current administration is dominated by conservative Christians, who have an excessive influence.

That is absurd. In RI, for instance, once again the gay folks in our state tried to get a marriage equality bill through the state legislature. And as in every year, conservative Christians organized rallies to oppose it. State legislators openly cited their religious beliefs and objection from the Catholic church as their reasons for not supporting the legislation. Conservative Christians throughout the country mobilize against gays, women, etc.- I have never heard of anyone marching against Christians.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ May 11 2006, 10:58 PM) [snapback]253973[/snapback]</div>

I was lucky. As I've posted elsewhere, my parents never tried to make me believe in religious fairy tales. But evangelists of various stripes are constantly trying to force their god down my throat; in my (private) high school I gained the intense animosity of the headmaster for refusing to participate in the mandatory religious services (it was not a religious school: these services were begun my last year there, with no prior notice to parents or students).

Fundies are constantly trying to introduce mandatory prayer in public schools, and self-styled christians are the principal opponents to same-sex marriage, and their only argument is that it is "against god." Since many christians believe that same-sex marriage is not "against god" this is clearly a matter of religious interpretation, so this is a clear case of a minority of christians trying to force their religion on the rest of us, christians and non-christians alike.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ May 12 2006, 12:00 PM) [snapback]254250[/snapback]</div>

Nothing wrong is seeing a doctor any more than taking a drink of water or an asprin.
You are expected to do what God puts within your power.
God meets people where they are at. He expect you to do the possible, He takes care of the impossible.
He works with men many times. And there is a difference between a healing and a miracle.

Jesus told a parable about how he healed on the sabbath and was condemned and he likened it to having a donkey fall in a pit and helping him out on the sabbath.

I've seen people have to use thier insurance, doctors etc and God works miracles that blows away the doctors and violates what is possible in the natural
Other times I've seen all out miracles, where the person has to do nothing at all.
Other times, I've seen in poor countries where there are no doctors accessible or affordable, God heals teeth and dentures by miracles.

God is a God that is moved my the feelings of the infirmaties of his people.....

Saying God can heal me so I'm not going to use a doctor, or feed myself, or put on a bandage to keep out infection......... some people get really confused and think if they do anything to help themselves that it shows a lack of faith...... but most of the time doing nothing is what shows a lack of faith.

Faith without action is dead and action without faith is dead too.

If I come down with a deadly infection or disease, I can pray and believe God heals me and wait until it manifests in the physical.. Many times what we pray for takes time to manifest in the physical, other times it's immediate.

A Healing takes time..... at the point one believes in faith, the bodys normal ablility to heal is given back its authority to heal itself again.
A miracle is not a healing.. the two are differentiated in the bible as two seperate supernatural acts.

Its not so hard to understand how to behave without violating faith if you understand the difference.